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Public Safety

2 San Pasqual High Students Face Expulsion Over Having Knives

San Pasqual High School in Escondido is pictured, Feb. 12, 2016.
10News
San Pasqual High School in Escondido is pictured, Feb. 12, 2016.

One of two San Pasqual High School students suspended after knives were found in their vehicles was issued a misdemeanor citation and the other has been recommended for a diversion program, Escondido police said ahead of a hearing Friday to decide if either or both would be expelled.

A contraband-sniffing dog alerted officials at the Bear Valley Parkway campus to the weapons in parked vehicles belonging to 18-year-old Brandon Cappelletti and a 16-year-old student on the morning of Jan. 27, according to an Escondido police Lt. Ed Varso.

Both vehicles were searched in the students' presence. Three knives were found in Cappelletti's pickup truck and a knife with a 3-inch locking blade was found in Serrato's SUV, Varso said.

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Both students were subsequently interviewed with their mothers present. Cappelletti told investigators the knives were left in his vehicle following a fishing trip with family the weekend before, Varso said.

Varso said the younger student purchased the weapon for protection with his parents' knowledge about a week and a half prior to it being found and had been bringing it to school, but leaving it in his car, each day since.

School resource officers ruled both students were in violation of a misdemeanor crime by bringing the knives on school property, according to the lieutenant. Both Cappelletti and the 16-year-old student were subsequently suspended.

Varso said the 16-year-old student has since been recommended for a juvenile diversion program, which does not require his case to go through the formal court process. However, since Cappelletti is an adult, he was issued a misdemeanor citation and released to his mother.

A hearing to decide whether Cappelletti and Serrato will be expelled is set to get underway Friday at the Escondido Union School District offices, according to news reports.

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It had initially been scheduled for Feb. 25, but had been expedited after several parents and fellow students called for leniency for the teens and questioned the district's zero-tolerance policy and use of the contraband-sniffing dogs, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

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