PORTLAND (AP) – Portland High School is not a potential Columbine, its principal says, despite photos posted on a Web site that showed students posing with handguns.

Mike Johnson sought to allay fears about school safety after Police Chief Michael Chitwood displayed the pictures and said he wants to prevent anything like the 1999 tragedy in Colorado in which two students shot and killed 15 people, including themselves.

Chitwood, who demanded that the four students in the pictures be expelled, linked them to a gang and said some members are under investigation for heroin trafficking and a recent assault.

“It’s not OK for these individuals to be flaunting deadly weapons like they’re squirt guns,” Chitwood said. “I’m not going to sit around and wait for a Columbine at Portland High School before something gets done about this.”

Although school officials had given police information about the Web site after being alerted to it by a student, the chief’s news conference came as a surprise to them.

School officials summoned reporters to spread the word that students and parents need not worry because Portland High was absolutely safe.

“There are no gangs in Portland High School. Period,” Johnson said. “I don’t feel we have a potential Columbine situation at Portland High School. In fact, I know we don’t.”

The students were suspended for up to 10 days under a state law that allows principals to suspend students if they believe they pose a safety risk. Further suspension or expulsion would be up to the School Committee.

While the students were involved in some “nasty” activities, Johnson said, none of them occurred anywhere near the school. Police said the gun was never brought to the school.

Neither police nor school officials identified the teenagers.

Many students had heard nothing about the photos or the suspensions until local media descended on the school Thursday. Some who knew the students involved said police had overblown the incident, while others said they were troubled and embarrassed for their school.

The photos were posted on a commercial Web site that allows people to create their own sections and upload photographs. The photos show a boy aiming what appears to be a .357 Magnum at the camera; a boy holding a gun in one hand and $20 bills in the other; and two boys reclining on a mattress, with one of them pointing a gun while the other makes a sign with his hand. In addition, there’s a girl holding a gun and making a hand sign, which Chitwood described as a gang sign.

Chitwood said police are investigating the group and hope to make arrests and confiscate the weapons.

“I want those guns. I want those guns off the street,” he said.

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