Two eight-graders charged with having gun at Marksville school

Two 14-year-old males were arrested on firearms-related charges in connection with a gun found at Marksville High School this past Friday.
Avoyelles Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Steve Martel said the two boys were arrested and released to the custody of their parents. An unloaded .22 cal. semi-automatic pistol was found in an 8th-grade classroom Friday morning while deputies were conducting a routine search of the school with drug-detecting dogs. The classroom was put on lockdown while the matter was investigated. It did not involve any other part of the school, Superintendent Dwayne Lemoine said. It is unknown whether the pistol was brought in Friday or earlier in the week.
Martel said the incident is apparently related to “an altercation at school on Wednesday. It is unknown what the intention was -- whether it was just posturing or maybe something else.” Lemoine said the situation was under control quickly. Students and faculty were never in danger during the incident. He said school district staff interviewed students, along with the APSO deputies, “to get the facts of what happened.” Martel credited “an alert teacher” with notifying deputies to the situation. “As deputies and dogs were arriving at the school and beginning their search, an alert teacher noticed some suspicious activity and alerted deputies to the uncommon behavior she had witnessed,” the chief deputy said. “The unloaded .22 cal. semi-automatic firearm was found in a rubber tote in a classroom.”
Martel said one youth was charged with two counts of possession of a firearm/weapon in a firearm-free zone. In addition to the pistol, this juvenile also had a box-cutter in his possession. The second juvenile was charged with one count of possession of marijuana and one count of being a principal to carrying a firearm in a firearm-free zone. Martel said no other drugs or contraband were found during the search.
Lemoine said this is the first time during his tenure as superintendent that a firearm has been found in a school. “No bullets were found,” he said, “but that doesn’t make it any less serious.” Martel said school district officials will handle the school discipline according to policies in place for possessing firearms and drugs on school property.
The parish policy on weapons calls for any student “found guilty of being in possession of a firearm on school property, on a school bus or in actual possession at a school-sponsored event, shall be expelled from school for a minimum period of 12 calendar months an shall be referred to the district attorney for appropriate action.” The policy calls for the principal to “immediately suspend a student who is found carrying or possessing a firearm ... (and) immediately recommend the student’s expulsion.”