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Teen charged after bringing knife to school
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN © St. Petersburg Times, published March 9, 2001 A 14-year-old student at Springstead High School was charged with felony possession of a weapon and placed on home detention after he was caught with a martial arts throwing knife in his pocket. The boy, whose name the Times is withholding because of his age, was escorted to the office of assistant principal Tim Urban on Wednesday about 7:50 a.m. after Urban received an anonymous tip from a student, according to a sheriff's report. A school resource officer with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office went to the office as well. The boy was read his rights and was searched, and the black knife with a 3-inch blade was found in his front right pocket, the report said. The boy said he did not mean to harm anyone with the knife. He said it was part of his 10-knife collection, a fact confirmed by his stepfather, who arrived at the school, the report said. The teen told Urban and the officer that he had let a friend borrow the knife overnight and that the friend had returned it to him Wednesday morning at the bus stop. At that point, he put the knife in his pocket. The report said the boy has not been a discipline problem and that he showed remorse for his actions, calling himself "stupid" for entering the campus with the knife. When contacted Thursday, Urban refused to discuss the case. In light of ongoing examples of school violence, including a shooting this week at a school in California in which two students were killed, Urban said there is no room for any discretion in such matters. "I can tell you, we as a school have no tolerance for weapons on campus, and as a school district, there is no tolerance," he said. "We are here to educate students, and we're here to learn. When we're bringing weapons to school, we are not focused on what we should be focused on."
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From today's Hernando Times |
