Boy, 11, arrested for having nails at school

The Herald ^ | 05.25.05 | Rebecca Sulock

[Coleus]

A school resource officer arrested an 11-year-old Rawlinson Road Middle School student Wednesday after the boy went to school with 10 nails in his pocket. The boy produced the three-and-a-half-inch-long nails after Dianne McCray, the school's assistant principal, asked about a jingling sound in his right pocket. McCray asked to see what was in his pocket, and he gave her the nails.

The boy first said the nails were from a project about 10 days before, according to the police report. He then said the nails were for self-defense because a suspicious man had been seen in his neighborhood. He also said he needed the nails for a Boy Scout outing this weekend, the report said.

He was charged with having an unlawful weapon but was not taken to the police station; his father picked him up from school. The Herald is not identifying the boy because of his age.

The boy had the nails from an earlier scouting trip, his father said, and noticed them in his pocket after putting on a pair of pants he had not worn since the trip.

"They were not to be used as a weapon at school," the boy's father said.

McCray then called in school resource officer Ashley Doster, who sought charges against the boy.

State law says anything that can be construed or used as a weapon on school grounds can be classified as unlawful, said Lt. Jerry Waldrop of the Rock Hill Police Department.

"I'm not second-guessing the officer that made the charge," Waldrop said. "The nails could have been used against other students. The juvenile with them did state he had them for protection against a suspicious male in the neighborhood."

But the boy's father said his son did not threaten anyone with the nails, did not do anything violent, and had no intentions to use the nails as a weapon.

"Is a pencil a weapon? Is a pen a weapon? Is a paperclip a weapon?" the father asked. "I think this whole charge is ridiculous."

The decision to have the boy arrested was made by the school's administrators, said Rock Hill school district spokeswoman Elaine Baker, who did not know specifically why the decision was made.

"The information I read was that the student didn't bring the nails to harm anybody," Baker said. "They were left in there (the pocket) from something else."

McCray did not return several phone calls from The Herald.

[wolficatZ]

I remember when I was a kid the Marines "invaded" Sullivan's Island with LST's and fought a wargame for 4 or 5 days.

Kids were bringing belts of 7.62 M-60 blank ammo to school they had found in the sand dunes.

Those were the days..

[Coleus]

let me know what they say.

[Coleus]

Are you a title Nazi?