Ok..this was interesting....

Cops: 3rd-Graders Aimed to Hurt Teacher -- Police, Georgia -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com



WAYCROSS, Ga. - 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 by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.

"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 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said. A prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.

School officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school, Tanner said.

Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher, Tanner said.

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.

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.

Police expected to forward the results of their investigation to prosecutors, Tanner said.

Children in Georgia can't be charged with a crime unless they are at least 13, District Attorney Rick Currie said.

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.

"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.

OH my, UNBELIEVABLE, 3rd graders plotting like that! The principal, defending how they have good kids....good kids do not plot like terrorist! I agree with the other parents, those kids should be expelled.

I heard about that on the radio this morning......what were those kids thinking

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Brenda

GO #24 JEFF GORDON

what's scary is that these kids knew what items needed to be used to commit this act and that it was planned out to shield others from seeing. It's horrifically sad to see 8 & 9 year olds thinking like criminals...no innocence left is there?

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I agree. And the fact that they were plotting to keep the windows dark and to clean up afterward?! OMG! I'm going to assume they've also been watching stuff on TV which involved all this b/c otherwise, how the hell would they know to do all this?

Suspension?! NO WAY. Expulsion all the way.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

Exactly! Can you imagine 3rd graders knowing about cleaning up after their crime and what gets me more, is the covering up of the windows.... If they learned this from some show, where are the parents...isn't there any parental supervision of tv shows?

I have an 8 yo 3rd grader, we were watching the news this morning when they showed this story and we told her "these are kids your age in the same grade as you". She was shocked that they could even think about doing something like that. I agree, they had to have seen something on TV or wherever to give them the idea on what to do, covering up the windows and cleaning up afterward. My 8yo has problems keeping her stuff picked up, I couldn't imagine her knowing to clean up after something like that. Shocks me completely that the kids doing the attaacking (or planning an attack) just keep getting younger and younger.

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Friends are like butt cheeks.
Crap might separate them,
But they always come back together.

I was shocked when I saw this on the news this morning. Third graders? Seems as though it was the entire class that was in on it because since it was special needs class (ADD, etc), there were only 11 students in the classroom.

These kids should be expelled from school, monitored closely and prosecuted. I don't care how young they are. These kids were going to hurt or even kill this teacher. Lord, if they're doing this at third grade, what in heck will they be doing by the time they're in high school?

Thank goodness for the child who saw the knife and told someone in authority.

I hope none of them can sit down this morning! (Spanking is definitely a yes on this one, and that should just be the beginning, especially if authorities say they can't do anything to them because of their age). Hmmmm.....these kids were young enough to kill but not old enough to prosecute.

Hard to believe that these were only 3rd graders! I have a grandson who is a 3rd grader and he is nothing like these kids.
Our paper said they planned it because she "scolded" one of them.

Yeah, and I wonder what would happen if they had killed her? A slap on the wrist and detention?

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

Not exactly my idea of cooperative learning or group work! WOW! As a teacher, that scares me!

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If you're not living on the edge, you're wasting space.

And people think I'm nuts for homeschooling my 8 yr old dd! I hear way to much of this kind of thing happening in schools to ever feel safe having my dd in a public school. I have many, many reasons for homeschooling, but safety is one of them.

Jenn

My husband and I were talking about it this morning because we have a 3rd grader too. She is 9 also and is nothing like that either.

We firmly believe these children were exposed to something on tv or video games to make them know these tactics. They formed a gang in defense of the one student! It blew my mind that these children would do this but it has to be from some form of exposure. Scary and sad!

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Paula
Some days are diamonds Some days are stone

http://paulajc.mycoupons.com/

It sounds like a couple of the kids were really good at organizing/manipulating their peers. It's scary, but it isn't unusual for kids to do things as a group they wouldn't as individuals. I see some of these kids having long, promising futures as bullies ahead of them.

I remember when my boys were in 4th grade and their assignment was to -- are you ready for this -- to write a story about a murder scene using the following items -- rope, lipstick, knife , baseball bat (there were other items but I can't remember now what they were). This was 1995. We had taught our boys to bring home assignments that they were told NOT to bring home, so they brought the assignment home. I read that assignment and could not believe what I was reading! So I went to the teacher the next day and talked to her about it and she said she didn't believe there was anything wrong with it. It was considered 'creative writing'. I was levid! I can remember telling her that she was actually asking the children to create a murder! Then my DH took it to the principal (who didn't know about the assignment) and DH told him he'd better put a stop to it or the newspapers would hear about it. Needless to say, the assignment was pulled. Our boys knew this assignment was wrong back in 4th grade. My niece, who is a teacher, couldn't believe the assignment and wondered where the teachers had even gotten it.

After that was when we began homeschooling our boys. Things go on in your children's classrooms that you never see. Had our sons not brought this assignment home (after they were told it wasn't to leave the room), we would never had known about it.

What I'm trying to say is things are going on and have been going on for years that you, as parents, don't know about in schools. I'm not saying all teachers are like this. But parents, tell your children to bring home ALL work they do in the classroom. You may get a surprise. Not every bad thing children learn is from TV and video games.

This just scares me... I have had a few students threaten me (well- in previous years parents too), and I always worry that something like this could happen.

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AKA: Airbornearmywife

While I believe that spanking is OK to use at certain times.....I do not believe that this is one of those times.

These children obviously have issues--and I hazard a guess that many of those issues stem from a home life that is less than optimal. These children probably don't have limits and boundaries at home.
I also wonder what kind of abuse (if any) these children have been subjected to. Also, if they are developmentally delayed or have psychological/mental defects, spanking may create more problems.

From what I have heard one child was a ringleader and coerced/manipulated/led the other children. Now, I'm not saying the group as a whole isn't blameless, but if we're dealing w/ children who have learning disabilities and/or mental health diagnosis--it does have to be considered.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"