Education

High-schooler suspended for disarming student holding loaded gun

Font Size:

What happens to a high school student in Southwest Florida who successfully disarms someone who is threatening to shoot a loaded gun? According to FOX affiliate WFTX-TV, that student gets suspended from school for three days.

The 16-year-old would-be hero of the story is a student at Cypress Lake High School in Cape Coral on the Gulf of Mexico. WFTX did not identify the student and also muffled his voice on camera because, he says, he fears for his personal safety.

That student and other witnesses say another unnamed student was riding the bus home last Tuesday when 15-year-old Quadryle Davis and the unnamed student got into a fight.

According to NBC affiliate WBBH-TV, Davis pointed the gun at the student he was fighting and threatened to shoot.

“I said, ‘Are you going to shoot me bro?’ And he said, Yeah, I’m going to whack you,'” Davis’ opponent told WBBH.

The student WFTX interviewed, and others, eventually confronted the teen gunman and managed to separate him from his weapon.

Law enforcement officials later confirmed that the firearm was, in fact, loaded.

A day later the apparent hero received his three-day suspension for taking part in what the school labeled an “incident.” School officials called the punishment an “emergency suspension.”

“It’s dumb,” he said. “How they going to suspend me for doing the right thing?”

The unnamed student said he’s certain his actions prevented a murder.

“I think he was really going to shoot him right then and there,” he told WFTX. “He was going to shoot him point blank.”

The student’s mother — also unnamed — added that school officials told her that her son was suspended because he was too scared to cooperate in the subsequent investigation.

A school district spokesman, Alberto Rodriguez, did give a non-anonymous statement to the press.

“We cannot discuss specifics involving students,” Rodriguez said. “Florida law allows the principal to suspend a student immediately pending a hearing.”

It’s unclear if Davis or the kid he fought were also suspended. However, police did take Davis to to a juvenile assessment center.

The teen gunman has since been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but without intent to kill. Other charges include possession of a firearm on school property.

Follow Eric on Twitter