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And if he did have ill intent, but decided to do the right thing, he should be expelled, labeled and criminally charged? I don't think so. He should be punished/admonished but not expelled. He's already been suspended for a month and that should be sufficient punishment. If you saw the news programs you'll see that his parents agreed that he should NOT have touched the gun, but since he did and turned it in to the authorities (whether he turned it in because he thought "Oh, I'm going to get caught I better turn it in" or he thought "This can do harm, i better turn it in" is neither here nor there, he turned it in. I don't think his parents were fighting that he received punishment, I think it would have been a different case if they had just given him suspension. That punishment would have weighted as much as his infraction. But they wanted this guy to have a record, to be labeled. This was his FIRST "behavioral incident" ever.

I actually know the family personally, so I know that they are not the type of people to just stand up for their children even if they've done wrong. They have indeed admitted that perhaps he made the wrong decision in removing the gun (putting it in his pocket was DEFINITELY the wrong thing to do), but he decided (whatever his original intentions were, to do the right thing. And for that, his punishment is too much.

I was actually at the school the night of the meeting and in the very lunch room where he decided to turn the gun in was a poster LARGE as life saying "Honesty is sometimes hard, but it's the right thing to do!" But it seems in this case honesty merits as stiff a punishment as concealing and deception. So sad!