5th grader selling knives to classmates at DeKalb elementary school, parents say

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Tyisha Fernandes - WSB-TV 2 Atlanta




Parents say their children are coming home from school with knives sold to them by another child.

They say the girl, a fifth grader at Panola Way Elementary School in Lithonia, had more than a dozen pocket knives with her at school.

The school’s principal sent a letter to parents late Wednesday night saying that a student was caught with a weapon.

“The school administrators were informed that a student had brought a weapon onto campus. They acted quickly by confiscating and securing it with the help of a School Resource Office,” Principal Corey Stegall’s letter to parents read in part.

Parents say it’s misleading because there’s much more to the story.

“It was not truthful. It was completely untrue,” parent Treshur Collins said.

She told Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes some of the student was selling knives to students between first and fifth grade.

Collins says her son was suspended for touching one of the knives.

“Then it turned to the assistant principal said my son actually gave her the knife. So it’s kind of confusing to me because you initially said his case was unique because he just touched it, and it was he said, she said but now you have a principal that’s saying, ‘No, he gave it to me,’” Collins said.

She told Fernandes that she still hasn’t gotten any documentation that explains the suspension.

Spokespeople for the school district confirmed to Channel 2 Action News that the incident is under investigation.

Another parent gave Fernandes permission to speak with her fifth-grade daughter who said she doesn’t think the kids knew what they were buying. She said you couldn’t tell it was a knife until you hit a button.

“You can’t take things from other people. If you don’t know what it is, just leave it and say no, that’s all,” the student said.

Fernandes reached out to the school district to clarify the principal’s letter and they said the incident is under investigation.

[PorkChopSandwiches]