-
- DENTON, Texas (UPI) - A 13-year-old
Texas boy is free Wednesday after spending five days in juvenile detention
for writing a Halloween horror story that described shooting a teacher
and three classmates.
-
- Christopher Beamon was released Tuesday after District
Attorney Bruce Isaacks said he would not prosecute the student at Ponder
High School, north of Dallas. The boy had been held in juvenile detention
at Denton.
-
- "It looks like to me the child was doing what the
teacher told him to do, which was write a scary story," Isaacks said,
although he said school officials had reason to be concerned because he
was a discipline problem.
-
- Denton County Juvenile Judge Darlene Whitten had ordered
Beamon detained for 10 days after reviewing his disciplinary record. Sheriff's
officers removed Beamon from class last Thursday after being called by
school officials.
-
- William Short, the Beamon family attorney, said the school
officials overreacted because of recent school shootings across the country.
-
- Whitten said parents should make their children aware
that threats made at school are not taken lightly. "Especially after
Columbine, we have to take them seriously," she said.
-
- "I was supposed to write a horror story. I don't
think I did anything wrong," Beamon told The Dallas Morning News after
his release.
-
- The boy received a 100 on the essay, plus extra credit
for reading it aloud in class, but his mother said he will not return to
Ponder High School. She said she will begin looking for a new school for
her son.
-
- Copyright 1999 by United Press International
|
