"Albemarle County police arrested a second youth Tuesday in connection with the discovery of a handgun in a Walton Middle School locker last week.

Citing confidentiality concerns, authorities have not released the identity and age of either boy arrested or said what charges each faces.

In a letter sent home to parents Monday, school Principal Betsy Agee said a student brought the gun to school Friday and gave it to another student, who put it in a locker.

Police charged one student Monday and made a second arrest Tuesday afternoon, according to Albemarle police spokesman Lt. Todd Hopwood

School administrators found out about the gun Friday evening, and Albemarle police retrieved the gun from the locker, according to the letter. Agee could not be reached Tuesday.

Police have not said whether the gun was loaded and have not said why it was brought to the school.

“If we start releasing all the details, it could potentially undermine the investigation,” Hopwood said.

Both youths are being held at the Blue Ridge Detention Center.

Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford said confidentiality restrictions keep her from discussing the Walton cases, but that in general, such incidents are handled in closed hearings in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

“Typically there would be a determination as to whether or not they would be detained,” Lunsford said. “Then after that, there would be a scheduled hearing for adjudication of the matter.”

Criminal proceedings involving juveniles who are under 14 or who are not charged with a violent felony are not open to the public.

School officials discussed the incident with students Monday and had additional guidance support available for students Tuesday, according to Agee’s letter.

Superintendent Pam Moran on Tuesday said the school system had held off on notifying parents until officials had an opportunity to review fully what had happened.

“We don’t communicate with parents until we’ve gone through a process of looking at the total package of information available,” she said. “We didn’t have all the pieces until late Sunday afternoon. We had staff working all weekend long on this to figure what is the next step.”

“We gather all the facts, make sure we have that all together and then build a communication plan, with the principal working with the communications people and the person in charge of crisis management. They determined on Sunday afternoon that there were no safety issues remaining at that point. Everything had been dealt with by the police. It was determined the the most appropriate action was to bring the kids in and then notify the parents on Monday.”

School Board Chairman Brian Wheeler praised the response from school administrators and said parental notification went out as quickly as it could be responsibly done.

“Something to keep in mind is that if we had sent home a voicemail alert or a telephone alert or an e-mail alert, there is no control over who receives that message,” Wheeler said. “In my mind, given that they were certain about the safety of our students, it’s better to let them come to school and let them hear it from their teachers and their principal directly.”

As to the possibility of enacting additional security measures in the wake of the incident, Moran said, “I can’t speak to security changes because if you publicize them, people know what they are. We always review and make any changes we feel are necessary in terms of security."" (Rob Seal, The Daily Progress, February 6, 2008)