Police: 3rd graders plot to attack teacher
WAYCROSS, Ga. (AP) - April 2, 2008 That led the third-graders, as many as nine boys and girls, to
plot an attack on the teacher at Center Elementary School in south
Georgia.
Police Chief Tony Tanner said the students apparently planned to
knock the teacher unconscious with a glass paperweight, bind her
with handcuffs and duct tape and then stab her with a broken steak
knife.
The scheme involved a division of roles, Tanner said. One
child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, and
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.
School officials had alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped
off a teacher that a girl had taken a weapon to school.
Tanner said the teacher told detectives the children 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 purported target teaches third-grade students with learning
disabilities, including attention deficit disorder, delayed
development and hyperactivity, friends and parents 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.
"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."
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 they face charges of
conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, and both girls are being
charged with taking 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.
School system policy says any student who brings "anything
reasonably considered to be a weapon" is to be expelled for at
least the remainder of the school year.