Police: 4th-Grader in Connecticut Threatened to Kill Classmates + Teacher
How could a 9 or 10-year-old boy in the fourth grade possibly have the mental capacity to threaten other classmates with death?
According to the Hartford Courant, a New Britain fourth-grade pupil had brought a knife to school on April 17 and threatened to kill classmates and rape a teacher. The student was immediately suspended and school officials are in the process of expelling him.
DiLoreto School Principal Alejandro Ortiz is being accused of not taking the threats more seriously, but Ortiz told other teachers he really didn't believe that the boys were capable of stabbings. Fourth-grade teacher, Maria Donnelly, however, told school administrators she took the threats quite seriously indeed:
These two individuals asked two other students to bring in weapons to help carry out their planned act of violence, and luckily the other two students did not comply.
Donnelly also told school administrators that she feared retaliation if the student is let back into school. She also claimed he had "social, emotional, and physical outbursts" on a regular basis in the classroom. School Principal Ortiz was given a four-day unpaid suspension for not following protocol and not reporting the incident to the police right away.
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