Posted on 05/28/2005 7:24:30 PM PDT by Coleus
A school resource officer arrested an 11-year-old Rawlinson Road Middle School student Wednesday after the boy went to school with 10 nails in his pocket. The boy produced the three-and-a-half-inch-long nails after Dianne McCray, the school's assistant principal, asked about a jingling sound in his right pocket. McCray asked to see what was in his pocket, and he gave her the nails.
The boy first said the nails were from a project about 10 days before, according to the police report. He then said the nails were for self-defense because a suspicious man had been seen in his neighborhood. He also said he needed the nails for a Boy Scout outing this weekend, the report said.
He was charged with having an unlawful weapon but was not taken to the police station; his father picked him up from school. The Herald is not identifying the boy because of his age.
The boy had the nails from an earlier scouting trip, his father said, and noticed them in his pocket after putting on a pair of pants he had not worn since the trip.
"They were not to be used as a weapon at school," the boy's father said.
McCray then called in school resource officer Ashley Doster, who sought charges against the boy.
State law says anything that can be construed or used as a weapon on school grounds can be classified as unlawful, said Lt. Jerry Waldrop of the Rock Hill Police Department.
"I'm not second-guessing the officer that made the charge," Waldrop said. "The nails could have been used against other students. The juvenile with them did state he had them for protection against a suspicious male in the neighborhood."
But the boy's father said his son did not threaten anyone with the nails, did not do anything violent, and had no intentions to use the nails as a weapon.
"Is a pencil a weapon? Is a pen a weapon? Is a paperclip a weapon?" the father asked. "I think this whole charge is ridiculous."
The decision to have the boy arrested was made by the school's administrators, said Rock Hill school district spokeswoman Elaine Baker, who did not know specifically why the decision was made.
"The information I read was that the student didn't bring the nails to harm anybody," Baker said. "They were left in there (the pocket) from something else."
McCray did not return several phone calls from The Herald.
Dianne McCray, [6th grade] assistant principal at Rawlinson Road Middle School, asked the child Wednesday what was jingling in his pocket and the student gave her the 3.5" long nails.Woman
A school resource officer [Ashley Doster] arrested him. His father picked him up and he was not taken to the police station.Another woman ...
Why is it that I, a guy, could conceive that two femnisist, most likely non-outdoorsy, non-treefort building women would take this 'bend' with commonly available construction materials like NAILS?
Why not? He is obviously a Boy Scout.
ball-bearings. it's all ball-bearings these days.
I need to get me some nails, and build a shack in the middle of nowhere. This is all too scary.
He was a boy scout, the reason why he had the nails, the scouts are under fire by the ACLU and the libs. Freepers are pro scouting.
"He also said he needed the nails for a Boy Scout outing this weekend, the report said. "
And the saws, man, the SAWS!!
Because he hasn't been an alter boy since last year. "Scout" (now) sounds better than "former alter boy" to a leftist.
One of the reasons why I never read the Herald, my hometown paper.
I see a Scrappleface article coming on:
"The Rock Hill Schoolhouse Nail Massacre"
"Forty students and a school administrator were massacred by a teenage boy weilding a 3.5" nail today...."
I don't know how many times I have left something in my pocket after working on a project or chore. I hope the family sues the he** out of this school. This crap is getting out of hand. These people are supposed to be educated professionals, but their reaction shows they didn't teach common sense where they got their degrees. This is as bad as suspending 6 - 7 year olds for playing cowboys and Indians at recess using their fingers for guns.
Why do parents keep thier children in these indoctrination camps????
You should see the damage i can do with a 3.5" floppy disc!
I once used it to bring france to it's knees!
I guess wood shop is a thing of the past.
Government schools are evil.
ROFLOL !!! - I once worked with a guy that went to Wall HS, somewhere in NJ ...
Buddy B, was a Boy Scout member long ago and we were to tell the truth.
Has Scouting changed?
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