THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270468
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Almost all the Virginia Beach students and former students caught with guns at Salem and Tallwood high schools since September come from homes in middle-class neighborhoods.
The suspects lived in seven neighborhoods, whose median household income is about $47,000. The median - or midpoint - for Virginia Beach is $36,271.
None of the 16 people who have been arrested or detained because of guns at Tallwood and Salem this year live in low-income neighborhoods or areas with high crime rates. One 18-year-old suspect told police he was homeless.
Police said the suspects were from Rock Creek, Alexandria, Charlestown Lakes South, Brigadoon Woods East, Aragona, Indian Lakes and Green Run.
The lowest median household income of those neighborhoods is $31,602 in Aragona; the highest is $48,106 in Charlestown Lakes South.
These numbers come from 1990 census tract data. Sometimes census tracts are slightly larger than a subdivision. Numbers for Georgetown, the middle-class Chesapeake neighborhood where five suspects live, were not available.
Although Salem and Tallwood are not the only Beach schools with problems, gun arrests there have been the most recent and frequent.
None of the arrests at Salem or Tallwood this school year was because a weapon was inside the school. In four cases, police intercepted the weapons in the parking lot. In the fifth, robbery investigators tracked down the suspects afterward.
Charges have been filed in all the cases. It is a felony to bring a gun onto school property. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
PETER D. SUNDBERG
Police officers use metal detectors before a Green Run High School
football game this fall.
KEYWORDS: GUNS HANDGUNS SCHOOLS by CNB