School official confirms another elementary weapon incident

SHEILA MATHEWS :::

An official of the Griffin-Spalding County School System has confirmed that another weapon incident occurred today.

According to Superintendent Curtis Jones, the student was in possession of a pocket knife.

Although he declined to identify which school was involved, or even if it was in the city of Griffin or outlying Spalding County, Jones did confirm the incident involved a male fifth-grade student.

While not reporting the exact disciplinary action taken against the student, Jones did say, “He’s getting the upper level of our disciplinary matrix.”

For elementary school students, the maximum punishment currently possible is a ten-day suspension, and when asked if that was the discipline administered, Jones said, “Somewhere around there.”

He did say the appropriate law enforcement agency was notified, as is required by both state and federal law.

The Grip later identified the involved school as Moreland Road Elementary School, and learned the student was ten-years-old.

Spalding County Sheriff Wendell Beam said a school resource officer was alerted to the weapon incident and subsequently took possession of the knife.

Beam said the deputy then initiated the process of filing a juvenile petition against the boy.

“For a juvenile, rather than taking a warrant, you file a juvenile complaint form and it serves as an official document charging the juvenile with a crime,” he explained. “The Juvenile Court process is the same way State or Superior Court processes a warrant.”

Beam said he is uncertain if the Moreland Road Elementary School student has been processed, but if it was not done today, he anticipates that will take place no later than tomorrow. That process includes being fingerprinted and photographed at the Sheriff’s Office.

The student is facing a single felony charge of possession of a weapon on public school property.

This is the fifth time a officials have identified a student in possession of a weapon since the beginning of the 2013-2014 school term. Four of those five incidents have occurred in local elementary schools.