Renegade
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Please read and reply - I did.
http://tinyurl.com/3oj2d8
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Activist exposes truth about guns at school to change lawBy Linda McNatt
The Virginian-Pilot
© October 13, 2008 SUFFOLK
Last week, charges against a high school senior who took a gun onto school property in August were dismissed.
Pamela Pouchot could have told you it was going to happen.
As soon as she learned about the case, she tracked down Michael A. Colon Jr. and his family to deliver a message. She told them that, no matter what the police might say, it's not necessarily illegal to have a gun on school property. Then she went about trying to talk to the Suffolk commonwealth's attorney.
"I'm good at research," Pouchot said, sitting in her Yorktown home. "I found the kid."
Pouchot doesn't like guns. She and several acquaintances formed The Virginia Committee for Gun-Free Schools in the late 1990s. They went to the General Assembly to lobby for the cause and got so little attention, she said, that she gave up - except for a few times.
It's not that she wants to see students who do such a thing go free, Pouchot said. She wants to bring attention to the fact that having a gun on school property isn't always against Virginia law.
"I want the community to get mad," she said.
She did the same thing in 2006 for a student at Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk. Both students were charged with violating section 18.2-308.1 of the Code of Virginia, though the law allows firearms in Virginia schools if the weapons are in a vehicle in a "closed container," including a locked trunk. The charge was dropped in that case as well.
"The judge felt that the case fit one of the noted exceptions," Suffolk prosecutor Scott Alleman said of Colon's case. "It was an unloaded handgun, in a vehicle, in a closed container. The statute says what it says, and we respect the judge's decision."
Pouchot got interested in the issue when she and a friend attended a "big game show" at a school in the small York County community of Grafton. The two women were there in protest. They didn't like the great tusks, huge horns and massive pelts displayed at the show, and they didn't like the fact that hunting is tied to guns. It has no place in a school, she said.
She said Colon told her that his weapon - a .45-caliber handgun - was in a bag in the trunk of a friend's car.
Suffolk police charged him, and he was suspended from Lakeland High School with a recommendation for expulsion, according to city spokeswoman Debbie George.
Colon was expelled, his mother, Eileen Thomson, said Tuesday. His plans to join the Navy have been put on hold because the Navy requires a high school diploma and won't accept a GED, she said.
"Chewing gum isn't illegal, but if the School Board makes it so, you can get expelled for chewing gum in school," Pouchot said.
Like many school systems, Suffolk's takes a hard line in such cases. Its policy calls for any student who brings a weapon onto school property to be expelled for at least one year.
Pouchot still gives out her Virginia Committee for Gun-Free Schools business card, but she's written "retired" across the top. She doesn't lobby legislators anymore, but she can't stay away from the issue altogether.
"As adults, we have an obligation to protect children," she said. "But when I see something like the Suffolk situation, I like to let the students know what their rights are."
That situation, she said, could have been a tragedy. She blames the hunters of Virginia for the lawmakers' failure to change things. She's talked with parents, she said, who see no problem with youngsters taking guns to school, for example, if they're planning to go hunting as soon as they get out.
Linda McNatt, (757) 222-5561, linda.mcnatt@pilotonline.com
Please read and reply - I did.
http://tinyurl.com/3oj2d8
-------------------------------------------------
Activist exposes truth about guns at school to change lawBy Linda McNatt
The Virginian-Pilot
© October 13, 2008 SUFFOLK
Last week, charges against a high school senior who took a gun onto school property in August were dismissed.
Pamela Pouchot could have told you it was going to happen.
As soon as she learned about the case, she tracked down Michael A. Colon Jr. and his family to deliver a message. She told them that, no matter what the police might say, it's not necessarily illegal to have a gun on school property. Then she went about trying to talk to the Suffolk commonwealth's attorney.
"I'm good at research," Pouchot said, sitting in her Yorktown home. "I found the kid."
Pouchot doesn't like guns. She and several acquaintances formed The Virginia Committee for Gun-Free Schools in the late 1990s. They went to the General Assembly to lobby for the cause and got so little attention, she said, that she gave up - except for a few times.
It's not that she wants to see students who do such a thing go free, Pouchot said. She wants to bring attention to the fact that having a gun on school property isn't always against Virginia law.
"I want the community to get mad," she said.
She did the same thing in 2006 for a student at Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk. Both students were charged with violating section 18.2-308.1 of the Code of Virginia, though the law allows firearms in Virginia schools if the weapons are in a vehicle in a "closed container," including a locked trunk. The charge was dropped in that case as well.
"The judge felt that the case fit one of the noted exceptions," Suffolk prosecutor Scott Alleman said of Colon's case. "It was an unloaded handgun, in a vehicle, in a closed container. The statute says what it says, and we respect the judge's decision."
Pouchot got interested in the issue when she and a friend attended a "big game show" at a school in the small York County community of Grafton. The two women were there in protest. They didn't like the great tusks, huge horns and massive pelts displayed at the show, and they didn't like the fact that hunting is tied to guns. It has no place in a school, she said.
She said Colon told her that his weapon - a .45-caliber handgun - was in a bag in the trunk of a friend's car.
Suffolk police charged him, and he was suspended from Lakeland High School with a recommendation for expulsion, according to city spokeswoman Debbie George.
Colon was expelled, his mother, Eileen Thomson, said Tuesday. His plans to join the Navy have been put on hold because the Navy requires a high school diploma and won't accept a GED, she said.
"Chewing gum isn't illegal, but if the School Board makes it so, you can get expelled for chewing gum in school," Pouchot said.
Like many school systems, Suffolk's takes a hard line in such cases. Its policy calls for any student who brings a weapon onto school property to be expelled for at least one year.
Pouchot still gives out her Virginia Committee for Gun-Free Schools business card, but she's written "retired" across the top. She doesn't lobby legislators anymore, but she can't stay away from the issue altogether.
"As adults, we have an obligation to protect children," she said. "But when I see something like the Suffolk situation, I like to let the students know what their rights are."
That situation, she said, could have been a tragedy. She blames the hunters of Virginia for the lawmakers' failure to change things. She's talked with parents, she said, who see no problem with youngsters taking guns to school, for example, if they're planning to go hunting as soon as they get out.
Linda McNatt, (757) 222-5561, linda.mcnatt@pilotonline.com
