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BEAVER – A fake gun that police said looked very real caused a lockdown and law enforcement officers to rush to Beaver High School on Monday.
The incident started when someone called the sheriff's office to report seeing a gun — later determined to be a plastic toy gun — in the school parking lot at lunchtime.
"A caller witnessed 2 youth who had a semi automatic pistol and one was pointing it at the other," said a statement posted to Facebook from Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel. "The youth were then reported to have entered the High School."
Officers from multiple agencies rushed to the school and quickly found and apprehended the two teens. Officers then located an airsoft gun inside a car.
"It looked like a black and chrome firearm," said Beaver County Undersheriff Cody Black, adding that the gun did not have an orange tip that typically indicates that a gun is a toy.
The sheriff's office said criminal charges are pending against the two teens.
"I think we're in a time in our society when everybody knows that firearms of any type, whether it be a toy gun or real gun, do not belong on school grounds," Black said.
"It's really an unfortunate situation for all the kids involved," said David Long, superintendent of the Beaver County School District. "We have kids that experienced the real trauma yesterday of a possible shooter on campus."
Long said that counseling services have been made available to students because of the police activity and lockdown.
"They experienced a full lockdown experience, which means we had officers with their guns going through the halls of the school, and that's not an experience we want for anyone during the school day," he said.
Both the school and sheriff's office said they are grateful they trained on how to respond to school threats and that they are proud of how everyone carried out their jobs on Monday.
"Biggest takeaway is we don't take it lightly," Long said, "and we can't take it lightly because if we do, that one time out of a million, it could be something really serious and then where would we be?"
The sheriff's statement said that with school shootings across the country that this is not a joking matter.
"Please take time to communicate with your children about this very serious matter," Noel's statement said.
