Posted on 03/01/2006 9:16:01 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
2 More North Greene Students Expelled; Rifles Found In Truck
By: By Bill Jones/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun 02-28-2006
Dr. Joe Parkins, director of the Greene County School System, confirmed on Monday that two more North Greene High School students were expelled from school recently after a pair of hunting rifles were found in their truck’s locked toolbox while it was parked at the school.
Dr. Parkins said in an interview that he only became aware of the hunting rifle incident last Friday afternoon, although it apparently occurred “about the same time” that another NGHS student was found to have an unloaded 9 mm pistol locked inside his truck at the school on Feb. 16.
The student was expelled and faces charges in Juvenile Court
The Greeneville Sun reported the incident involving the pistol last Friday after a concerned citizen alerted the newspaper to the incident, and a report filed by North Greene’s School Resource Officer (SRO) surfaced at the Greene County Sheriff’s Department.
But no one mentioned that a separate discovery of hunting rifles in a vehicle parked at the school had been made at about the same time.
No report on the second incident had surfaced at the Greene County Sheriff’s Department as of Monday.
Parkins said on Monday afternoon that, unlike the incident involving a pistol, there are no allegations that any threats were made to other students by the two boys whose hunting rifles were found locked in a toolbox in the truck they had used to travel to school.
Parkins said he was told that the hunting rifles were in the toolbox because the two boys had been “working on them.”
Another student apparently became aware that the boys had brought the rifles to school and told an assistant principal, who searched the boys’ truck and found the firearms.
As was the case with the youth in whose truck a pistol was found by school authorities on Nov. 16, Parkins said, the two boys found to have brought hunting rifles to school were expelled from school under the state’s “zero-tolerance” law concerning firearms on school property.
In the case of the two boys in whose truck the hunting rifles were found, Parkins said, he did not know if any criminal charges had been filed in Juvenile Court.
Capt. John Huffine, the Greene County Sheriff’s Department’s chief detective, said on Monday afternoon that he had been unaware of the second recent discovery of firearms at North Greene High School.
But he also noted that he had been unaware of the first incident as well until a reporter raised the issue.
Discipline Hearing Today
Parkins said school authorities, in response to requests from the parents of all three boys, had agreed to convene a meeting of the Greene County School System’s Discipline Hearing Authority (DHA) at 1 p.m. today.
The county director of schools said the DHA is a panel of four school system administrators and a “community member,” who convene to hear discipline cases, determine the severity of the incident involved and make a punishment recommendation to the director of schools.
Parkins explained that once he receives a recommendation from the DHA panel, he can “modify” the year-long expulsions from school to a lesser punishment, if the circumstances justify such an action.
On Monday afternoon, Parkins said he expected that a decision regarding the year-long expulsions of all three students would be made by late this afternoon.
When was the last time a hunting rifle locked in a toolbox harmed anyone? It would help to know if these boys had any track record of abnormal behavior or violence. If they're just a couple of normal good kids that like to do a little hunting, I think the school and law enforcement officials were way out of line.
Every educrat is a thug.
The guns were in a locked SUV. Now do you understand the concern? Armed SUV`s in a school yard? Not in this wacked out America.
How do you "find" anything in a locked box?
Find out who ratter is.
"I loaned those rifles to (ratter) the day before, and I gave him a duplicate key to my toolbox a while back so he could keep things in my toolbox. My friends can verify this. I really liked the guy - why he would try to frame me I'll never know. See? The guy ratted on me, so he couldn't have been a real friend could he? He sure had me fooled."
A little forethought goes a long way.
I graduated in 1960. I always had an SMLE and a double 12 Stevens in my trunk. This was SOP for most male students, and even some of the girls.
I do not look forward to the state of our nation, in the future, with much hope.
Better yet....
When was the last time a gun of any kind harmed anyone?
Hearing about crap like this never fails to disgust me. Zero Tolerance policy need to go away.
WOW!! Hunting rifles in a car!!
If they only had some pot or hard-core pron, they wouldn't be in trouble (Sarcasm)
When I was in school, kids got opening day off to go deer hunting - so did some teachers.
We are teaching an entire generation of kids they can't ever be trusted, and I think it will come and bite us in the a$$ someday...
This is institutional insanity. The kids are also not real astute.
When I went to high school in Nebraska, we use to get in a quick hunt before school started and then go again after school was out.
Funny how I and all my friends had guns and ammo in the trunk or on gun racks in the pickup but no one went crazy with them.
But back then the family were raising children not the village.
When I was in school (when dirt was young) - it was school policy that the school was allowed to search any car in the parking lot. But back then they were looking for evil beer. Half the boys in the senior class had shotguns/rifles in their trucks for hunting after school or just to be one of the macho guys. Columbine left it's mark on the nation's schools and those who wish to imitate the event.
I walked to grade school. Little 2 room country school. 10 grades. I propped my rifle or shotgun in the corner of the classroom, next to the others. Late forties/early fifties.
I had to cross several farms to get there. I had permission to hunt on them all, the same as the neighbors had permission to hunt on ours. Twice as far to walk by road.
dammit! Another fine old southern tradition under attack. How will boys go straight from school to the deer lease when the season is in? They'll have to waste valuable time going home to get their guns.
The flames of absurd oversensitivity to firearms are being fanned by the media. When watching the news at night, I've noticed that virtually every story about crime features the graphic of a gun near the broadcaster's head...it's so incredibly predictable. Ted Nugent similarly noted this phenomenon in his God, Guns, & Rock 'n' Roll book.
One of my concerns is that we're raising a generation of nervous, sissified, and emasculated boys that won't know how to take a stand when one needs to be taken due to insanity like this. Some men in so-called "enlightened" states are very likely to burst out in a sweat...or even start to cry...in the presence of an unloaded firearm.
~ Blue Jays ~
The excuse that they were going to be "working on them" sounds lame. Are they amateur gunsmiths? The people at the school know what kind of reputation these young lads have and if there is nothing to it, then I'd hope they would be able to return to school. Somehow, another student learned that the guns were there. How? We haven't heard the rest of the story.
A family member has more firearms than most small town police departments, and his sons wonder why guns are even necessary. I never would have expected the local schools to instill that attitude in his kids!!!
At my kids' high school (parochial, by the Grace of God) students were allowed to bring weapons to school, but had to check them into the armory during class.
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