
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 25, 1994                   TAG: 9403250093
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: associated press
DATELINE: MCLEAN                                LENGTH: Short

JOKE WITH STARTER PISTOL GETS TEACHER SUSPENDED

A high school teacher and track coach has been suspended almost two months after he jokingly jabbed a starter pistol into a student's ribs.

Buz Male approached Reid Hanlon on the transfer student's first day at Langley High School in January, pointed a starter pistol at him and said, "We don't have any problems in this class, and this is why."

Hanlon and his parents were upset but reluctant to press school officials for action, the boy's mother said.

At the time, Hanlon, 14, said he didn't know the gun was a track-meet starter pistol.

"I felt something sticking in my ribs," Hanlon said. ". . . Then I looked down and saw a gun. At first I was shocked. I was shaking."

by CNB