The teens were charged with grand theft and possession of a firearm. They were being held at the Juvenile Justice Center in Fort Pierce.

 A deputy and a sergeant found the stolen guns including a .45-caliber Taurus handgun and a .380 ACP handgun.

Teen allegedly attacked security guard at school – what if the student attacked another student or a teacher.  Wouldn’t you want someone at the school to be able to protect them if they were not able to protect themselves?

The student, whose name was not released because he is charged as a juvenile, was pepper sprayed by officers trying to restrain him, Jackson police spokeswoman Colendula Green said.

Police were called to the school around 8:30 a.m., because of a student exhibiting “violent behavior,” according to a statement by Jackson Public Schools.

The student allegedly assaulted the school security guard and broke the guard’s glasses, Green said. The student ran from the guard down a hallway where other school employees tried to stop him.

“He started fighting everyone,” Green said.

Neither Green nor JPS officials provided a motive for the student’s actions. No other students were involved in the incident, according to JPS.

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urors have awarded a former Gloucester High School student $5 million for permanent injuries he suffered in a 2006 lunchtime fight.

The jury on Friday also awarded Gregory Gagnon interest dating back to the fight, which could increases the award by $1 million.

In awarding the damages, the jury determined that a student who threw the punch and an assistant principal should pay the majority of the damages.

Medical experts for Gagnon said he has permanent, traumatic epilepsy and impaired sleep and other brain-related disorders as a result of the punch and subsequent fall.

www.hamptonroads.com

• Intended Consequences.  Here the youths were placed in juvenile detention centers, but then released to community programs within days and were back in court shortly afterwards.
• Unintended Consequences.  The article deals withe unintended consequences on the youths whose behavior is not altered, and the effect on the community where youths are not getting the education they deserve because  classes are getting disrupted.

While no one is arguing that  youth should be placed in least restrictive settings when possible, the reality is that not all youths should be in community settings. This story outlines what happens to the programs and schools dealing with youths that need to be in a different setting.  The comments to this story shows how other children and youth are getting shortchanged.

Violent kids testing juvenile judicial system in Memphis area:

There are still more than 1,000 violent offenses each year blamed on juveniles. TN Court officials say they’re worried too many menacing minors are being returned to the community too early.

This summer, teenagers were charged with gang-raping a toddler, stabbing two girls inside a mall, scalding an infant, shooting a man during a carjacking, busting a victim’s head open during an armed robbery and assaulting a teacher.

Area youths have committed 702 violent crimes so far this year, court records show.

Five of the incidents left five victims dead, said Memphis police Lt. Mark Miller.

Juvenile Court officials say the state’s not set up to properly deal with violent young offenders.

In serious cases that don’t merit transfer to an adult court, judges often place minors in the custody of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.

Then, DCS officials decide if the minor should be sent to one of the state’s five secured youth detention centers, enrolled in a rehabilitation or specialty program, or sent to a group or foster home. If the youth is placed in a home, it puts them right back into the community.

From August 2008 to August 2009, 379 juvenile offenders from Shelby County were put in DCS custody, Scroggs said. Of those, about 34 percent committed new offenses either during custody or after being released, he said.

In another TN County DCS placed two troubled teenagers in the same foster home, it was a deadly combination.

Repeat offender Jeffrey Byrd Johnson Jr., 15, and admitted gang member James Earl Garrett Jr., 17, wanted to blow their curfews and meet some girls on New Year’s Eve. When their foster mother wouldn’t allow it, they used a gun to get the final say.

Foster mom Mary Clark, 39, and her mother-in-law, Gail Clark, 66, were fatally shot in the head.

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These TN incidents are not isolated, they are happening in other states where the youths that are not ready are being placed into community settings.

D.C. Death Toll: 7 wards slain, 10 wards charged with murder

NY. Group Home Murder, Near riots, and AWOLS from improper placement

No Tape of Incident Exists as School Bus Camera Was Not Working During Beating

The Mount Juliet school district worked recently to increase security on its buses, but a camera wasn’t working when the fight occurred.

