School violence plot foiled, 3rd graders arrested - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

spectre · 04-01-2008, 06:24 PM

Quote:

<h2> Cops: Third-graders arrested in teacher attack plot</h2>
WAYCROSS, Georgia (AP) -- A 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 Tuesday.

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 8 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 center.

Police seized a steak knife, 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 9 and 10, who brought the knife and paperweight and an 8-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 -- we do whatever and then she stands up and she's OK. That's a hard call."

The parents of the students have cooperated 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.

Martin told The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville, Fla., that administrators would follow school system policy and state law in disciplining the students.

"From what I understand, they were considered pretty good kids," Martin said. "But we have to take this seriously, whether they were serious or not about carrying this through, and that's what we did."

Four mothers of other third-grade students at Center Elementary called for the immediate expulsion of the suspected plotters.

Stacy Carter and Deana Hiott both cited school system policy stating that any student who brings "anything reasonably considered to be a weapon" is to be expelled for at least the remainder of the school year.
advertisement

"We don't want our children around them," Carter told the Times-Union. "The one with the knife could have stabbed my child or someone else's child at lunch or out on the playground."

"This is an isolated incident, an aberration. ... We have good kids," Center Principal Angie Coleman told the newspaper.

I'm just at a total loss here. I was hoping this was just a twisted April Fools' joke, but it's not. Is this seriously how fucked up we've all become that 8-10 year olds are plotting things like this?

I know that the groups that love to blame all violence on popular media (music, movies, videogames, etc.) will pounce on this as soon as possible, making this already screwed up situation into side show that won't solve anything. This leaves the question, how did things get to this point?

Baraka_Guru · 04-01-2008, 06:47 PM

First, the incidence of violence in children isn't new.

Second, would you say violence in children is innate or taught?

If it is innate, what should we do? What are we already doing that should be improved, and what are we not doing?

If it is taught, where do they get it from? (And, again, what should we do?)

alicat · 04-01-2008, 08:12 PM

I'm 36, I like to kid myself that I'm not that old.

I remember being 18 and thinking 30 yr. olds were "mature" and "cool".

When the fuck did 8-10 yr. old's completely skip the puberty mark and jump to violent offender's? I had the same teacher for 3rd. and 4th. grade and he hit me with a paddle that had hole's drilled in it to "reduce" drag as it sailed to my ass.

Nature vs. nuture; who the hell could make heads or tails of it given how fast things change and develop these days? I'm a child of the 80's (gratefully I'm blessed to remember most of the 70's too), and I just can't fathom how fast things and following generation's have matured.

Just call me

Ali

Grancey · 04-01-2008, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alicat

I had the same teacher for 3rd. and 4th. grade and he hit me with a paddle that had hole's drilled in it to "reduce" drag as it sailed to my ass.

You can't paddle children anymore. Basically, you can't discipline them at all. Classroom teachers have no power and are slaves of the parents and the system. Children at school can do whatever the hell they want to do.

Innate or learned? Literature of a century ago was filled with children innately evil. I still believe that, but today there is also much learned "bad" behavior.

QuasiMondo · 04-02-2008, 04:38 AM

I'm all for waterboarding the li'l ones!

The_Jazz · 04-02-2008, 04:42 AM

Further proof that anyone under 25 is crazy. If you're under 25 and say that you're not, you're delusional.

Get off my lawn.

fresnelly · 04-02-2008, 05:00 AM

I think this incident says more about mob mentality and social pressure than an increase in psychotic children.

I suspect that only one or two of these kids have real psychotic problems and the rest were egged on and playing along in fantasy. Would they all have been able to carry this plan through?

I hope this is the case.

Xazy · 04-02-2008, 05:28 AM

Insane totally nuts, and I keep thinking they killed piggy in the back of my mind.

but seriously those kids need therapy, they need discipline they need punishment, and they should be expelled.

highthief · 04-02-2008, 05:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

First, the incidence of violence in children isn't new.

Yup, kids have been doing the Lord of the Flies for a few dozen millenia. Nothing new here, except for the media exposure.

Miss Mango · 04-02-2008, 05:44 AM

On the one hand, itd be pretty insensitive to make up a story like that.

On the other hand, remember, remember, the First of April.

04-01-2008, 06:47 PM	#2 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	First, the incidence of violence in children isn't new. Second, would you say violence in children is innate or taught? If it is innate, what should we do? What are we already doing that should be improved, and what are we not doing? If it is taught, where do they get it from? (And, again, what should we do?) __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

04-01-2008, 08:12 PM	#3 (permalink)
alicat Baffled Location: West Michigan	I'm 36, I like to kid myself that I'm not that old. I remember being 18 and thinking 30 yr. olds were "mature" and "cool". When the fuck did 8-10 yr. old's completely skip the puberty mark and jump to violent offender's? I had the same teacher for 3rd. and 4th. grade and he hit me with a paddle that had hole's drilled in it to "reduce" drag as it sailed to my ass. Nature vs. nuture; who the hell could make heads or tails of it given how fast things change and develop these days? I'm a child of the 80's (gratefully I'm blessed to remember most of the 70's too), and I just can't fathom how fast things and following generation's have matured. Just call me Ali __________________ 'Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun, The frumious Bandersnatch!'--Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll "You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

04-02-2008, 04:38 AM	#5 (permalink)
QuasiMondo Wise-ass Latino Location: Pretoria (Tshwane), RSA	I'm all for waterboarding the li'l ones! __________________ Cameron originally envisioned the Terminator as a small, unremarkable man, giving it the ability to blend in more easily. As a result, his first choice for the part was Lance Henriksen. O. J. Simpson was on the shortlist but Cameron did not think that such a nice guy could be a ruthless killer. -From the Collector's Edition DVD of The Terminator

04-02-2008, 04:42 AM	#6 (permalink)
The_Jazz Asshole Administrator Location: Chicago	Further proof that anyone under 25 is crazy. If you're under 25 and say that you're not, you're delusional. Get off my lawn. __________________ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin "There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

04-02-2008, 05:00 AM	#7 (permalink)
fresnelly Functionally Appropriate Location: Toronto	I think this incident says more about mob mentality and social pressure than an increase in psychotic children. I suspect that only one or two of these kids have real psychotic problems and the rest were egged on and playing along in fantasy. Would they all have been able to carry this plan through? I hope this is the case. __________________ Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life

04-02-2008, 05:28 AM	#8 (permalink)
Xazy People in masks cannot be trusted Location: NYC	Insane totally nuts, and I keep thinking they killed piggy in the back of my mind. but seriously those kids need therapy, they need discipline they need punishment, and they should be expelled.

04-02-2008, 05:44 AM	#10 (permalink)
Miss Mango Psycho	On the one hand, itd be pretty insensitive to make up a story like that. On the other hand, remember, remember, the First of April.