Published: March 07, 2008 01:25 pm      

New Albany High School student suspended for guns

A New Albany High School senior has been suspended pending expulsion for having guns in his van in a school parking lot Tuesday.

“Basically, I’ve always carried a firearm with me since my sophomore year in my vehicle,” Caleb Stephenson, 18, said. “It’s been locked up in a case in the back.

“I’m a hunter — that’s why I carry it with me,” said the Navy Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps lieutenant.

According to police reports, Principal Steve Sipes was notified by an anonymous caller who said Stephenson had weapons in his vehicle.

Sipes called New Albany Police Department Officer Steve Harris — the school resource officer — who found the vehicle in question and recognized it as Stephenson’s. Harris — who Stephenson said coached him on the school’s rifle team — wrote in the report that he did see in “plain view” a shotgun case laying in the back floorboard area.

Stephenson was called out to the parking lot, where he was asked for permission to search his van. After calling his lawyer twice, Stephenson consented, the police report says.

In the gun case, officials found a bolt-action rifle and pump-action shotgun, the police report says. Harris wrote in the report that “several live shotgun shells” were laying next to the shotgun and “there were five shells in the tube magazine of the shotgun.” Harris also wrote that he found a magazine inserted in the rifle with three rounds present.

After searching the van further, a .22-caliber rimfire round was found underneath the driver’s seat.

Stephenson said he didn’t know the weapons were in the van.

“I’ve moved out of my house about two months ago. My father was trying to get my firearms back to me. He had my brother put the firearms in my vehicle,” he said. “I didn’t even know they were in there.

“I was running late to school I didn’t even think to look in the back of my vehicle to see what was in there. He (the father) left me a voice mail (about the weapons), but I didn’t think to check it.”

Dave Rarick, director of communications for New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp., said he believes the school is secure, calling safety the “No. 1 priority.” Rarick said the school periodically brings school resource officers through the parking lot and that New Albany High School also has a security guard that patrols the area.

Though no formal charges are believed to be filed and calls to the Floyd County Prosecutor’s Office have not been returned, Stephenson said Sipes told him he will face up to three felonies for having firearms on school property.

Rarick said Stephenson was suspended pending expulsion, saying the paperwork for that has been filed. Rarick said the matter will go to the prosecutor’s office.

Stephenson — who was planning on going into the U.S. Coast Guard this summer — is having to come up with a backup plan after what happened Tuesday.

Stephenson said to get into the Coast Guard, one has to have a high school diploma and a clear criminal record. He said a General Education Development diploma will not count.

With two classes left to graduate, English and economics, Stephenson fears no other school will take him with an expulsion on his record.

“It’s so dumb,” he said. “(Everyone knows) it’s not like I meant to go up there and shoot up the school.”