GUN FOUND; FLEMING STUDENT SUSPENDED

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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993                   TAG: 9301280233
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN and LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
GUN FOUND; FLEMING STUDENT SUSPENDED
A tip from a student alerted officials at William Fleming High School to another student carrying a loaded handgun at the school Wednesday.
Principal Alyce Szathmary said the gun was found in a book bag being carried by the student. He immediately was suspended.
Szathmary said school officials searched the 16-year-old boy after receiving the tip. After school officials found the gun - a .38-caliber semiautomatic - they called Roanoke police.
The student told police that he had been beaten at school by another student, one who had recently transferred to Fleming from North Carolina.
Youth detectives are petitioning the Juvenile Court for felony charges of possession of a firearm against the student, police said.
"It is a felony," Szathmary said. "The school will recommend expulsion."
Police said school officials were alerted early Wednesday that the student had a handgun in his car on the school parking lot.
A police officer assigned to the school saw the student leave school with his book bag and asked to examine the bag. The officer found the gun inside.
Szathmary said the school recently held four assemblies to encourage students to take a more responsible role at the school and in their community.
"We appreciate the report and the student's concern about the safety and security of our campus and those who are on it," she said. "We want our students to go out in the community and be the right kind of people."
Richard Kelley, executive for business affairs for Roanoke schools, said random searches are conducted frequently at city high schools.
A police spokesman could not estimate how many guns in schools had been reported in recent months. Police said Fleming officials are stepping up searches for firearms concealed in school materials or in cars on the parking lot.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB