A Plainfield High School Central Campus student was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly brought a loaded gun to school, authorities said. He has been barred from classes pending disciplinary action, Plainfield School District 202 authorities said.
Plainfield police took the 15-year-old sophomore into custody after school officials learned in a routine interview on an unrelated matter that he was carrying a gun and ammunition, said Carla Erdey, the district’s community relations director. The high school’s police liaison officer quickly confiscated the gun and ammunition and arrested the boy, she said.
The youth was charged with one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and one count of unlawful use of a weapon with aggravated circumstances–being within 1,000 yards of a school, police said. Both charges are felonies, said Police Operations Cmdr. Mike Altenhoff.
The youth was to be taken to the River Valley Juvenile Detention Center.
Police are trying to learn why the boy took the gun to school and if anyone else was aware of his intentions, Altenhoff said. There was no bullet in the gun’s chamber and the youth did not brandish the weapon or threaten anyone with it, he said.
In a letter sent to parents Wednesday, Principal Lane Abrell said no one was harmed. “Be assured that our staff responded quickly, calmly and professionally,” Abrell wrote.
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