Ex-Raymer student punished for gun at school
5/10/2013Telling him March 22 was “probably the luckiest day of his life,” Lucas County Juvenile Court Judge Denise Navarre Cubbon on Friday ordered a former Raymer Elementary School student who brought a loaded gun to school to confinement and treatment at the Lucas County Youth Treatment Center.
Not only could the gun have accidentally fired and hurt someone that day, Judge Cubbon told the 15-year-old, but another person could have gotten hold of it and used it to hurt someone.
The youth, who admitted to felony-level charges of conveyance of a deadly weapon in a school zone and carrying a concealed weapon, was placed on probation and ordered to pay a $100 fine and court costs.
Judge Cubbon also ordered the gun to be destroyed.
Lori Olender, deputy chief of the juvenile division of the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office, told the court this was the first offense to bring the youth before the court.
She recommended he be placed at the youth treatment center, but called it an “extremely troublesome” case.
“We’re talking about a loaded gun in a grade school where all the way down to 5 and 6-year-olds are in the school,” she said. “[He] didn’t have a record before this, and this was a heckuva set of charges to get himself started on.”
Judge Cubbon told the youth his lack of a juvenile record “doesn’t minimize the fact that what you did was very dangerous. It’s our responsibility in the court to ensure that your behavior changes — your attitudes, your values and beliefs change — so this never happens again.”
Raymer Elementary staff members were helping another student look for a jacket March 22 when the assistant principal felt a weapon in the pocket of a sweatshirt.
The youth told school officials and school resource officers he had bought the .380-caliber handgun on the street.
The youth, who was expelled from Toledo Public Schools after the incident, told the court he was sorry he had put his teacher and classmates in danger. He has been in custody at the county’s juvenile detention center since the incident.
Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.