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School Board Expels 2 Students Found With Guns

Posted on: Friday, 12 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

Aug. 12--Two Bibb County high school students have been expelled from school after police found them with unloaded guns on school property this summer, school officials said Thursday.

Mike Van Wyck, assistant superintendent for student support services, said the two drove onto the Central High School campus July 11, when summer school was in session there.

The students, who were not enrolled in summer classes, were arrested last month, he said.

Anthony Gray Simmons, 18, a Southwest High School sophomore, and Rekelle Kwantus Jones, 19, a Westside High School junior, were arrested by the school system's campus police on a charge of possession of a weapon on school property.

According to a campus police report released Thursday, a campus officer was directing traffic at Central the afternoon of July 11 when he noticed a Honda Civic -- with Simmons and Jones inside -- approaching the school.

"Campus officers recognized they didn't belong there," Van Wyck said. "The officer asked if they had anything in the car, and the kids admitted they had handguns."

Officers found a handgun under the passenger's seat and another under the driver's seat, according to the report. Neither gun was loaded, Van Wyck said.

"It was a strange situation," Van Wyck said.

Campus Police Chief Russell Bentley said the charges are felony charges.

The case has been referred to the district attorney's office because it involved a weapon near a school facility, Bentley said.

"This is a very rare occurrence in our school system," he said. "It's very rare."

Both students appeared at a student evidentiary hearing last month, and the school system decided both students would be expelled for the 2005-06 school year, Van Wyck said.

"Alert campus police officers handled the situation very effectively, and the school system has taken strong disciplinary actions," he said.

In a separate incident, school officials said Thursday they gave a 17-year-old Westside High school student a punishment of one day of in-school suspension after finding a boxcutter, which school officials consider a weapon, in the student's car during summer school classes at Central High.

The system's campus police do visible car searches on a daily basis, Van Wyck said.

"Students know in this case they are not allowed to have anything illegal or prohibited (at school)," he said.

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Source: The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga.)

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