Third graders plan attack against teacher

I heard this story on cable news this morning and then read the account in the local newspaper. I think it's odd that there's no mention of the parents. Why would absolutely none of the parents (there were NINE kids involved) have noticed kids this young (8, 9 & 10) discussing this, or noticed their child bringing something inappropriate (hand cuffs! a steak knife!) to school? And these kids are in a special needs classroom. Are the parents paying attention at all? And will they be held accountable? This is serious stuff - this is a lot of kids planning together to hurt someone. What the heck are they being taught at home?

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g84E-NqKavdkNfL6nv-ixkYQFiSgD8VPP0JG0

3rd-Graders Plotted Teacher Attack
By RUSS BYNUM

WAYCROSS, Ga. (AP) — A group of children ages 8 to 10 apparently were mad at their teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, authorities say.

That led the third-graders, as many as nine boys and girls, to plot an attack on the teacher at Center Elementary School in south Georgia.

Police Chief Tony Tanner said the students apparently planned to knock the teacher unconscious with a glass paperweight, bind her with handcuffs and duct tape and then stab her with a broken steak knife.

The scheme involved a division of roles, Tanner said. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, and another was supposed to clean up after the attack.

School officials had alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had taken a weapon to school.

Tanner said the teacher told detectives the children weren't known as troublemakers.

The purported target teaches third-grade students with learning disabilities, including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.

Currie said the children are too young to be charged as adults [according to Georgia law, a person must be 13], and probably too young to be sentenced to a youth detention center.

Nine children have been given discipline including long-term suspension, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school system. She would not be more specific but said none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.

School system policy says any student who brings "anything reasonably considered to be a weapon" is to be expelled for at least the remainder of the school year.