ON MARCH 10, a student at Juanita High School in Kirkland was arrested for bringing what the school called a "dangerous weapon" to campus. That dangerous weapon was actually a BB gun the kid had stashed in the waistband of his pants.

He was caught when somebody tipped off school administrators, who then called in the police. The student was quickly cornered by two Kirkland officers and later booked into the King County Juvenile Detention Center in downtown Seattle -- charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds -- where he'll stay until the King County Superior Court decides what to do with him. He's been officially expelled from Juanita (and the entire Lake Washington School District); two students who allegedly knew about his "dangerous weapon," but didn't turn him in, were also suspended.

Like other schools across the state, Juanita has stepped up campus security this year. They brought on a full-time Kirkland police officer, Sean Riley, who worked at the school part-time in the past. Riley says it took him no time at all to decide to arrest the teen after school administrators told him about the suspected gun. "I actually thought it was a real gun until I got him handcuffed and got him out to the car," Riley says. "You're always on guard. You got 1,400 kids around you. You never know if somebody's going to do something. You can't see everybody at one time."

In the past three weeks, several schools in the state have kicked students out (and in some cases turned them over to police to be charged with crimes) for incidents that might have been handled less severely in the past. An overwhelming sense of paranoia stemming from a string of high-profile school shootings has made local educators appear downright eager to throw kids in jail. (While bringing a real gun to school is a criminal matter, according to state and federal laws, schools have leeway in what else they send to the courts.) This, despite the fact that schools have never been safer: Statistics show that campus murders nationwide have declined slightly, from an average of 42 per year between 1992 and 1995, an average of 33 between 1995 and 1998, and a total of 26 in 1999.

On March 7, three Tacoma students were arrested and charged with "unlawful possession of an incendiary device" after school officials found a grenade on campus. In mid March, two Jefferson County middle school students (12 and 14) were caught allegedly planning to do away with a group of students and staff. The two were charged in juvenile court with conspiracy to commit murder, and could receive a whopping sentence: If they are convicted (the two pled innocent), prosecutors are threatening to keep them in jail until they're 21, well above the standard 15 to 36 weeks for a juvenile felony conviction. Also this year, two Pierce County high school students were expelled for putting the names of classmates on a hit list -- dubbed the "preppy hit list." And Seattle school officials tried to suspend a high school student for creating a website displaying fake student obituaries; a federal judge later ruled the student could return to class because the website didn't pose a safety threat.

In the Juanita case, Shirley White, the aunt of the arrested BB-gun-toting student, says her nephew may deserve to be expelled from his school, but he shouldn't be expelled from the district or treated like a criminal. "I know him personally," she says, "and I know he's really sensitive and really smart, and I hate to see him wasting his life away." She says that when the prosecuting attorney in the case read information out loud about the student's guilty plea, he gave White and her nephew the impression that the teen could stay in jail until he's 21. In fact, the maximum penalty he could receive is one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Sheila Singleton, the mother of one of the other Juanita students who was suspended in relation to the BB gun case, thinks the school is treating her son too harshly. Though he wasn't criminally charged, he received a 15-day suspension. "They'd rather eliminate the problem than deal with it," says Singleton, who's pulling her son out of Juanita because she's pissed about the suspension. The school has exaggerated matters regarding her son before, she contends: Earlier in the year, he was suspended for "inciting a riot," when his mother claims he was just arguing with another student. "Travis has a right to an education at Juanita," Singleton points out. "It's the school's responsibility."

Singleton is concerned that schools are shirking their responsibility to teach all kids, but administrators are proud of the tough policies. While he won't discuss specific cases, Lake Washington School District Director of Communications Richard Duval says, "Schools have no sense of humor. If you make a threat, if you sound at all like you're serious, we're going to take you seriously.... If there's a possibility that you could be prosecuted, we will support that."

The state provides thousands of dollars for school security features like walkie-talkies, surveillance cameras, and police officers who regularly patrol the halls. Police are also scrutinizing some school records: The U.S. Secret Service, for example, is gathering information on cases of school violence in order to predict future threats. It looks like security is only going to get tighter. Craig Apperson, Safety and Security Supervisor for the state's Superintendent of Public Instruction, says Washington is poised to hand out the second installment of a two-year safety and security grant. Both the Seattle and Lake Washington school districts will receive $87,500 (the same as they got last year).

Pegi McEvoy, Safety Coordinator for the Seattle School District, says the money is going toward a comprehensive plan that will prepare for all potential catastrophes (school shootings, earthquakes, the presence of hazardous materials). Though she acknowledges that schools are safer these days than in the past, she says every highly publicized school shooting leads to a "period which I call hypervigilance, [where] everybody is a little bit unnerved."