Student Brings Loaded Weapon (boa) to School

[SPJ]

WMC-TV (Memphis, Tennessee) 18 November 06 5 ft. boa constricter found in student's backpack (Syan Rhodes)

Students often bring things to school to share, but it seems in this case, the intent was to scare.
Kids at Wooddale Middle School say the student who brought the 5 1/2 foot snake to school was doing some not-so-friendly things.
"The little boy brought it to school and he just started playing with it and trying to run people around the school with it so he was chasing people with it? yeah, and then till, he got caught, somebody went and told the principal," said 8th grader Andrew Holmes.
The principal called Memphis Police who took the boa to the animal shelter.
"When it was taken out of the backpack, it was very cold, so she now is basically getting my body heat to try to warm her body up," said Beth Garrison, an animal care technician with the Memphis Animal Shelter.
"A snake like this could be considered dangerous it could be like a loaded weapon," said Animal Services Administrator Phil Snyder.
According to Snyder, boa constrictors are not poisonous, but kill by squeezing and crushing their prey with their bodies.
"How? why, would a child bring a boa constrictor to school?" asked Wooddale parent, Cassaundra Horton.
No one with Memphis City Schools system was willing to talk about the snake scare , and wouldn't tell us how they disciplined the student, only saying that he was punished.


http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?s=5699323

[mr~python]

i hate it when people discriminate against reptiles. one guy on another forum was saying how a husky recue wasn't allowing him to foster/adopt a husky from them because he had monitor lizards and they were "a danger to the husky or any other animal in the house".

[Rapture]

Who knows if he was really running around with it... I brought my tarantula to school once and let people hold it that wanted to, and one girl even put it on her face... but it got spread through the staff e-mail that I was chasing people around with it and throwing it on them... right...

I got a Saturday class for it.

[Rapture]

i hate it when people discriminate against reptiles. one guy on another forum was saying how a husky recue wasn't allowing him to foster/adopt i husky from them because he had monitor lizards and they were "a danger to the husky or any other animal in the house".

HAHAHA danger to a Husky? Do they know anything about Huskies?

[joepythons]

Great just what our hobby needs more neg publicity .Who else thinks they will destroy the boa ?What a moron saying its a"deadly weapon"

[mr~python]

yes, they do. i think the question is "do they know anything about albigs?". nope, they do not.

i forgot to mention the guy already has 1-2 huskies.

[Shaun J]

I've been in a Memphis City School for most of my life. Let's just say it's not the best county in west TN

[SPJ]

Gotta love it. An ice cold boa. Really big threat.

People see a snake and for some reason automatically think it is out to kill them.
Articles like this do nothing to stop the ignorance.

[wolfy-hound]

Actually the first news story sounded nothing like this.
It stated that they found the boa loose, and the boy admitted to bringing it to school in his backpack. They took the animal to animal control so the parents could pick it up after work, and the animal control said that bit about the constrictor, then said it was harmless to people.
I can try to find the original story, but this is YET another instance of one news agency taking one story and twisting it. The first story was great, saying basically that the child was irresponsible for bringing the poor snake to school.
This one turns it around completely. This is why I distrust anything in the media anymore.
Wolfy

[lillyorchid]

I hope that Boa was given back to it's owners and warmed up, and not put to sleep. Grrr people anger me!