3rd-grade attack plot alleged

WAYCROSS, Ga. — Some third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks, including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.

The plot involving up to nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in South Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.

School officials alerted police Friday after a student tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school. Tanner said the students apparently planned to knock the teacher unconscious with a crystal paperweight, bind her with the handcuffs and tape, and stab her with the knife.

"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt."

The children, ages 8 to 10, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one for standing on a chair, Tanner said.

Two students were arrested on juvenile charges Tuesday and a third arrest was expected. District Attorney Rick Currie said other students told investigators they didn't take the plot seriously or insisted they had decided not to participate.

"Some of the kids said, 'We thought they were just kidding,' " Currie said. "Another child was supposed to bring a toy pistol, and he told a detective he didn't bring it because he thought he would get in trouble."

Currie said the children are too young to be charged as adults and probably too young to be sentenced to a youth-detention center.

Police seized a broken-handled steak knife, steel handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and the paperweight from the students, Tanner said.

Currie said he decided to seek juvenile charges against two girls, ages 9 and 10, who brought the knife and paperweight, and an 8-year-old boy who brought tape. He said all three faced charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, and both girls were being charged with bringing weapons to school.

Nine children have been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County School System. She would not be more specific but added that none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.

The purported target is a veteran educator who teaches third-graders with learning disabilities, including attention-deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.

"From what I understand, they were considered pretty good kids," Martin said. "But we have to take this seriously, whether they were serious or not about carrying this through, and that's what we did."