Police: Teens hid a gun at Warren High School

Gurnee police say three 15-year-old boys have been charged for their roles in bringing an unloaded handgun to Warren Township High School on Friday.

Cmdr. Jay Patrick said the .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun was discovered hidden in a ceiling tile in a second-floor boys restroom at the O'Plaine Road campus for freshmen and sophomores.

Patrick said the three students were charged with one count of unlawful use of weapon in a school building, one count of unauthorized possession of a weapon in a public building and disorderly conduct. The unlawful use of weapon charge is a felony.

One of the suspects had planned to pass the unloaded weapon to another boy involved in the incident to sell, Patrick said. Investigators determined there was no intent by the teens to use the handgun at the school.

All three of the 15-year-old boys - who were from Park City, Gurnee and unincorporated Lake County - were released to their parents. Patrick said the teens will be referred to Lake County juvenile court.

Patrick said the case was launched after a security guard at Warren's O'Plaine Road building, just south of Grand Avenue in Gurnee, noticed some boys who acted suspiciously as they left the bathroom in question.

He said the guard went inside and noticed a ceiling tile that seemed to have been moved. He got up there and found the unloaded firearm above a tile.

Officials said police were led to the three suspects through a few sources: a video camera in the hallway outside the bathroom, plus questioning of students and school employees.

Warren's O'Plaine Road campus went into lockdown about 10 a.m., Superintendent Phil Sobocinski said. He said 11,000 automated telephone calls were made to parents informing them there was a lockdown at the O'Plaine building because of the gun and that the students were safe.

Sobocinski said 1,800 lockers at the O'Plaine campus were manually searched, as well as common areas, to ensure no other weapons were present. Three specially trained Cook County sheriff's police canine units assisted in the sweep of the school.

All students and staff at Warren's Almond Road campus for upperclassmen and at two elementary districts serving the Gurnee area were alerted early about what was happening at the O'Plaine building, Sobocinski said. He said District 121 officials allowed the O'Plaine students to use their wireless devices to text or call their parents.

Sobocinski credited everyone from maintenance employees to teachers for covering all the bases quickly during the incident at the freshmen-sophomore building.

"It was a coordinated effort that we've put together," Sobocinski said.

All of the students were released early at 11:25 a.m. Patrick said no ammunition for the gun was found at O'Plaine and that no students were threatened or in danger.