Authorities Say Boy, 12, Took Firearm To Ball Game

By: Claire Galofaro | TriCities.com
Published: September 19, 2009

BLUFF CITY, Tenn. – A Sullivan County sixth-grader is accused of taking a gun to a middle school football game Tuesday evening and threatening to shoot another student in a fit of unrequited love.
The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office said the 12-year-old showed other middle-school students a small, rusty revolver with a blue frame, and said he was going to kill another boy, whom the girl he liked had a crush on.
The football game was at Bluff City Middle School. The following morning, several students reported the incident to the school counselor, who called Jeff Boling, one of four school resource officers with the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office.
The suspect is a student at Mary Hughes Middle School in Piney Flats.
Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Lisa Christian said the gun and its owner have not been found.
A petition was filed in Bristol Juvenile Court, and the boy will have a hearing at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 26.
No one from the middle school or the Sullivan County Department of Education could be reached by phone Friday for comment.
Rachel Woods, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education, said weapons of any kind are part of the statewide Zero Tolerance policy, which requires schools to expel offending students for at least one year and report all violations to the state education department.
Zero Tolerance includes guns, other weapons, drugs, alcohol and battery of a teacher or staff member.
Between 2004 and 2008, between 4,000 and 5,000 offenses were committed each year in the state of Tennessee, and at least half of those were drug-related. In the 2007-08 school year, there were 59 incidents that involved a firearm, and 134 the previous school year.
But between 2004 and 2008, no guns were reported in Sullivan County schools, according to reports by the state Department of Education.
Christian said the two boys in the local incident went to different schools, and she did not think they knew each other.
She added that the incident highlights the necessity of school resource officers, who focus primarily on high schools to educate, mentor and build good relationships with students.
cgalofaro@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2531

Authorities Say Boy, 12, Took Firearm To Ball Game

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