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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 28, 1992                   TAG: 9203280132
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: FLOYD                                LENGTH: Medium

FLOYD STUDENT WHO BROUGHT GUN SUSPENDED FOR REST OF YEAR

The board made the decision Friday after a closed-door meeting to discuss the case and other business.

School Superintendent Omar Ross said the case is "obviously serious.

"I would like to commend the high school staff and the Floyd County Sheriff's Department for the way they handled it."

The student, who is not being named because he is a minor, will lose credit for this school year.

Ross said the student will receive instruction in the New River Valley Juvenile Detention Home , where he is currently being held.

Authorities said earlier this week 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.

Ross said school officials are cooperating with the Sheriff's Department in a continuing investigation of the case.

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 legal limit is 18 inches.

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

The principals searched the boy's locker looking for the knife and found the gun, Ross said.

The identity of the student who was going to trade his knife for the sawed-off shotgun was not known, he said.