Warren pupils in custody after knife episode on bus

WARREN – Two McGuffey K-8 School pupils are in the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center after one took a knife onto a school bus and his brother kicked the bus driver when he attempted to retrieve it, police say.

The 11-year-old Austin Avenue boy who had the eight-inch-long knife is charged with carrying a concealed weapon, felonious assault, inducing panic and aggravated menacing.

His 9-year-old brother is charged with felonious assault, inducing panic and aggravated menacing.

Police reported the brothers were on the city school bus shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday on Taylor Street near Parkman Road when pupils in the back of the bus began screaming that one of the other children had a knife.

The driver, 58-year-old Bradley Bevan, stopped the bus and one of the children pointed out the one passenger with the knife. When Bevan twice told the 11-year-old to get his hands out of his jacket pockets, the pupil refused.

When Bevan tried to pull the hands out of the 11-year-old’s pockets, the 9-year-old jumped across a seat and kicked the driver in the back before the three started to fight.

When Bevan didn’t answer his dispatcher, police were called. The pearl-handled knife was found in the older boy’s pocket.

Dawn Marzano, district spokeswoman, said the arrests are currently a police matter. She pointed out, however, that the district has a zero-tolerance policy against fighting in school or on buses. Students who violate the policy can be suspended and expelled.

Bevan told police the brothers were a problem on the bus earlier in the week.