Mother pulls students after pellet gun incident

A Nespelem woman has taken her four children out of the school there and enrolled them in the Grand Coulee Dam District because of a pellet gun incident.

Charity Carson said Tuesday that her 9-year-old was threatened by a 13-year-old student armed with a pellet gun while riding the school bus home in the afternoon, in mid-March.

Nespelem School District Superintendent and Principal John Adkins, when questioned about the matter, said: “It’s a confidential matter investigated by the school district, and I can’t comment on it until I get guidance from the school board.”

Carson said the boy who brandished the pellet gun was not expelled, in spite of a district policy that specifies expulsion.

Carson stated that the 13-year-old threatened her son and told him not to tell anyone and pointed the pellet gun in his face.

According to his mother, the boy replied that he was going to tell.

The district’s Policy 4210 (Community Relations) states: “It is a violation of district policy and state law for any person to carry a firearm or dangerous weapon on school premises, school-provided transportation or areas of other facilities being used exclusively for school activities.”

State law states: “A student shall not possess or use firearms, explosives, or any other items capable of causing bodily harm, including fake firearms that are represented as real firearms, nor shall they possess or place such items on school property, transportation or at any school related activity.”

Carson said the board met on the matter and decided not to expel the student.

The incident is recorded on video, and the video is in the hands of Tribal Police. Carson said the video lasted 19 minutes and it shows visual proof of the incident, plus audio.

A call to Tribal Police was not returned Tuesday.

Carson, who was upset at the time she told of the incident, said the district violated its own no-tolerance policy as it relates to guns.