Gasoline In Locker Prompts Charge At Middle School

By Andrew Gorosko

Police have charged a 14-year-old boy, who is a student at Newtown Middle School, with second-degree breach of peace, for bringing gasoline and a cigarette lighter with him to school at 11 Queen Street.

Police said that on the morning of Friday, June 6, they learned that the unidentified student had brought a “small container of gasoline” and a cigarette lighter with him to school. Police declined to identify the youth. State law shields the identity of people under age 16 who are charged with crimes.

Police declined to say how much gasoline the youth had brought to school, other than to say it was a “small amount.”

After learning of the situation, school officials alerted police. Police said they confiscated the items and arrested the boy.

To reconcile various versions of what had occurred, which were circulating in the school, Newtown Middle School Principal Diane Sherlock on June 6 sent a letter home to the parents and guardians of middle school students.

In the letter, Ms Sherlock terms the matter a “serious situation.”

“Early in the day, I was alerted that a student had brought a small container of gasoline and a lighter to school. Upon checking that student’s locker, we found those items. We immediately notified the police, the [school] superintendent, and the child’s parents. We view this as a serious situation, and appropriate actions will be taken,” Ms Sherlock wrote in the letter.

“Please be assured that the safety and well-being of your child remains paramount to all of our middle school staff,” she added.

Newtown Middle School Resource Officer Gladys Pisani investigated the case for police.

The arrested youth is scheduled to appear June 23 in Danbury Juvenile Court to answer the breach of peace charge, which is a misdemeanor.

On June 18, 2002, which was the last day of classes at the middle school for last school year, the presence of an apparent bomb in the school parking lot prompted the rapid evacuation of the building, resulting in the cancellation of the last day of school there. Town police, state police, and the FBI then converged at the school to investigate that matter, which was later described as an apparent hoax.