LEWISTON – Eight students, all boys, have been suspended from school for bringing or firing AirSoft guns on school property, Superintendent Leon Levesque said Thursday.

“We don’t tolerate it. We don’t want it in our schools,” he said.

Given the current national climate of school shootings, boys playing with AirSoft guns in public “is a danger” because they are toys that look like real guns, Levesque said.

There have been cases in other states of students bringing AirSoft guns to school and being shot to death because police thought the students were firing real guns.

“That’s the danger I see,” Levesque said. In the current climate of fear from recent school shootings, “there’s a lot of apprehension. Police are on the alert.”

With many AirSoft guns, the only clue that they are toys is that the tip is orange. If someone were to paint that tip black, there’s no way of knowing the difference, Levesque said. Hand-held AirSoft guns “look like a .45,” Levesque said.

Last week, boys brought AirSoft guns onto school grounds in at least two incidents, including a sports event at Lewiston Middle School and spirit week at Lewiston High School, Levesque said.

Some of the students fired the guns at each other. School policy prohibits students from bringing weapons or anything that looks like a weapon onto school property.

No property was damaged and no student was harmed, Levesque said. AirSoft guns fire plastic pellets which generally would not break the skin, but could cause harm if shot into someone’s eye.

In neither case was school in session. Moreover, there was no intimidation on the part of the AirSoft-gun-toting students. The incidents didn’t prompt officials to close the schools or lock them down, Levesque said.

No charges

Police Sgt. Adam Higgins, who heads the Youth and Family Services Unit in the detectives bureau, said none of the eight boys was charged with a criminal offense.

Police scoured criminal statutes for possible charges but could find none, he said.

Had anyone been hit by a projectile and wanted to press charges, they could have lodged an assault complaint, Higgins said. Had one of the students threatened someone who feared he was in imminent danger, that action could have triggered a charge of misdemeanor terrorizing. Those charges can be elevated to a felony if a real gun is used, he said.

But the AirSoft guns used by these students were made of clear plastic tipped with orange paint and did not resemble real firearms, Higgins said.

“Where they screwed up is they brought them onto school property. It was stupid,” he said. “This is taken very seriously be the police department and by the school department.”

So far, the boys have been suspended and more disciplinary action against them could follow. “It’s being investigated,” Levesque said. “I’m on the case.” Both school principals are working on reports to give to Levesque.

‘Community-based danger’

Lewiston High School Principal Gus Leblanc and Lewiston Middle School Principal Maureen Lachapelle have been asked to let students know – again – that they’re not to bring AirSoft guns into school buildings or onto school property.

Levesque has researched AirSoft guns online and has talked to police. He’s grown uncomfortable with what he’s learned.

AirSoft guns are sold locally and kids often “shoot” each other with them, Levesque said. Use is widespread, he said. “All these things are being sold: machine guns, hand guns, goggles. Kids are using them in the streets. I personally don’t like them.”

Parents ought to be aware of the dangers associated with AirSoft guns. If their children are using them, parents should provide tight limits.

Levesque questioned whether city or state laws could be tightened to prevent AirSoft guns being sold as toys, or restricting where they can be used, or better identifying them as fake guns.

Paintball, he said, is one thing. AirSoft guns are “a community-based danger.”