2 Rock Hill teens with gun violations, who also brought guns to school, now sentenced
Two Rock Hill teens, with records of prior gun-related violations, pleaded guilty Tuesday in court to bringing loaded weapons to schools earlier this year.
One teen was placed on probation and immediately released to go home. The other must spend time at a teen rehabilitation center, and then serve probation.
The two are among three students charged in late August after guns were found on consecutive days at South Pointe and Rock Hill high schools, and Dutchman Creek Middle School. No shots were fired in any of the incidents and no one was hurt.
All three schools are in the Rock Hill school district.
The incidents sparked community fears, massive school absences, and a public forum on guns and school safety.
At Tuesday’s sentencing hearings in York County Family Court, the two boys, ages 14 and 16, could have faced punishment as severe as juvenile prison through age 21. The teens pleaded guilty last month and had been in custody since late August.
The Herald is not naming the teens because of their ages.
South Carolina Family Court Judge Coreen Khoury agreed with recommendations from the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice in both cases that probation, coupled with curfews and other treatment plans, were the appropriate sentences.
Khoury said in court that she had concerns that the charges were the second gun convictions. Yet Khoury said the role of the courts for juveniles is to try and correct behavior.
“The job of the system is to rehabilitate if possible,” Khoury said.
Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett argued in court for active jail terms for both teens. Brackett said the school gun incidents terrified the public, the students and staff at schools.
“Guns in schools are a major problem,” Brackett said. “People need to know there are serious consequences for guns at school.”
South Pointe case
In the South Pointe case, the 16-year-old male will stay in DJJ custody until he is sent to a rehabilitation placement site where he must successfully complete a yet-to-be-determined sentence, according to the judge’s ruling and his lawyer, 16th Circuit Assistant Public Defender Stacey Coleman.
Police found the gun in the teen’s backpack at school Aug. 29, testimony showed.
Brackett said in court the teen was involved in a previous shooting in 2021, and asked the judge that the teen be held in juvenile detention for an indeterminate sentence.
“He was only released from custody a few months before he brought a pistol to school,” Brackett argued.
The 16-year-old who brought the gun claimed to DJJ evaluators and his lawyer that he had the gun for protection after threats against him, after a relative was a murder victim earlier in the year in Rock Hill, testimony showed.
“He started receiving death threats himself,” Coleman said in court.
Coleman said the teen’s decision to bring the gun to school was foolish.
Defense lawyers had previously said in court hearings in the cases that there were gang concerns at schools that could be linked to the weapons. However, there was no evidence presented in court Tuesday that alleged gang activity.
Coleman said in court the 16-year-old has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, known as PTSD, after being shot at and witnessing another person being shot in earlier incidents.
16-year-old apologizes
The teen apologized in court Tuesday.
“I’m sorry for what I did, I am not a bad person,” the 16-year-old said. “I made a bad decision because I was in fear for my life.”
The teen’s mother said in court she apologized for her son’s actions and he deserved another chance to do things right, after getting involved with the wrong people.
Dutchman Creek Middle School case
The 14-year-old male pointed a gun at another student in a bathroom at Dutchman Creek Middle School on Aug. 30, police and court testimony showed.
The 14-year-old has a previous conviction from the Charleston area where he had a weapon, testimony showed.
DJJ officials recommended probation and a treatment plan for the 14-year-old, but no jail time.
Brackett asked for an active jail sentence for the 14-year-old because of a previous gun conviction. That conviction and probation did not get the defendant’s attention and he continued to violate the law, Brackett said in court.
Prosecutors, law enforcement and school officials held a public forum in early September after the three gun incidents on successive days sparked community fears about school safety.
Sixteenth Circuit Assistant Public Defender Arthur Hays, the lawyer for the 14-year-old, said in court the DJJ evaluation, which recommended no jail time, should be followed.
Hays said the 14-year-old should not get an active jail sentence to assuage public safety concerns of school, law enforcement, and other officials, or to teach a lesson to others.
The 14-year-old should not be a “scapegoat” or made to be a “pariah,” because of any other case involving guns at school, Hays said.
The 14-year-old did not speak in court.
His parents said in court that the 14-year-old made a bad decision to take the gun to school, but is not a bad kid.
The court case against a third teen who is charged with having a gun in a car at Rock Hill High School on Aug. 31 remains pending. That defendant was not taken into DJJ custody when charged in September.
This story was originally published October 26, 2022 at 12:02 PM.