Kathy Kilpatrick’s 14-year-old daughter was beaten by another teenager while on a Wilson County school bus, she said, but no tape of the incident exists. The ninth grader, Kendall, received a bloody forehead, which required 10 stitches.

The bus was headed to Wilson Central High School when Kendall said the other female student, whom she had argued with days before, started beating her.

“I didn’t push her. I may have touched her a little bit, and then she just threw the first punch and kept going,” said Kendall.

Kendall was suspended for one day. The other student, a 16-year-old, was suspended for five days and won’t be allowed to ride the school bus for a month. But Kendall’s mother said she isn’t satisfied and wants the other girl kicked out of school.

“There needs to be bullying laws in place. It’s absolutely ridiculous that our children have to go to school and be subject to this kind of violence on the school bus,” said Kathy Kilpatrick.

The school bus camera wasn’t working, so the punishments were based on what school officials were told.

A substitute school bus driver was at the wheel when the incident occurred, and the school system said that a mistake was made.

“The cameras have to be loaded and locked down, and for some reason, that device had not been locked down so it could record. That has been corrected,” said schools director Mike Davis.

Kilpatrick has filed assault charges against the child involved in the attack. Kendall said she won’t change schools because she likes Wilson Central High School.

http://www.wsmv.com/news/24858860/detail.html

Reading Eagle Company W E E U American House of Fritztown & Pappy G’s Tavern

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An 18-year-old man was hit in the head with a brick after several fights erupted near Reading’s new Citadel intermediate high school shortly after students were dismissed Thursday afternoon, police said.

The victim suffered a cut to the side of his head and was taken to Reading Hospital, city police said. They did not release his name, so information on his condition could not be obtained.

The suspect, a 15-year-old city boy whose name police did not release because he is a juvenile, was committed to the Berks County Youth Center in Bern Township on aggravated assault and related charges.

Police were in the area watching students leave the school at the site of the former St. Joseph Medical Center at 12th and Walnut streets when several fights erupted.

Police said the main fight was near 10th and Walnut.

Several other fights broke out in the area about the same time.

According to investigators:

Officers got a description of the boy with the brick and spotted him in the 800 block of Buttonwood Street.

They chased him several blocks through yards, alleys and breezeways. They took him into custody in a yard in the 1000 block of Walnut Street.

At least one other person may have been injured in the main fight, but police did not have any other details.

The fights happened just two days after the $80 million school opened for classes.

The school has 300 rooms and was designed to serve 3,000 ninth- and 10th-graders.

It was also intended to help alleviate overcrowding at Reading High School a few blocks away.

Police said they do not know if the boy who was arrested or the others in the fight are students at the new school.

Police said the only other problem they’ve encountered since the school opened is with traffic on 12th Street near the old emergency room entrance to the hospital, which went from a one-way to a two-way street.

www.readingeagle.com

A fight between two students at Westlake Middle School in Apex Monday ended with a girl being tased.

Police say they tried to break up the fight themselves at first, but they were unsuccessful.

Cary Deputy Police Chief Barry Nickalson says the school’s resource officer tried talking to the girl, using pressure points to loosen her grip, even tried to pry her arm loose, but when none of that worked he used a taser.

“He deployed it and immediately it was effective,” Nickalson said.

Police say if the officer did not step in, the girl may have killed a little boy.

“Our victim was basically dangling from being choked,” Nickalson said. “The way we see this, is we saved a life yesterday as a result of using this tool. Other techniques were just not effective.”

However, some are skeptical about the actions that were taken.

“How big was the child that was tasered,” parent Noel Myricks said. “I think all parents would hope that the person who tasered the child exercised good judgment.”

“I think they could have like, pulled her off the kid,” said Joe Goolden, a high school junior. “It’s a middle school student; she couldn’t have been that strong.”

But the police chief disagrees.

