WAYCROSS, Ga.鈥揂 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 today.
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 eight 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 centre.
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 nine and 10, who brought the knife and paperweight and an eight-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 鈥?we do whatever and then she stands up and she's OK. That's a hard call."
The parents of the students have co-operated 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. This is an article I read from yahoo. Please provide your thoughts.
QUESTIONS FOR YOU!
1. If you were law enforcement, how would you charge this crime? Do you think that they were sophisticated enough to REALLY understand consequences?
2. As a society, what can be done deter this type of violence of youth?
3. This is just not a WAYCROSS concern, we all live in this nation together and we need to understand WHAT THE HEILLEE IS GOING ON WITH OUR OWN DAMMNN KIDS???
After Callibine (I know I spelled it wrong) and a number of copy cats, now this??? (These kids are starting to plot murders in the 3RD DAMN GRADE, THIS IS CRAZY!!!! ((SPEAK YOUR PEACE)) this is insane!
I went to school in different countries and got spanked and caned but I never even imagined doing something like that to my teachers...
bold, insane little monsters
edit: My dad is in the military and used to take discipline pretty seriously... maybe kids nowadays need more than time out.
I never thought I'd say that. My siblings and I would always say that we would never hurt or take a belt to our kids, that it was bad and all that. But I have to say that none of us turned out bad or damaged from it. We are good little citizens who uphold the law... maybe he had the right discipline 'techniques'. With the violent cartoons and computer games that encourage violence, what do we expect? Don't blame the kids, blame a decadent society. Third grade or not,they should at the very least be expelled.
I agree with you,kids are getting worse. I think we can all
look to movies,computer and video games for the cause.
The violence in each increases all the time,and the young
ones get desensitized. Just what is the question? Too much TV, Video games,nasty music....
Is anyone really surprised. |
