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15-Year-Old Student Arrested; Accused of Bringing Gun on School Grounds
By: WSAZ News
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A high school freshman is in jail after investigators say he was caught with a gun at Greenup County High School before the school’s homecoming football game Friday night.
Greenup County Sheriff Keith Cooper said it happened about 5 p.m. and that the boy, who is 15 years old, raised his shirt and flashed the weapon to a group of football players, who told their coach. School officials separated him from the other students and called deputies, who questioned the boy about why he had a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun with him.
“Fully loaded, with a clip in it, extra clip in his pocket and a box of shells in his backpack,” Cooper said. “Told them, yeah, he did bring the gun with him, didn't intend on using it or have any real plans for it, he just wanted to be cool.”
Jason Blevins lives about two blocks from the school and has two teenage daughters. He found out about the incident through a text message alert and voicemail from the school superintendent.
“My first thought was that my daughter was at the football game,” Blevins said. “She was there on the campus when it happened, so I was just really glad that nothing happened.”
The student did not fire any shots, according to Sheriff Cooper, who said while the gun was loaded, the bullets were not in the chamber. No one was hurt.
“Kind of scary in a way, because you never know what somebody might do – even if they say they're not intending to shoot it or something like that. You never know what's going to happen,” Blevins said.
Cooper said the student told them he bought the gun on the Internet.
“If we can find out who it was that met a 15-year-old boy and sold him a handgun, we're going to want to, us and the ATF are both going to want to talk to them,” Cooper said.
He cautioned parents that while high school students may think they are adults, they are still children.
“There's nothing cool about taking a gun with you to school or to a function,” Cooper said. “Guns have their place and I'm a big proponent of them, but not for children.”
Cooper added, “He's a boy but he's facing a man's charges here, and it'll be up to the court system to see what happens to him.”
The student has been charged with carrying a gun on school grounds, which is a Class D felony punishable by up to a year in prison. He is also facing a charge of carrying a concealed weapon. He is currently at the Boyd County Detention Center, which Cooper says is the closest facility approved for juveniles.
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