I am so upset today. I have been following the children in Georgia. Let me copy and past the article here, just in case you haven't read about it.
WAYCROSS, Ga. (April 1) - A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.
Waycross Georgia Police Department / AP
A photo shows some of the materials that police in Waycross, Ga., confiscated from a group of third-graders who allegedly were plotting to attack their teacher.
The plot involving as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.
School officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school. Tanner said the students apparently planned to knock the teacher unconscious with a crystal paperweight, bind her with the handcuffs and tape and then stab her with the knife.
"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don't know."
The children, ages 8 to 10, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said.
Two of the students were arrested on juvenile charges Tuesday and a third arrest was expected. District Attorney Rick Currie said other students told investigators they didn't take the plot seriously or insisted they had decided not to participate.
"Some of the kids said, `We thought they were just kidding,"' Currie said. "Another child was supposed to bring a toy pistol, and he told a detective he didn't bring it because he thought he would get in trouble."
Currie said the children are too young to be charged as adults, and probably too young to be sentenced to a youth detention center.
Police seized a steak knife with a broken handle, steel handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and the paperweight from the students, Tanner said.
Currie said he decided to seek juvenile charges against two girls, ages 9 and 10, who brought the knife and paperweight and an 8-year-old boy who brought tape. He said all three students faced charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, and both girls were being charged with bringing weapons to school.
Nine children have been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school system. She would not be more specific but said none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.
The purported target is a veteran educator who teaches third-grade students with learning disabilities, including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.
The scheme involved a division of roles, Tanner said. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, he said. Another was supposed to clean up after the attack.
"We're not sure at this point in the investigation how many of the students actually knew the intent was to hurt the teacher," Tanner said.
He said the teacher told detectives the children involved weren't known as troublemakers.
"You can't dismiss it," Tanner said. "But because they are kids, they may have thought this was like a cartoon - we do whatever and then she stands up and she's OK. That's a hard call."
The parents of the students have cooperated with investigators, who aren't allowed to question the children without their parents' or guardians' consent, he said. Authorities have withheld the children's names.
Martin told The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville, Fla., that administrators would follow school system policy and state law in disciplining the students.
"From what I understand, they were considered pretty good kids," Martin said. "But we have to take this seriously, whether they were serious or not about carrying this through, and that's what we did."
Four mothers of other third-grade students at Center Elementary called for the immediate expulsion of the suspected plotters.
Stacy Carter and Deana Hiott both cited school system policy stating that any student who brings "anything reasonably considered to be a weapon" is to be expelled for at least the remainder of the school year.
"We don't want our children around them," Carter told the Times-Union. "The one with the knife could have stabbed my child or someone else's child at lunch or out on the playground."
Not only are these kids going to get by with little or no punishment from the school and law, it is going to teach other kids that hey they can do it and not get in trouble, we can to.
Secondly did you notice that they were trying to blame this on cartoons? The news is trying to blame it on video games and movies. This burns me up. You know the reason that they do these things??? LACK OF GOD. Lack of morals. If these kids had morals and God in their lives, these things would not happen. America made the greatest mistake when they took God from the schools. This nation has been in a downward spiral ever since. I think that if one woman can get God out, why cant a huge group of Christians get him back in??????????
My kids know right from wrong and have morals. Sure they do wrong, that's not what I am saying, we all do wrong, but we know it is wrong. We know these things because we were TAUGHT these things by our parents and teachers. What has happened? This is getting ridiculous!!!
I also want to applaud some schools because they do allow prayer meetings in them, even if it is five minutes in the morning one day a week and free will to go to them. If only more schools would do this. Also some teachers should be applauded because they still speak of God, even though they could lose their jobs for doing so! We all need to be a little bit more like these people! There are great things to be learned in this life and we can teach one another, it just takes some effort and support. We all need to put forth the effort.
I also want to thank some one today. Hope this is for you! You have been a rock in my life lately, you have been there for me when I have been faced with tough challenges with the kids. You have taught me so many things in the last few weeks. I know that you are in my life because of Daniel, but you know I don't talk to a lot of his family, I don't know them that well. I am glad that you are in my life and I have a great friend to talk to about important things and I want you to know that I really look up to! I know that God has put you here for a reason and I thank him for doing that to! So this is for you. I am calling it the rock award LOL! 
This is an award I received from Charlotte! Thank you so much! I love it.
I want to pass it on to Mary at Mary's writing nook, Lady Di, at Kitty justice, hope at second time around, Jennifer at Dust Bunny hostage and Karen!
Well I will go for now. Have a good day!
Showing posts with label school violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school violence. Show all posts
Thursday, April 3, 2008
I am so upset!
Posted by Brandy at 5:41 AM 10 comments
Labels: school violence
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