Kindergartners carried knife, pistol onto bus
2 incidents in Greenfield in 1 week spark disbelief
By Bill McCleery
bill.mccleery@indystar.com
March 5, 2004
GREENFIELD, Ind. -- Folks were stunned when a kindergartner took a knife to J.B. Stephens Elementary School on Monday. Then another kindergarten student brought a gun on Thursday.
"I'm just in shock," said Candace Van Halen, a 30-year-old mother of three children who attend the school. Her youngest, a daughter, is a kindergartner.
Administrators with Greenfield-Central Schools said they could not remember any similar cases with students so young.
Both incidents, apparently unrelated, occurred on school buses taking kids home from J.B. Stephens.
On Thursday, a boy being dropped off at his home gave an unloaded handgun to his bus driver before getting off the bus. On Monday, another boy, according to witnesses, threatened several students with a knife while riding home.
Authorities did not release the children's names. The student involved in the knife incident remained suspended Thursday, and officials have not determined what discipline to take in the latest case.
In both cases, school officials are working with local law enforcement and Child Protection Services to have conferences with the students' parents and determine what to do in each case.
The incidents left school officials reeling and moving quickly to inform parents.
After the Monday knife incident, several parents complained they were not notified until three days later, when the principal sent a letter home with students. On Thursday, school officials called local media after the gun was turned over.
"We want parents to be informed," Greenfield-Central Assistant Superintendent Ann Vail said. She asked the community for help.
"Parents, adults, teachers -- we all have to work together," Vail said. "We want everyone to be mindful that, while school is a congregating place, students are bringing these weapons from home."
The gun incident left school bus driver Barbara Begeman shaken. The boy turned to her as he stepped off the bus.
"He said he had something that he thought I should have," she said. "He said, 'My poppy would want you to have this.' I thought he was going to give me a picture or a piece of candy or a flower or something like that -- certainly not a gun."
Begeman called her supervisor, who told her to wait while he drove to her location. Officials eventually decided, on the advice of the Hancock County Sheriff's Department, to transfer the remaining children to another bus.
The driver said the student was always well-mannered.
"This teensy little child, you know," Begeman said. "It's not like he gets in trouble or anything. . . . We have a Christian family, and I told my husband, 'Maybe the good Lord sent me into that boy's life to help prevent a tragedy somehow.' "
Like Van Halen, Begeman pinned blame on adults rather than children.
"I'm just worried about (the boy). The adults, shame on them," she said. "A small child was able to get ahold of that gun, and I just say shame on them. . . . He should have never been able to get ahold of it."
In Monday's incident, student witnesses said the boy showed a knife to about seven children -- two of whom said he threatened them -- according to the letter Principal Candy Short sent home to parents. Several students immediately notified the bus driver, who stopped the bus and took the knife, Vail said. She described the weapon as a "large folding knife."
Authorities think the boy obtained the knife from his grandfather's home, where he apparently had stayed over the weekend, said Terry Bucksot, Greenfield's assistant police chief.
Although Greenfield police assisted the school, officials do not intend to handle the matter as a criminal incident, said Detective John Jester.
"Due to the kid's age, it will be handled more by the school and child protective services," Jester said.
Vail expects the suspended student to return to school when officials develop "a plan for his re-entry," she said.
Investigation into the gun incident was just beginning late Thursday. The Hancock County Sheriff's Department is assisting with that case because it occurred just outside city limits.
Vail said the pupil who turned in the gun, to the best of her knowledge, made no threats and voluntarily took the weapon to a bus driver. She was unsure what penalty that pupil might face.
Van Halen, the mother of three, recalled that she and her husband, Eric, moved to Greenfield from Indianapolis three years ago specifically because they liked the schools.
"An incident like this can happen in any school system," she said.
She has talked to her children about the incidents, she said.
"They seem to be in shock as well."