Three students have been suspended from the New Rochelle school system following a Superintendent’s hearing according to an email sent to parents following an incident on a Bee-Line bus used to transport students to two New Rochelle middle schools.
The suspended students, all eight grade boys at Isaac E. Young Middle School, had previously been suspended for five days following an investigation by school officials and the New Rochelle police determined that the boys had used a handgun-style BB gun to menace a 6th-grader girl on a school bus.
Parents of children on the bus at the time of the incident say that Isaac E. Young Principal Anthony Bongo informed them that the three boys involved have been suspended for the balance of the school year. Bongo told the parents that the three boys could appeal their suspension for the last marking period in April, 2013.
Parents were told the students have been “banned from Bee-Line bus usage for school related matters”.
Suspended students typically receive home-bound instruction.
No criminal charges have been filed as a result of the incident.
As reported exclusively by Talk of the Sound, a sixth grade student from Albert Leonard Middle School riding a bus to school was placed in a headlock and a gun put to her head by the three boys. One of the boys made a threatening remark before releasing the girl.
The students from the two schools were together on a Westchester County Bee-Line bus on Thursday morning. The bus aboard which the incident took place picks up students from both schools in the East End of New Rochelle. The New Rochelle Board of Education has an agreement with Bee-Line to transport students to and from the district’s two middle schools.
Parents who contacted Talk of the Sound were particularly upset that neither school officials nor police notified the parents about the incident. Parents say they first learned of the gun incident from their children after they returned home later that day.
The New Rochelle Board of Education has a “zero tolerance” policy for weapons possession although that policy has been routinely ignored by building principals over the years. The gun was later determined to be a pistol-style BB gun. Under the right circumstances, a BB gun can cause serious injury or death.