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

DATE: TUESDAY, October 10, 1995                   TAG: 9510100071
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE AND PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                LENGTH: Medium

NO GUN CHARGE FILED

The Dublin Police Department has decided against filing a weapon charge against a sixth-grade pupil who brought a .22-caliber revolver to Dublin Middle School last week, but the 11-year-old boy may be expelled for a year.

Superintendent Bill Asbury said Monday that the expulsion would run 365 days, under a policy approved by the Pulaski County School Board that started this school year. The decision will be made at an administrative hearing.

He said the county policy builds on other recently approved government regulations at several levels.

``Part of it is federal law, part of it is our policy, part of it is state law, but all of it is serious,'' Asbury said.

Dublin Police Chief R.E. Gwaltney said the boy admitted bringing the ``Saturday-night special'' to school Oct. 3 in his backpack.

``He didn't brandish it or threaten anyone with it,'' Gwaltney said. ``He knows it was wrong.''

He said the boy is living with a guardian and took the gun from that house. While he never took the gun out of his backpack, he did show it to several students.

Some of those students told their parents, who alerted the school. School officials suspended the student and turned the matter over to police.

Gwaltney said even though his department decided not to prosecute the student, he is sending a copy of the report to Commonwealth's Attorney Everett Shockley. With the attention people have focused on violence in the schools, Gwaltney said, he'd rather have another law enforcement officer concur with his decision.

The school system's punishment is intended to help other young people avoid making such mistakes.

``They [pupils] just don't stop to think,'' Gwaltney said. ``But if something isn't done - say, within the school, in terms of punishment and maybe counseling - he won't know how to behave when he's older.''

``You can't have good education if kids aren't safe,'' Asbury said Monday morning at a county teachers' convocation at Pulaski County High School. ``There's no place in school for guns; there's no place in school for drugs or alcohol.''

The family of the boy cooperated in the investigation, school officials said. The boy remains suspended until final disposition at the administrative hearing.

Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.

by CNB