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Two students found with knives at school

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By Megan Gildow, Staff writer Updated 7:00 AM Thursday, November 19, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — Two Clark County students were arrested Wednesday, Nov. 18, in incidents at separate schools involving a knife on school grounds, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

A 16-year-old male student at Greenon High School was taken to the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center at about 8:30 a.m. for possession of a weapon in a school safety zone, according to a sheriff’s media release.

School employees had heard that the student might have a knife and found one with a 5.5 inch blade when they searched the suspect, according to the release.

The student has been suspended for 10 days and claimed he had found the knife in a trailer park, said Greenon Local Schools Superintendent Lori Lytle, who described the weapon as “an old broken down Swiss army knife.”

“It’s still a weapon and we still have to take it very seriously, which we did,” she said.

In a separate incident, a 12-year-old male student was arrested at Tecumseh Middle School around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday for felonious assault and possession of a weapon in a school safety zone, according to a sheriff’s report.

The student jumped on a teacher, assaulting him, when the teacher retrieved a backpack he had refused to turn over, according to the report. When deputies searched the student, they found a small knife in his pocket.

He was taken to the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center, according to the sheriff’s office.

The student has been suspended and there will be a hearing to determine if he should be expelled, said Tecumseh Local Schools Superintendent Jim Gay.

“You want to keep everyone safe, faculty, staff and students, so you need to take these issues seriously,” he said.

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