A 12-year-old girl was taken out of school in handcuffs after she shaped her fingers to resemble a gun and pointed at classmates.
Police in Overland Park, Kansas, charged the middle school child with a felony count of threatening, according to the Kansas City Star. A person familiar with the incident report said that a student asked the girl if she could kill five people in the class who they would be. The girl responded by pantomiming a gun and pointing at four students before pointing at herself.
The girl was sent to the principal’s office, but the decision to put her in handcuffs was reportedly that of the school resource officer, who works for the Overland Park Police Department.
“We don’t do that,” said Shawnee Mission School District spokesman David Smith. “That is not our job.”
Court documents said the girl “unlawfully and feloniously communicated a threat to commit violence, with the intent to place another, in fear, or with the intent to cause the evacuation, lock down or disruption in regular, ongoing activities” or created the risk of causing that fear.
The child’s grandfather, Jon Cavanaugh, said the girl had no access to guns and no intent to hurt anybody.
“I think that this is something that probably could have been handled in the principal’s office and got completely out of hand,” Cavanaugh said. “She was just mouthing off.
“I’m really worried about my granddaughter’s future,” he said, noting that he was told the girl could face up to a year in a juvenile detention center.
