A male student at Turlington Woods School has been recommended for an administrative hearing after the principal allegedly found a 7.5-inch knife in the student’s book bag.

The incident happened Wednesday about 10:45 a.m., when school staff reported they smelled the odor of marijuana coming from the boys’ locker room in the gym. The principal brought the students to the library to be searched, but one boy refused to be searched, city spokeswoman Diana Klink said.

The boy was taken to the front office, where he stayed with another male teacher. The remaining students were searched without incident, and nothing was found, Klink said.

The principal then went to the office to search the student who had been removed from the library. Accompanied by the school resource officer, the principal “asked the juvenile if there was anything in the book bag that she needed to know about,” Klink wrote in an email.

The student allegedly said he had a knife in the book bag and told the principal where it was located. She found the black-handled kitchen knife in a zippered portion of the bag. It was never displayed or used in a threatening manner, Klink said.

The knife was turned over to the officer, and the juvenile’s father was contacted and came to the school, Klink said.

“This student has been recommended for an administrative hearing where the details of this incident will be considered to determine a final consequence,” Suffolk Public Schools spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw wrote in an email.