After spending a night in a San Jose juvenile hall, two Palo Alto High School students are now serving out a suspension following their arrest Thursday on felony charges of possessing a gun on campus, according to police and school officials.

According to Marilyn Cook, associate superintendent of educational services at the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), prior to lunch on March 2, students observed a senior exchanging a handgun with a sophomore during class and reported it to a teacher.

According to Palo Alto Police Department (PAPD) Juvenile Detective Marianna Villaescusa, the teacher then alerted the school administration, who in turn made a call at 11:50 a.m. to the police. The police responded by removing the sophomore from his afternoon class, Villaescusa said. The student was not in possession of the gun at that time, but immediately confessed to the purchase and told police that he had taken the gun home during lunch, according to Villaescusa. Police were then deployed to the student’s Palo Alto residence where they confiscated the .22 caliber handgun, Villaescusa said.

“The student who had purchased the gun had no intended target,” Villaescusa said. “He might have just thought a gun would be cool to have.”

According to Villaescusa, police arrested the senior, also a Palo Alto resident, following the recovery of the weapon. The senior confessed to having sold the gun, and claimed to have discovered the weapon lying on the street in East Palo Alto while visiting a relative, Villaescusa said.

“These were good kids,” Villaescusa said. “They told us the truth immediately. This was simply a poor decision on their part.”

On campus Friday, students were pleased that immediate action was taken.

“I’m glad somebody told the administration,” said junior Alex Stikeleather. “It makes me uncomfortable that those things are happening on school campus.”

Administrative officials agree that it is important that such serious offenses be reported immediately.

“Other schools hear about this incident and say ‘what’s the big deal, this happens all the time at our schools’,” Cook said. “What makes this a big deal is that, to my knowledge, nothing like this has ever happened at Paly. This is not the type of thing we deal with on a regular basis.”

According to Cook, the school does have a system set up “to deal with these situations.”

“We can’t try the system until an incident occurs,” Cook said. “Everything worked smoothly, so the system clearly works. There was a cooperative, collaborative effort from all parties.”

According to Cook, after such an incident occurs on a PAUSD campus, the school board and the police join forces to deal with the issue. After facts have been collected, the police and the school pursue the situation independently, implementing separate legal or disciplinary actions. According to Cook, students receive a suspension document, which may recommend them for expulsion depending on the seriousness of the offense.

“The first thing is doing arrests, confiscating the weapon and notifying parents,” Cook said. “From our side, we have a pretty cut-and-dry course of action. There isn’t any doubt that they did it.”

According to Cook, possession of a firearm on school campus is an offense which leads to automatic recommendation for expulsion.

“This is an expellable offense,” she said.

An administrative panel convened under the Education Code will consider whether the two students involved in this case should be expelled, Cook said. The panel will make a decision within two to three weeks.

“We know that kids are worried about a safety threat, parents are worried about a safety threat, and we are too,” Cook said. “Concerns have been expressed [from parents and students], and we’re trying to address them as they appear.”

“It’s scary because this type of thing might be happening a lot,” said senior Jane Griffin.

Junior Aaron Gordin said, “It’s surprising that it happened at Paly.”

Principal Scott Laurence sent an email to Paly parents on Thursday afternoon via the Paly Link informing them of the gun exchange incident and reassuring them of the safety of the campus. Fourth period teachers read this letter to students in class on March 3 as well.

“Please know that there was no threat to any student on campus,” Laurence wrote. “We applaud the quick response of both students and staff in ensuring that immediate steps were taken to keep our campus safe.”

Editor-in-chief Kristie Flatley and reporter Tomer Schwartz contributed to this article.