Boys pull out knife, gun in argument in 7th-grade class

Robert J. Lopez (Los Angeles Times) | January 26, 2012

Security was beefed up at Samuel Gompers Middle School in South Los Angeles on Thursday after two boys pulled out a knife and gun during an argument in a 7th-grade class.

The boys began arguing Wednesday afternoon when one of them pulled out a knife, prompting the other to grab a backpack and take out a gun, said Patrick Sinclair, spokesman for the nonprofit Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, which operates Gompers.

“The minute it happened, the other children were on their feet and out the door,” Sinclair said of the 20 or so students in the class when the confrontation broke out about 2:45 p.m. “It all happened very quickly.”