Posted on 05/02/2013 2:39:31 PM PDT by grundle
Princeton, N.C. — The Princeton High School community is rallying around a student who was arrested and expelled for having an unloaded shotgun in his car in the school's parking lot.
David Cole Withrow, 16, was charged Monday with bringing a weapon on educational property, which is a felony. He was expelled from school and won't be allowed to graduate with his class later this month.
Withrow, an Eagle Scout and honors student, accidentally left his gun in the car after skeet shooting over the weekend. When he realized, he went inside to ask school officials if he could leave campus to take the gun home, but an administrator reported the weapon to police.
"To have him arrested and expelled from school is excessive," she said. "He locks his vehicle, goes inside and tries to do the right thing."
Others in the Princeton High community agree that Withrow's punishment is too harsh, especially after charges weren't filed when a loaded gun was found in an assistant principal's car two years ago. The assistant principal and a school resource officer were each suspended for three days without pay in that incident.
Johnston County schools spokeswoman Tracey Peedin Jones said the school system has to follow state law regarding weapons on campus.
Students have been painting "Free Cole" on their cars and a local printer even designed a "Free Cole for Doing the Right Thing" bumper sticker.
"I believe he did the right thing by being truthful and being honest," said Joseph Canzaniello of Express Signs. "His integrity will be held intact no matter what happens to him."
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
Wouldn’t happen with all the extremist libtard students in Princeton, NJ; they’d have hung him already. (I lived just north in Hillsborough, for 17yrs)
We used to go hunting all the time. One year we drove into school with a woodchuck tied to the roof of our car. That was all we shot. There were six rifles in the car. Nobody but the woodchuck was in danger.
They should by fired.
Unfortunately, they do teach "values" - all the wrong values.
The American way to deal with this is to purge - at the ballot box - the elected officials in charge of the school district.
They are afraid of being sued by a minority (minority in the national sense) because a white honors student is let off the hook while the minority student is expelled. I don’t know why they can’t let principals and teachers make judgement calls on these things.
But his and his classmates respect for authority will suffer. Perhaps that is an intended consequence of zero tolerance.
After class, several friends and I would go to the trunks of our cars and put on hunting over-clothes. We would then take our shotguns and go to the gym, where the gym teach would take his shotgun out of his locker.
The whole crew of us would walk through the school, out the front door to a big field across the street. Lots of pheasants in those days. We all would do pretty good most of the time.
Only thing ever said by the principle was “boys, be sure those weapons are broke open.”
It wasn’t out of the ordinary.
One thing about all this: when he remembered the shotgun, why not just plead illness and go home?
Or if he remembered when he first got there, turn around and go home!
Being “late” for class is still just a slap on the wrist.
Born in 1917, my mother rode a horse to school in Medina, Ohio. She said it was normal that boys road in with a rifle in their saddle holster. The guns sat outside with the horses all day while the boys were in school. The boys would then hunt dinner on their ride home.
Boys and men are being kept at a lower maturity by our new social masters. In the Civil War boys as young as six went into battle or became breadwinners for the family while dad fought.
We have this in us, yet people are children by law up to 26; the age where your parents can finally stop paying your insurance. What have we become? Where will it end?
I frequently had a rifle or other gun in my car in high school, the school had no policies regarding such things back then.
Lesson to all the other students: if you bring your gun to school and leave it in the car, don’t tell anybody.
Same here
70s...early
High school...hunting. before and after school
Hence guns in vehicle at school
In college had them in dorm
We all did
Culture rotted and libs clamp. down
And libs caused the rot
The principal knew guns were not a problem.
Same here
70s...early
High school...hunting. before and after school
Hence guns in vehicle at school
In college had them in dorm
We all did
Culture rotted and libs clamp. down
And libs caused the rot
I was a High School shooter, fired thousands of rounds in the school. Because that’s where the range was.
The libs ARE the rot
Sadly, this is probably true.
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