KANSAS CITY, Mo. Vanessa McCaron says she pleaded with an Overland Park Police school resource officer not to arrest her daughter for pointing a finger, formed to look like a gun, at four of her middle school classmates.
He said, I will press charges against anyone who I think has broken the law, said McCaron, who contacted The Star following Wednesdays initial story about the incident. He had such a great opportunity to use his badge to change something in a child, but he chose not to, she added. I think this is an insane abuse of power.
She is a child. She is kind. Shes loving. Shes shy. She is a precocious kid who is passionate about gun control, human rights and cats. Thats what she cares about.
The girl had been bullied for months by some of the classmates who provoked the Sept. 18 incident, her mother said.
She was picked on to the point where one day she was found in the corner of the school lunchroom sobbing.
The eighth-grader, who had turned 13 just days before the incident, was arrested and charged with felony threatening. Police said she was led out of the Shawnee Mission school districts Westridge Middle School by Principal Jeremy McDonnell. School resource officer Dana Harrison, who is an employee of the police department, handcuffed her outside the building and placed her in a police car before she was driven to a juvenile detention facility.
The Star does not identify juveniles charged with crimes.
McCaron said that a boy in her daughters class had asked her, if you could kill five people in this class who would they be? The girl formed a gun with her fingers and pointed at the other students one at a time, and then turned the pretend weapon toward herself.
Overland Park Police Chief Frank Donchez on Friday confirmed those facts, but also said theres more he could not disclose. Donchez supports his officers decision to arrest the girl.
The safety of our children in school is paramount, today more than ever, Donchez said. We have all seen cases where tragic incidents have occurred, and the first thing people say is, there were signs, why didnt they see the signs?
There were victims in this case who were generally in fear, and that prompted them to contact the school.
A statement released by police after The Star first reported the story said, Threats in schools are taken very seriously and treated appropriately.
Donchez said the school resource officer did a thorough investigation. He interviewed the girl and other students involved as well as teachers. We looked at all the facts and history of the person involved, and based on current and previous activity the school resource officer made the call to arrest the student for criminal threatening, a felony. She was detained by police and later released to her mother.
Obviously the district attorney felt there was enough evidence to file the charges, Donchez said. A hearing is set for Tuesday in the Juvenile Division of the District Court of Johnson County.
McCaron claims the boy who prompted her daughter to point her pretend pistol was among a number of children who had been bullying her daughter at school for some time.
A year ago, McCaron said, another student punched her daughter in the face on the school bus. McCaron said she complained to school leaders about the bullying, but it continued.
