School district officials in San Francisco will decide if a first-grade student who brought a gun to school on Friday will be expelled, a school district spokeswoman said today.

The 6-year-old student was immediately suspended Friday following the incident at Cleveland Elementary School in the city's Excelsior District, according to district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe.

After a review process, San Francisco Unified School District officials will decide at a later meeting of the Board of Education whether to expel the student, Blythe said. If so, the board would then recommend a different district school for the child to attend, she added.

According to Blythe, the incident happened before school started Friday morning, in the greeting area directly outside the school.

Adult staff at the school heard students discussing another student having a gun, Blythe said. School officials then searched the student's backpack and found the weapon.

"The student insisted that he thought it was a fake gun," Blythe said.

Police and child protective services were notified and are still conducting an investigation, according to San Francisco police spokesman Sgt. Wilfred Williams.

"No charges have been filed," Williams said.

In addition, according to Blythe, students at the school were all counseled about the dangers of weapons, and parents were sent letters explaining the incident.


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