A hearing on a defense request to put the Memorial Middle School shooting case in juvenile court will be taken up during a 1:30 p.m. June 15 hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court.
At the moment, Thomas Gregory White, 14, Joplin, a former seventh grader at Memorial, has been charged as an adult with two counts of assault, and one count each of unlawful use of a weapon, armed criminal action, and attempted escape, in connection with the Oct. 9 incident in which he took a gun into the school, aimed it at school officials and fired it into a ceiling. According to police reports, his attempts at firing the gun again were thwarted when the weapon jams.
1 comment:
Had he been successful in whatever his plan was, we would have another incident to base our school security plan on and not be questioning if he should be tried in the juvenile courts. Does it simply come down to age? Have we stopped teaching our children that guns are bad and our choices have consequences? If you make a childish decision, then you get a punishment suitable for a child. If you take a gun to school, into the school (and especially if you pull the trigger), I question the intention and motives of the individual and find no need to question if the decision was childish or not. Big (and usually dumb) minds make bad choices...let him suffer the consequences as a big person would.
No skin off my nose either way (right now). I'm simply thankful he was NOT successful.
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