“They know now and say it was a pretty stupid thing to do,” said SAD 21 Superintendent Tom Ward, after two teens were apprehended Tuesday outside Dirigo High School in Dixfield, one with a BB-gun tucked into his waistband that was a dead-ringer for an authentic .45-caliber pistol.

Given the state of alarm around American schools recently, Ward’s words represent a sincere understatement. The most chilling sentiment, however, came from Dixfield Police Chief Richard Pickett, who said the BB-gun, although mostly harmless, could have spurred a lethal response.

“It looked enough like a real weapon,” said Pickett. “If we had seen it out when we arrived, we would have considered it a deadly force situation and acted appropriately.” The accused teens, aged 15 and 16, have been slapped with felony terrorizing charges for bringing the BB-gun onto school grounds.

Are the charges harsh? Perhaps, given the admitted stupidity of the teens and their non-threatening demeanor with the replica pistol. But the recent spate of school violence and the push for its prevention – the president’s national conference on school violence was ongoing when the boys in Dixfield were taken into custody – makes the lofty charges deserved.

From a distance, a Daisy Powerline Airstrike 240 BB-gun and a .45-caliber handgun are the same in the mind of a police officer, whose first thought will likely be about Colorado, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Montreal, not whether the pistol in the teen’s hand shoots steel pellets or lead bullets.

All these incidents leave little room for police, or educators, to be judicious. That comes later, when everyone is safe and cases enter the court system. For now, the felony charges stand as a measure of the gravity of their transgression.

Last week, it was revealed that dozens of Maine schools, especially small rural schools, lacked crisis management plans. The reason, according to the Maine commissioner of education, is that some schools drag their feet because “It’ll never happen here.”

School administrators must snap to attention. The same goes for students, who have to know that having anything resembling a firearm, even if one carved from soap like a prop from a poor prison movie, will evoke a serious and perhaps deadly response.

Because it can happen here, which – ironically – was the message Pickett had for the Sun Journal during a conversation a few weeks ago. Pickett said a mock school shooting drill would be scheduled to prepare police and educators for crisis management, if the real thing occurred.

The chief seemed eerily prophetic on Tuesday, as the actions of the two teens prepared Dirigo High School and Dixfield police better than any scripted scenario could.

Kudos to Pickett and Dirigo High School for taking the threat of school violence seriously and preparing for the worst. It can happen here, and Maine schools and students need to realize this sooner, not later, and take immediate action to prevent it.