MySpace photos get students expelled

BELLEVILLE, Mich., Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Five students were expelled from a Michigan high school because of photos on MySpace that purportedly showed them with guns and money.

The photos have also triggered a criminal investigation, The Ann Arbor News reported. Two other students were suspended.

Pete Lazaroff, the school superintendent in Van Buren, said that officials learned of the photos from a parent. He told the newspaper that officials are unsure if the guns, money or drugs are real, but that students can be disciplined for possessing look-alike weapons and drugs.

One group of photographs shows the students in a limousine after Belleville High School's homecoming dance. The students are displaying revolvers and a small quantity of a leafy substance in a plastic bag is also visible.

Since the students were in the limousine immediately after the dance, they presumably had the guns and possibly drugs at the dance, Lazaroff said.

The students also boasted of being members of a Detroit gang. Belleville and Van Buren are in between Detroit and Ann Arbor.