
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 3, 1992                   TAG: 9203030319
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT                                LENGTH: Short

PUPIL BRINGS IN GRENADE, IS SUSPENDED

A student was suspended Monday after he brought a dummy grenade to Franklin County High School and showed the device to a teacher.

Principal Bennie Gibson described the incident as a childish prank, but the high school staff took it seriously in the wake of an episode Friday in which a middle school student pointed a gun at a teacher.

"I thought it was in extremely poor taste after what happened Friday," Gibson said.

Friday, a 14-year-old student at Benjamin Franklin Middle School forced his teacher to leave the classroom and contemplated killing himself in front of 21 classmates before a school custodian persuaded him to give up the .357-caliber handgun.

Students who were in the middle school geography class participated in a second day of group counseling Monday, Principal Betty Blair said.

by CNB