Posted on: Sunday, March 25, 2001

Boy, 10, arrested in threat on teacher

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

A 10-year-old Kailua Elementary School student was arrested Friday after he allegedly threatened to kill his teacher with a toy gun.

The boy was angry because the teacher had chosen another student to perform in a play, said Sgt. Timmy Wong of the Kailua police station.

The boy brought the toy gun to school in his backpack on Friday and asked another fifth-grader to hold it for him, police said. The schoolmate asked what the gun was for, and the boy said that he planned to use it to kill his teacher.

The gun was an "air soft pistol" that shoots plastic bullets. It was not loaded. The second student, however, thought the gun was real, police said. The schoolmate agreed to hold the gun, but during the lunch break gave it to the school principal and told her about the threat.

The principal called the 10-year-old to her office and the boy refused to discuss the incident with her. She then called the police.

"It was a toy gun, but the threat was real," Wong said. "With all this stuff going on on the Mainland, we have to do something to keep our students from emulating them. We needed to send a message: You are going to be taken down if you go around talking like that."

The boy was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats. His father picked him up later Friday and took him home.

The teacher against whom the alleged threat was made was not in school Friday and not aware of the threat, Wong said.