13-Year-Old Who Made Finger Gun Gesture Facing Felony Charges
An Overland Park middle school student has been arrested for making a finger gun gesture at a teacher.
The thirteen-year-old girl, who hasn’t been named due to her age, faces felony charges for pointing her finger in a gun-like and threatening fashion at her fellow students.
BallerAlert reports that a student had used an anti-bullying app to alert staff that they had felt unsafe at the suspect’s actions.
The teenage girl was arrested on September 18th after investigators said she made the threatening gesture with her finger at Westridge Middle School.
According to Fox4, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said:
“If someone makes a direct threat to another person to do harm to another person, that is considered criminal threat and that would be a felony
“Trust that there are a lot of people who do this all the time, making informed decisions based on all the facts
Advertisement - story continues below“In most instances, an individual with that kind of charge would be eligible for some kind of diversion plan.”
According to Shawnee Mission School District spokesperson, David Smith, no actual weapon was recovered–just a finger pointed like a gun.
Two students had confirmed that the teenage girl had been making the finger gun gesture.
The prosecutor, Howe, said that there was a closed juvenile hearing for the girl–whose previous record and public safety, given the timing of the incident, will be taken into consideration during the trial.
PENNSYLVANIA: ‘Gun-Like Gesture’ With Your Hand To Become A Crime
Recently, in Pennsylvania, a man was fined $100 for making a gun-like gesture at a neighbor.
The court had deemed that the man who had made the gesture made his neighbor feel ‘unsafe.’
This isn’t the first time a teenager has landed in hot water over pointing his finger like a gun.
A Tennessee teenage student was arrested last year at a Knox County Middle School for pointing his gun-like finger and saying “you’re on my hit list” to a teacher.
And finally–and, perhaps, more comically–a Louisiana student was investigated after a panic was caused over a square-root symbol on his homework looked like a gun.
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