Boy, 10, totes BB gun to fend off school bullies, gets charged with a crime, say Ohio cops

By: Barry Leibowitz
Topics: Daily Blotter

Elmwood Place Elementary School in suburban Cincinnati

/ stbernard.hccanet.org

(CBS/AP) CINCINNATI - A 10-year-old boy was charged with inducing panic after telling police that he brought a BB gun to school, to intimidate students who bullied him because he wears ankle braces and is small for his age, authorities said Wednesday.

The boy, who was charged with the delinquency count Monday after police were called to an elementary school in the suburban Cincinnati village of Elmwood Place, also told police that some boys "stuffed him in a trash can" about a year ago, police Sgt. Kevin Vanover said. Vanover said that incident apparently was not reported to police.

The principal of Elmwood Place Elementary School called police Monday afternoon around the time school was being dismissed to report that at least five children saw the boy with the gun, and some of them thought it was a firearm. One child said the boy had told him that if he told anyone about the gun, he would shoot that person, according to the police report.

Vanover noted that the BB gun's orange plastic tip had been broken "and it did look real."

The boy, whose name was not released, remained in his mother's custody Wednesday while awaiting a Hamilton County Juvenile Court hearing on the charge, Vanover said. No date had been set for that hearing.

Vanover said the boy told them he had gotten the gun from his mother, who apparently did not know he had it. She said that the boy's uncle had broken the tip off.

The boy initially told police that he didn't have a gun, but then said he did have it in his backpack and showed it to a few students, according to the police report. He was then taken to his mother's home, where she handed the weapon over to police.

The St. Bernard-Elmwood Place School District released a statement saying that federal and state law prohibits school officials from discussing any specifics.

District officials intend "to fully investigate the allegations made regarding all of the students involved" to determine any violations of school regulations, according to the statement.

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by rwsmith29456 April 19, 2012 11:30 PM EDT: Go ahead and charge him with a crime, but whatever sentence you give the handicapped boy, give the bullies twice that.; Reply to this comment


by smittyc April 19, 2012 10:24 PM EDT: The family needs to get an attorney and sue the school and the school leadership. Stuffing a physically handicapped kid in a trash can is wrong and the students and teachers all knew it happened, and if they didn't know, they should have. The safety of those children is entrusted to the school and the teachers while they are in school. The article is a pitiful display of what is wrong with the schools.; Reply to this comment


by REDGUN53 April 19, 2012 9:30 PM EDT: Kids have lost their God-given and Constitutionally stated right to self defense in the school system. If a kid fights back they get kicked out with the bully, thereby screwing up (usually) their academics. This right needs to be returned, blanket expulsions should be against the law. I argued with a *&%($ principal in Phoenix when my child was jumped (he had been warned by his friends) and defended himself. He was kicked out for a week destroying his academic progress. The bullies don't care, and the principal explained to me how the Constitution didn't apply because the police told them so. Later my boy brings home the school rule booklet (at the end of the semester) that explained the TEACHERs' right to self-defense. So the adult teachers could punch a kid that attacked them but the kids can't defend themselves. This country needs to do an about face on several issues and response to bullying/physical attack should be one of them. Why did a bunch of terrorists believe they could intimidate aircraft passengers with box-cutters, could it be because we are being trained to be passive sheep and allow big brother to have the sole legal use of physical force even in defense of our persons? Time for change is slipping away one freedom at a time. In my era when we got caught fighting we were sent to the gym, put on the gloves and finished the fight with teacher supervision.; Reply to this comment


by Dukme April 19, 2012 9:09 PM EDT: Release the boy and hold the Principal/parents of the bullies accountable.; Reply to this comment

by gottasay2u April 19, 2012 7:33 PM EDT

Hurting the weak and innocent is cowardly behavior and socially destructive. Bullies need to be ostracized and constrained to special education classes for the misfits they are. They don't belong in the general school population.

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by earlysaid April 19, 2012 8:41 PM EDT: Poor child. He should be protected from these bullies and mean creeps harming him. His actions are desperation pure and simple. Enough is enough - protect all children in our schools from bullies.

by ftsumner1 April 19, 2012 6:56 PM EDT

It's really nice to see that so many people understand how this kid was driven to take such actions, and don't blame HIM for trying to protect himself. Where are the parents of all of these bullies? Maybe if they were all horsewhipped...?

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by livingtxlife April 19, 2012 10:23 PM EDT: Head in the sand - I see very few known bully parents volunteering and engaging with others at the school.


by Henri_Rochard April 19, 2012 6:33 PM EDT: So now is the kid with the BB gun gonna get beat to crap and paralysed like the kid I read about earlier in the week ??; Reply to this comment


by John782011 April 19, 2012 5:51 PM EDT: A classmate of my graddaughter in kindergarten learned that there will always be someone bigger or stronger than the bully. Her friend was being bullied and the teacher kept interceding. The bully persisted and my granddaughter who is sweet, but a head taller than her classmates proceded to put the bully to the ground(just a little push). When the bully cried to the teacher she said now you know what it feels like. The boy does not bully her friends any more.; Reply to this comment

by Overruled1 April 19, 2012 5:30 PM EDT

When did BB guns' become weapons?
Sure it's possible to shoot an eye with it, but it won't kill ya.
I might break the skin if you held it up close to the body.

I think the young boy is more like a man now.
I agree that the school is a failure to protect him, so he acted to protect himself...Good for him.

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by j_mcdonald-2009 April 19, 2012 8:56 PM EDT: My uncle was killed by a BB gun when he was about 3 years old, back in the 30's. The pellet went through his temple, lodged in his brain, and he died a few days later.


by livingtxlife April 19, 2012 10:26 PM EDT: Good lord, Mcdonald. Maybe they made them with more firepower in the 30's.


by fraudr April 19, 2012 5:05 PM EDT: My son, who, like this kid, attends a Cincinnati-area public school and has a physical disability that made him vulnerable to bullies, was emotionally and physically battered from roughly third grade through sixth. They tripped him, punched him, held him down on the bus and highlighted him, stomped his (orthopedically braced) feet, attacked him in the bathroom, and verbally abused him with insults and threats of more violence. The school never did anything substantial about any of this. They always found a way to blame the victim. When he was younger, it was "he's got to toughen up." When he was older, they said it was clear that he was that he was clearly socially anxious, and nervous, and always worried (I wonder why), so of course kids targeted him. The main bully when he was in third and fourth grade, incidentally, went on to sexually assault classmates in fifth grade, so its not just a matter of dealing with individual cases, but in identifying and stopping behavior patterns that will lead to more and worse things later. So in the case of this kid, I understand the terror, the fear, the awfulness of going to school every day and knowing that there isn't anyone there looking out for you in the least. I am sorry he brought a bb gun to school, but he's ten, and should not be charged with a crime for a failure that is, in the end, everyone's but his. And I am infuriated that the cops keep bringing up that he didn't report the most violent incident of bullying to the police. Good luck with that, you know? That's not an option on anyone's radar when something like that is going on.; Reply to this comment