Police: Fake gun confiscated from student at Santa Cruz high school

Santa Cruz police say they seized two fake guns from a student at Harbor High School Thursday.

Officers were called to the school after a student was reported with replica firearms on campus. The fake guns turned out to be BB guns, which were in the 14-year-old student’s backpack.

Both were very realistic in appearance and both lacked an orange safety tip as required by law, Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark said.

One firearm was a replica of a Walther PPK semi-automatic firearm, and the other was a replica Colt 25 semi-automatic handgun.

Clark said police are still investigating why the student brought the fake guns to school. The student was cited for misdemeanor for possession of weapons on a school campus, and was released to his father.

Clark said another student alerted staff to the presence of the weapons.

“This is the second such recent incident where students have been empowered to care for the safety of their campus and took appropriate steps to address a serious safety concern,” Clark said.

Clark was referring to an incident earlier this month in which a real gun was seized from a student at a Santa Cruz middle school.

“Again, this underscores the importance of the relationship and full cooperation between Santa Cruz City Schools and the Police Department’s School Resource Officer working together to ensure the safety of students and staff in our city schools,” Clark said. “The police department worked with Santa Cruz city schools staff to ensure appropriate notification of this incident to school parents.”