HUBBARD SCHOOLS 2 teen girls face weapons charges

Both pupils have been expelled for having weapons.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Two teenage girls were charged Wednesday with taking weapons onto Hubbard school property.
Amanda Taylor, 17, of Liberty Road, and Kayla Ritenour, 13, of Franklin Avenue, are each charged with conveyance of a deadly weapon on school property.
The charges were filed by Sgt. James Taafe in Trumbull County Family Court. If convicted of the felonies, the teens could be sentenced to terms from probation to confinement in a juvenile facility until age 21.
Both were immediately suspended from their respective schools in the separate occurrences by Superintendent Richard Buchenic and have since been expelled.
Taylor and Ritenour have the right to appeal their expulsions to the board of education, Buchenic noted.
Charges
Taylor is charged with having a loaded .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol in the family car that was parked at Hubbard High School on Sept. 28. The pistol belongs to her father.
School officials had received information that Taylor, a senior, supposedly had the gun in the car, and police were called to the school. The firearm was found inside the vehicle.
Taylor told authorities that she wanted the gun for protection while visiting friends in Youngstown's housing projects.
Ritenour, an eighth-grader, is charged with taking a folded knife with a 3-inch blade into Reed Middle School on Oct. 6.
According to police reports, administrators at the school called the pupil into the office and the knife was taken from her.
Taafe said the girl told police she accidentally brought the knife to school.
Buchenic has said that the school administration has a zero tolerance for weapons' being brought onto school property and that such situations are considered serious offenses.
The superintendent declined to comment on the length of the expulsions.
A spokesman for the Ohio Board of Education said that in cases of a firearm found on school property, federal law requires a mandatory one-year expulsion. In the case of a knife, the length of expulsion is on a case-by-case basis.