Florida student suspended after disarming gunman
After a football player threatened his teammate with a loaded gun on a school bus, the student who wrestled the gun away was suspended.





A Florida high school student was suspended for three days after he disarmed a fellow student on the school bus. The suspect was a football player who pointed the gun at a teammate's face and threatened to shoot him. (File/UPI/John Angelillo)
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Published: March. 4, 2013 at 2:29 PMBy KRISTEN BUTLER, UPI.com
A 16-year-old Cypress Lake High School student in Fort Meyers, Florida, disarmed a football player on the bus ride home. The next day the school suspended him for three days.

The student, who does not want to be identified out of fear for his safety, said the football player was threatening to shoot a teammate with the loaded .22 caliber RG-14 revolver. He grappled with the suspect and disarmed him, afterward saying there was "no doubt" he saved a life by doing so. Another student who witnessed the incident on the bus said of the suspect, "I think he was really going to shoot him right then and there."

The teen's mother told local media: "If they wouldn't've did what they had to do on that bus, I think there would have been a lot of fatalities."

Police reports state the suspected gunman was charged with possession of a firearm on school property and assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. There was no video of the incident because school bus surveillance cameras weren't operational.

"It's dumb," said the teen. "How they going to suspend me for doing the right thing?"

Florida law allows administrators to place anyone involved in such an incident on emergency suspension pending a hearing. The teen who wrestled the gun from the football player has been informed he can return to school Monday.