DATE: Wednesday, June 18, 1997              TAG: 9706180532

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   53 lines

BEACH LEADS AREA IN GUN INCIDENTS AT SCHOOLS

Preliminary figures show that 6,276 students in 29 states and the District of Columbia were expelled last year for bringing guns and other weapons to school, the Education Department says.

Vice President Al Gore announced the findings Monday at a departmental conference on safe and drug-free schools. He noted that the figures will grow when the other 21 states - including Virginia - report later this year.

The statistics, covering the 1995-1996 school year, are the first collected under the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994. It requires states, in order to keep receiving federal dollars, to adopt laws mandating the expulsion of students who bring guns to school.

Virginia in 1995 adopted a law requiring local school boards to expel students for at least one calendar year if they bring firearms onto school property or to school-sponsored activities, although school boards could find ``special circumstances'' and punish offenders for shorter or longer times or in a different manner.

In South Hampton Roads' public school districts, expulsion can mean being denied all educational opportunities for a time or being assigned to an alternative program, depending on the nature of the incident. The time can range from a semester to the rest of a student's public-school career, although gun incidents typically result in a one-year expulsion.

Local school divisions report:

Virginia Beach had 11 gun incidents during the just-completed 1996-97 school year, 52 incidents involving knives and 43 involving other weapons or fake weapons. Twelve students were expelled, and another 82 were sent to alternative programs or given long-term suspensions. In 1995-96, five were expelled or given long-term suspensions for guns and another 63 for knives and other weapons.

In Chesapeake, two students were expelled in 1996-97 gun incidents, one involving a BB gun. In 1995-96, five students were kicked out over guns, two of which were BB guns.

In 1996-97, Norfolk expelled three students for gun possession; the district similarly expelled one student in 1995-96.

No Portsmouth students were expelled in 1996-97 for gun possession, although one was expelled for a knife assault and another for throwing a chair and a desk at a teacher. In 1995-96, a student was kicked out for possessing a realistic-looking fake gun; another two were booted for assaults where the weapons were locks in a sock in one case, and a pen in the other.

Suffolk had no expulsions for guns the past two school years. It had nine violations concerning other weapons resulting in six expulsions in 1995-96, and 13 violations this past year but no expulsions. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and

staff writers Matthew Bowers, Aleta Payne, Vanee Vines and Nancy Young. KEYWORDS: GUNS IN SCHOOL

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