11 year old girl found with gun; high school student tasered

High school student who wouldn't stop using cell phone Tasered

6th-grader takes loaded gun to school in Penn Hills
High school student who wouldn't stop using cell phone Tasered
Thursday, June 04, 2009
By Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A loaded 9mm weapon was confiscated from a sixth-grader at Linton Middle School in Penn Hills today.

And in a second incident, a Penn Hills police officer used a stun gun on a high school student who refused to stop talking on a cell phone and pushed the officer.

At the middle school, a 9mm semi-automatic handgun was found in the swim bag of an 11-year-old girl at the metal detectors this morning.

Penn Hills police Chief Howard Burton said the gun was fully loaded but there was not a bullet in the chamber.

He said the girl had brought her swim bag still containing wet swim clothes from the previous day and said she did not know how the gun got into the bag. The gun turned out to have been reported to state police as stolen from Uniontown.

"At this point in the investigation, we don't believe she knew the gun was in there. She had the bag yesterday swimming, locked it in her locker after swim class, went home last night, threw it in her bedroom, grabbed the bag and went to school," Chief Burton said.

He said she has been removed from school.

At Penn Hills High School this morning, Chief Burton said, a student was walking up and down a hallway, using a cell phone. School policy permits students to have cell phones but not to use them during school except in emergencies, Chief Burton said.

A Penn Hills police officer told him to put the phone away and go to class.

"The kid refused to listen," Chief Burton said. "The officer took him by the arm and said, 'You have to go to the office.' The student resisted, pushed the officer. The officer, defending himself`[against a child], took out his stun gun and did a drive stun."

Chief Burton said a drive stun involves pushing the Taser against a portion of the body and squeezing the trigger, thus immobilizing a portion of the body, such as the leg. He said this affects about a 2- or 3-inch area.

While on the floor, the student was still resisting and was placed in handcuffs, Chief Burton said. The student complained of a headache and dizziness and was taken to Forbes Regional Hospital.

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