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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 26, 1992                   TAG: 9203260145
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: FLOYD                                LENGTH: Short

FLOYD HIGH STUDENT SUSPENDED FOR BRINGING SHOTGUN TO SCHOOL

Authorities said Wednesday the 17-year-old boy apparently had planned to trade the shotgun to another student for a hunting knife.

The county Sheriff's Department has confiscated the shotgun.

Sheriff Russell Quesenberry said juvenile petitions have been obtained charging the student with possession of a sawed-off shotgun and having a firearm on school property. Both are felony offenses.

Quesenberry said the single-barrel shotgun belonged to the youth. The barrel, normally 28 inches long, had been sawed down to an illegal 11 1/2 inches.

"The student brought the shotgun to school to participate in a trade for another item," school Superintendent Omar Ross said. "It was not brought to the school for malicious use."

He said the school's principal and assistant principal found the shotgun after another student complained last week that the boy had a knife.

The principals went to the boy's locker looking for the knife and found the gun, Ross said. No ammunition was found, he said.

"This is a first for us. If there was a malicious intent, I think he would have had some cartridges with it," Ross said. "Obviously, he didn't use very good judgment" by bringing the weapon to school.

The student's case will be reviewed by the Floyd County School Board on Friday at 4 p.m., Ross said. The identity of the student who was going to trade his knife for the sawed-off shotgun was not known, he said.