Packing material for pellet gun found at CHS

Search there and at Sypek Center yields nothing

By John Tredrea
   Area police searched Hopewell Valley Central High School (CHS) and Sypek Center today (Thursday) after a CHS custodian found packing material for a spring-loaded rifle and handgun.
   Shortly after 11 a.m., Hopewell Township police were called by school officials, who reported they had discovered a suspicious item inside the school.
   According to police Chief George Meyer, "a custodian found a block of Styrofoam, which was obviously the packing material for a spring-loaded rifle and a handgun, as indicated by the molded shapes and an attached label."
   "The item was located inside of a trash can inside of the school. The can had been emptied earlier in the day so it was known that the item was placed there today," the chief said.
   Emergency procedures were instituted to secure the school, the chief noted, because "there was the potential for a pellet rifle and or a pellet handgun being inside of the school . . . A full lockdown was not ordered, however. The building was secured and students were kept in their classrooms."
   School officials used several methods to alert parents to the situation at the school (e-mail blast, local cable channel and Web site postings), the chief said.
   School officials — with police present — checked every student locker. Finding nothing, police then systematically searched every student as he/she "moved from classrooms, cafeteria, gymnasium, etc. and placed in the school’s performing arts center and gymnasium. The search of the students failed to turn up the guns. Student cars in the school’s parking lots were searched by school officials," Chief Meyer said.
   The student body was dismissed at the normal time. After that, another search of the school was conducted by school officials and police. No weapons were found, Chief Meyer said.
   Hopewell Township police were assisted by Pennington Police officers.
   AT THE SAME TIME Hopewell Township police, assisted by Ewing Township police, "initiated a lockdown at the Mercer County Vocational-Technical School (Sypek Center) on Bull Run Road, "because a number of Central High students had been bused there for classes. Searches there did not locate any weapons," the chief added.
   At this point the investigation into how the packing material came to be placed in the school trash is continuing.
   Central High "staff handled the entire incident in an extremely professional manner. Students were very cooperative and understanding of this major disruption and inconvenience on their first day back to school," the chief concluded.
   Hopewell Valley Emergency Services provided an ambulance on stand-by at the high school in case it was needed, Chief Meyer concluded.
   Detective Michael Simonelli is in charge of the investigation.