“Sometimes people have superhuman strength and that doesn’t necessarily depend on your age or your size or your build,” Nickalson said.

He says the use-of-force policy at schools for Cary police is no different from the policy they use on the streets.

It’s the same with every other agency which provides SRO’s to schools. Currently, there is no system-wide policy on use of force.

The policy for use-of-force at Wake schools is currently set by the town or city the school is located in.

The director for Wake County schools says that’s the way it needs to be.

“I don’t feel like we’re in a position to tell them how to operate their police departments,” the director said.

However, Wake County School Board Chairman Ron Margiotta says he thinks there should be more uniformity between schools and says the board will take a look at that down the road.

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Seven units responded to WHS at 12:51 p.m. for a report of a fight that broke out during a game of handball. Police are still investigating what prompted the fight but WPD Sgt. Anthony Cucchi said three boys, all around the age of 15, attacked another boy. The victim suffered a bump on his head that required no medical attention.

Associate superintendent Mike Stevens said vice principal Christy Gardner was the first to respond and was able to separate the boys before the cops arrived.

Stevens said all four of the boys involved in the altercation were suspended and two face expulsion because they have been in trouble in the past.

When police responded about 14 kids from a nearby P.E. class were watching the fight and had to be separated by police.

Story

www.dailydemocrat.com

The victim told police she was attacked about 4:30 p.m. at the corner of Burr Oak Lane and Hollowside Drive after the other student sent her text messages threatening to kill her and beat her up with a baseball bat.

According to a police report, the tension culminated in a fight witnessed by about 30 students. The report said the female offender grabbed the other girl by the hair, ripping some of it out, and punched her in the face before slamming her head on the ground and kicking her in the stomach. Police said the fight ended when another student pulled the offender off the victim.

According to the police report, the victim was left with a bald spot on her head, cuts on her knees and knuckles, a split lip and injuries to her forehead.

Police said calls to the suspected offender, and knocks on her door, were unanswered or ignored.

Comment: Maybe the principal should look into whether any of those threatening text messages were sent during school hours.

Story

www.dailyherald.com

“My friend’s brother told me he wanted a one-on-one. So I waited till school to start, and after lunch, started a fight,” said Latravis Vinson, a 15-year-old who was taken to juvenile court Tuesday.

He said that he “wasn’t thinking,” and that he’s learned a “good lesson” from this experience, which caused him and six others to be suspended for up to 180 days, on top of criminal charges.

“Stupid. Got kicked out of school. It’s a stupid decision,” he said.

Vinson said he wasn’t the one brought the knife to school. Even with the dangers involved and now the consequences at hand, he said he does not have anything to say to the other boys involved in the fight.

His mother said the school has yet to tell her what happened. She had to call her son’s cell phone to see why he hadn’t come home on time before she found out he was in trouble.

The mother of another student said she would have like to see authorities handle the situation differently. Missouri Milam is the mother of 18-year-old Kenny Lockheart, who was arrested on charges of assault with bodily injury and inciting to riot.

“I found my son, along with several more young men that go to school up there, in handcuffs,” Milam said.

She said that Lockheart has a learning disability and would not be fully aware of what was going on. Her understanding of the situation is that Lockheart was walking out of the cafeteria when he was hit.

She does not think her son should have been charged. “My child ain’t no saint. You know, I know all children got their own ways, but I know the way this was handled could have been better than the way it was.”

“I really don’t think that’s right. They should have found out from everybody who started it, what it was for, and why,” she said.

Neither Vinson nor Lockheart’s mother said that they were involved in gangs, but the reports show gang affiliations for all the detained suspects.

Memphis City Schools said that they normally run metal detector tests for all students entering at the start of school, 7:30am, until about 9:00am. Occasional random checks are made after that point, but it’s possible the student with the knife arrived on campus later Tuesday morning.

Memphis City Schools says they’re working with police to try and keep campuses safe and to curb or eliminate gang culture.