Witnesses said Friday that two youths caught inside Hixson High School, including one with an unloaded gun, had gone there to sell drugs.

Derrick Jones and Kenny Hall, both 18, had cases bound to the Grand Jury, and they remain on $300,000 bond.

Hixson High School Resource Officer Greg Carson said a youth who had been hanging around Hall said he had given him "baking powder" to sell at the school.

Officers found baggies of a white powder substance inside a stolen car the pair drove to the school on Feb. 20.

Hixson High went into a lockdown after the weapon was found on Jones.

Officer Carson said Blaine Lawson had been riding around with Hall in the stolen car and gave him the "baking powder".

Chris Earl, assistant principal, said both Jones and Hall are former Hixson High students. Hall was a student at Soddy-Daisy High at the time of the incident.

He said it was just after lunch when he was advised that two non-students were in the school. Officials said they apparently were let in by a student through a door that is supposed to be locked.

He said that after a teacher rounded up both youths, he directed that they be searched.

Officer Carson said Jones was wearing a ball cap, and he said he appeared to be making gang signs.

He said the pair tried to elude him, and he said Hall told him he was a student there.

He said he told Jones to put his hands on a wall, then he spotted the semi-automatic weapon in a pocket of his baggy pants.

The officer said that at that time, he immediately handcuffed both Jones and Hall and ordered the lockdown. He said students and teachers remained in their rooms while the entire building was searched for anyone else who was not supposed to be there.

He said the pair said they had walked to the school, but he said Jones' mother came to the school and found on the parking lot a Ford Focus they had come in.

The officer said the vehicle had been stolen from Angela Brown on Vance Road on Feb. 15.

A Soddy-Daisy High backpack belonging to Hall was found in the vehicle.

The officer said Hall had been driving the Ford Focus and took it "mud bottoming." The vehicle was covered with mud inside and out and had damage to both the exterior and interior. The owner came to the school and retrieved the car, which was also missing the stereo/CD player.

General Sessions Court Judge David Bales said the pair should have been in school, but said they chose to endanger 1,500 students at Hixson High.

Both are charged with criminal trespass.

Jones is also charged with carrying a weapon on school property and altering the serial number on the gun.

Hall is also charged with theft and possession of drugs.