GUILDERLAND — A Guilderland High School student was arrested last Thursday after he showed a knife to a group of students in the school lobby.

Mark W. Balthazar of 6254 Johnston Road, was charged with two misdemeanors — criminal possession of a weapon and menacing.
At about 7:25 a.m., near the start of the school day, six or seven students were involved in a "small shoving match," according to Brian Forte, a Guilderland Police officer who is stationed at the high school.
Balthazar then took the knife out of his pocket, said Forte, explaining, "He just wanted to let the other boys know he had it."
Asked if Balthazar felt threatened, Forte said, "I’m not sure."

Balthazar could not be reached for comment.
Forte described the knife as a "gravity knife" with a two-and-a-half-inch blade. "You can flip it out and it locks in place," said Forte.
After displaying the knife, Balthazar "put it back in his pocket and walked away," said Forte.

The group then divided into two and some of the students went to tell a monitor while others went to tell the school principal, Michael Piccirillo, about the knife, Forte said.
Asked if Balthazar had been arrested before, Forte said, "He had some problems as a juvenile." Forte declined to elaborate because of the juvenile designation.

After the Sept. 28 incident, Balthazar was suspended from school, Forte said, pending a superintendent’s hearing.

State law allows a school principal to impose a maximum five-day suspension. Further penalties can be administered only after a superintendent’s hearing, where witnesses speak and evidence is presented.

Piccirillo could not be reached for comment.

"We’re safe here"
Forte described weapons in school as "pretty rare" in Guilderland. In the seven years that he has been a school resource officer at the high school, Forte said there have been only three or four arrests for weapons possession.
He added, "Kids probably have knives that we don’t see."

In April of 2005, A Guilderland High School student was arrested with second-degree assault, a felony, for stabbing another student with a piece of jewelry shaped like a Christian cross. Both of the young men were 15.
"When a jewelry piece becomes a weapon, said Ismael Villafane, the principal at the time, "that’s not something you’d catch with a metal detector."

The school board at the time had been discussing school monitors and mentioned metal detectors and security cameras.
Asked yesterday if he thought more school security was needed at Guilderland, Forte said, "Considering the news the last two weeks, security is needed everywhere."

He went on to say, though, that Guilderland High School is basically a safe place.

All the doors but the front door are locked and that is watched by a monitor, he said. Cameras are in various locations throughout the school, he said, but more would be useful.
"We were just turned down for a federal grant," he said.

All staff members wear identifying badges and a building safety committee meets regularly as does a district-wide safety committee, Forte said.
"We talk about ways to enhance security," he said of the committee.
Forte had said earlier that metal detectors and cameras can be deterrents but they don’t "stop the everyday things that go on." He went on, "It’s more important to educate people to get along, to stop bullying, and those types of things."

The Guilderland School district two years ago launched an anti-bullying campaign.
Forte concluded yesterday, "We’re safe here but we’re always looking for more measures to improve."