By Joe Johnson
An administrator this week confiscated a large knife from a 14-year-old student at W.R. Coile Middle School, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
It was the third time this year that a student was caught with a knife on school grounds in Athens.
W.R. Coile's vice principal alerted police at about 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday that she learned a male student possibly was armed and said that she subsequently seized the knife from the boy, according to the report.
A state Department of Juvenile Justice official who was on the Old Elberton Road campus instructed police to release the girl into the custody of a guardian, according to the report, which did not indicate whether a juvenile complaint would be filed by police.
The incident marked the third time in two months that students were caught with knives on public school grounds.
According to a previously-released police report, a 16-year-old female student was arrested in August at Clarke Central High School on a charge of possession of a weapon in a school safety zone.
Police were called to the school after the 8-inch knife with a 3-inche blade was found by a school administrator in the girl’s book bag, according to the report.
School officials were made aware of the girl’s possible possession of a knife through her Instagram account which shows a picture of a knife and various comments, such as “I gotta show em how violent I can get,” according to the report.
The DJJ instructed police to transport the student to the Athens-Clarke County Courthouse, according to the report.
Also in August, a 15-year old female student was found in possession of a buck knife at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School, according to another previously released police report.
A bus driver alerted the school’s principal that she had seen the student with the knife, according to the report.
Police said they were advised by the DJJ to release the student into a parent’s custody, but the report did not note whether a juvenile complaint would be filed.