| August 14, 2005 Two students face charges for weapons By Johnathan C. Ryan - Staff Writer A student at Lancaster High School and a student at Andrew Jackson High School were found with weapons during the first week of school. Authorities at both schools acted quickly to confiscate the weapons after realizing the students, both boys, had them last week. The Lancaster High student had a handgun in his gym locker. The Andrew Jackson High student had a stun gun in his possession. Principal: Boy made quick admission Lancaster High School Assistant Principal Richard Pringle received an anonymous call Thursday morning that a 16-year-old student had a handgun. After the call, Pringle immediately notified Principal Joe Keenan and the two went to question the boy. Keenan said the boy admitted to having an unloaded gun wrapped in T-shirts in his gym locker. The boy's quick admission and naive behavior shocked Keenan. He said the boy, while cooperative, didn't seem to understand the seriousness of having a firearm at school. "Usually kids and adults will try to cover a little bit when they do something wrong, but he looked me dead in the eye and admitted he had it," Keenan said. "That kind of surprised me." Keenan quickly confiscated the gun, a .32 caliber Smith & Wesson from the boy's locker. According to a Lancaster Police Department incident report, the boy said he found the gun when walking to school. Keenan said the boy claims he found the gun Thursday, the day he was caught. He didn't think the boy planned to harm others with it, but rather wanted to sell it for pants and shoes. The boy wasn't known to have any peer problems and didn't appear to have any desire to hurt anyone, Keenan said. "It was a very unfortunate situation and a bad decision was made on his part, but I'm glad that someone brought the matter to Pringle's attention and how he responded," Keenan said. Lancaster County Department of Juvenile Justice Director Sandra Burton said the boy is now at the Juvenile Detention Center in Columbia, and the Sixth Circuit Juvenile Solicitor is considering a court date. Burton said students bringing guns to school is highly unusual in Lancaster County, but said other weapons are sometimes found. "Guns are not the normal weapon of choice," she said. "We have had problems with students bringing knives more frequently." In his 10 years at LHS, Keenan said he has never dealt with a student bringing a handgun. The most recent incident of weapon use at LHS was a female student spraying perfume into the eyes of another female student last year, he said. The boy could be expelled for up to a full year, said Bryan Vaughn, safety and transportation director for the school district. AJ boy not a problem student Andrew Jackson High Resource Officer Larry Robertson found a 16-year-old boy with a stun gun on Monday, the first day of school. According to the sheriff's department incident report, Robertson was routinely patrolling the boys' bathrooms when he saw the boy inserting batteries in an object possessing prongs. He immediately became suspicious and asked the boy to show him what was in his hand. He saw the boy had a stun gun, the report said. Robertson immediately confiscated the weapon and called Assistant Principal Alex Dabney to the area, said Lancaster County Sheriff's Department Capt. Tijuana Barnes, the resource officer's supervisor. According to the report, Dabney escorted the boy to the office, where he was expelled for 10 days. The sheriff's department did not detain the boy, but released him to his grandmother and filed a DJJ petition. DJJ is processing charges for the juvenile solicitor's consideration. Barnes said Robertson knew the boy and was shocked to find him with a stun gun. "Robertson said the boy is not a problem student and said the incident surprised him," Barnes said. "He (the boy) really didn't provide an explanation as to why he had the weapon." The boy is facing expulsion for the rest of the school year, Vaughn said. http://www.thelancasternews.com/articles/2005/08/14/news/news01_weapons.txt |