Show-and-Tell Item Evacuates School

The Winchester Star ^ | Tuesday, May 11, 2004 | Laura Arenschield

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Show-and-Tell Item Evacuates School

By Laura Arenschield
The Winchester Star

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What one Frederick County student thought would be an innocent way to show a teacher a part of history turned into a major disruption at Robert E. Aylor Middle School in Stephens City on Monday afternoon.

About 1,000 people were evacuated from the building after school officials discovered a seventh-grader had brought an artillery shell to school.

“Any time you see something like that, you never know the shape or condition it’s in, if it’s a live round or not,” Aylor Principal Donald Williams said. “The student brought it to school to show his civics teacher.”

But before the student reached civics class, another teacher saw the shell — it is nearly a foot long — and notified school administrators.

They evacuated the building and called the Frederick County Fire and Rescue Department.

Fire and Rescue Capt. Tim Welsh examined the shell and notified the Army.

“We don’t know what this is, so we’re treating it as an explosive,” he said. “We called in the Explosive Ordinance Division of the Army.”

Williams guessed that the shell was used by the Army during World War I.

He said the student would be disciplined for bringing the shell to school, but would not face formal criminal charges.

The shell belonged to a relative of the student, Williams said.

Welsh said the shell would not be returned: “This is the property of the Army. He shouldn’t have had it to start with.”

The relative will not face criminal charges, Welsh said.

Before military officials arrived at the school, county Fire and Rescue teams removed the detonation device from the top of the shell, Welsh said.

But they didn’t open it up to see if it could have been live.

“The young man who brought it to school said he opened it up last night and there was nothing in it,” Welsh said.

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This was obviously an old shell that his family has had around the house for decades. What a stupid reaction by these ignorant goons.

[riverrunner]

I most likely was a deactived one that was sold off as surplus. They stole this familys property the family should be compensated.

What I find is that the government wants every body to be scared. So all the sheeple are willing to report their neighbors for the most simple things.

[ovrtaxt]

Right. Can't you buy these at the local Army/Navy store? They also sell blowguns that are far more dangerous-- you can put an eye out! </christmas story>

[Jalapeno]

What a stupid reaction by these ignorant goons.

I disagree. They would be stupid to take a chance and let the school blow up. 'Old shell' or not, kids don't necessarilly make smart choices. What if it had explosives and he took it without the family's permission...

Hindsight is 20/20, but as the article says, they didn't know what it really was, and so they took the cautious route. They should be commended.

[ovrtaxt]

He opened it up the night before. He's probably done it dozens of times. All he had to do was take it apart. These officials were overreacting to make an anti-gun news story.

[ChefKeith]

But in trade they will give Him a complimenty "I'm Gay, and proud of it" t-shirt and 6 weeks of "sensitivity training" from the anti-gun crowd...

[ChefKeith]

This kid has more common sense that the school does, IMO.

[ChefKeith]

that=than

(time to go to bed... must sleep,must sleep,must sleep.)

[ovrtaxt]

Hehe-- 'I went to an intramural circle jerk and all I got was this lousy t shirt!' Class rings, yearbooks and bookcovers also available.

[Jalapeno]

All he had to do was take it apart. These officials were overreacting to make an anti-gun news story.

The school called the fire department. The fire department escalated the situation. I don't think the school was trying to make an anti-gun statement at all.

And in regards to caution, if I hand you a gun I need you to clean and tell you it's not loaded, do you trust me, or do you check? If I was the teacher, and a kid walked in with an 'old artillery shell' that I did not know was coming to school that day, I don't think I would ask him to open it in front of me to prove it wouldn't explode.

[ovrtaxt]

Again, total overreaction. These things are floating around all over the place. People use old grenades for paperweights!

These leftist teachers are afraid because they are ignorant, plain and simple. They are completely uneducated about this sort of thing.

If you take a gun safety class, your fear of guns is greatly reduced. Amazing how that works.

[tomakaze]

overreaction to say the least.

[Adder]

Commended?
Not hardly...
After determining there was little or no danger, they refuse to return the item, the student is "punished" and the "authorities" are shown to be weak kneed buffoons who didn't want to open the shell up tho the student did so and stated it was empty.
What a ridiculous and simpering over reaction to a relatively simple situation by the "authorities".

[Skooz]

My grandfather was an old army artillery guy and he had shells of various sizes all over his house.

What a ridiculous over reaction.

[JZoback]

“The young man who brought it to school said he opened it up last night and there was nothing in it,” Welsh said.

That fact this kid was a middle school student means he somewhere between 10 and 14 years of age.

Give him a little credit that he was telling the truth

[fso301]

Without pictures, it's tough to say what the correct response by school officials should have been. I remember some kids who found a 40mm Bofors round on a nearby gunnery range. They brought it to school and attempted to remove the fuze in shop class. The HE round detonated killing several of them.

[stainlessbanner]

"Some men are Baptists...others Catholics...My father was an Oldsmobile man."

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"Hey, guys! Lets go hang out at the local gunnery range! Ooh, look at the pretty shell! "

Now those kids were just stupid. How much you want to bet that none of their parents taught them anything about guns?

[Born Conservative]

if I hand you a gun I need you to clean and tell you it's not loaded, do you trust me, or do you check?

My father in law helps out a friend who owns a gun shop, and he tells me you would not believe the people that bring guns in for repairs, with a round in the chamber.

I agree with you; the artillery shell needed to be checked out by professionals, and I don't think the school over-reacted. And why would the parents let him take this in without checking with the school first?

[Quick1]

If you take a gun safety class, your fear of guns is greatly reduced.

If I point a gun at you, and simply tell you that it's unloaded, you don't fear it? I'd bet you would want to check it yourself. Since the kid didn't tell anyone that he was bringing the shell to school, it wasn't an overreaction. People may use grenades as paperweights, but I would bet that they MAKE SURE the grenades are deactivated first.