MIDDLE SCHOOL Boy faces charges for violating gun rule

The pupil took a laser that looked similar to a gun to school.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- A 12-year-old boy who brought a gun-shaped laser pointer to Girard Middle School faces criminal charges.
Misdemeanor charges of delinquency by way of aggravated menacing and delinquency by way of illegal conveyance or possession of an object indistinguishable from a firearm in a school zone were filed against the fifth-grade pupil Monday, said Detective John Norman.
It is not known when the boy will be in court because juvenile cases are not made public. The charges will be mailed to the boy's home, and the parents will be notified as to when to bring the child to court, Norman said.
The charges were filed after Norman conferred with Atty. Mike Burnett, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor. Burnett could not be reached for comment.
The boy was sent home from school March 21. School officials could expel the boy. Neither school officials nor the boy's parents could be reached to comment.
According to police reports, during the noon recess at the middle school, two boys went to the school principal, David Leo, and told him that a boy was threatening kids with a gun.
Leo went to the boy and asked if he had a gun. The boy showed the principal a laser pointer that looked like a small handgun.
"The replica was authentic looking and could be easily mistaken as a real gun," the police report stated.
The boy was sent home. No injuries were reported.
Other instance
It was the second time this month a Trumbull County student was sent home due to what school officials felt was a threat against other students.
A 15-year-old Bristol High School student whose mother said he had been picked on by classmates was expelled last week after teachers found a "hit list" he had written, according to a Trumbull County Sheriff's Department report.
School officials could not be reached to comment. The list contained three names written under the words, "people I want to kill." A girl and two boys were on the list. Terry Balla, the principal at the high school, turned the note over to the sheriff's department.
The boy's mother told police that her son wrote the note because he was being picked on at school. The boy has not been charged. The sheriff's report also stated that school officials told the boy's parents that he must get counseling before he can return to school.
sinkovich@vindy.com