NJ;Irvington sued over arrest of schoolboys playing with paper gun

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Irvington sued over arrest of schoolboys playing with paper gun Email this story Printer friendly format Top Stories Snowy conditions lead to multiple-car pileup on Interstate 81 New York Pick 10 Misconduct charged at EMS Academy Former prison guard convicted of stabbing death of prostitute Study shows Nevada leads nation in problem gamblers March 21, 2002, 11:05 AM ESTNEWARK, N.J. -- Irvington and its school board violated the constitutional rights of a schoolboy by arresting and suspending him for playing with a paper gun, according to a lawsuit filed by his father. "Even in this era of zero tolerance, no child should be subjected to the kind of treatment my client was subjected to," William Manns, lawyer for Jaquill Shelton, told The Star-Ledger of Newark in Thursday's editions. Township and school officials had no comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in state Superior Court on March 15, one year after the incident. On that day, another second-grader, Hamadi Alston, pointed a folded piece of paper shaped to look like a gun at his classmates and said, "I'm going to kill you all," police said. Hamadi said he was only imitating what his friend, Jaquill, had done earlier that day at the Augusta Street School. School officials called police, who interviewed the two boys for nearly five hours at a precinct station and then charged the 8-year-olds with making terroristic threats. The boys were also suspended for one day. The charges were dismissed two weeks later by state Superior Court Judge Peter V. Ryan. The boys are now 9 and in third grade but no longer attend the Augusta Street School. Strict responses to perceived violence were prompted by school shootings around the nation, including the 1999 killing of 13 at Columbine High School in Colorado by two students who then killed themselves. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--studentscharged0321mar21.story