Four teens who were not enrolled at Washington Technology Magnet entered the North End school last week and showed a gun to students before leaving, staff and students told police.

Staff at the grades 6-to-12 school told the school resource officer at 10:25 a.m. Feb. 3 that the unauthorized teens were in the building and may have displayed a gun to three eighth-graders.

The teens left the building before the officer could locate them, but they returned to the school around noon before leaving again, police spokesman Steve Linders said.

The officer caught up with them at Rice Street and Arlington Avenue, not far from the school. He did not find a gun on them but issued trespass notifications to all four — a 14-year-old boy and three 15-year-old boys.

Linders said police were unable to confirm that a gun was ever brought into the school; police reports do not indicate that anyone was threatened.

St. Paul district schools often write letters to parents about violent incidents but did not in this case because “the presence of a weapon was never confirmed,” district spokesman Kevin Burns said.