Report: Stabbing suspect took knife to school without punishment
BOSTON --A 16-year-old Princeton boy who's accused of stabbing a classmate to death in school in January brought a pocketknife and fake handgun to school on separate occasions last fall but was not disciplined or reported to police, Sudbury's police chief said.
Police chief Peter Fadgen told The Boston Globe that a psychologist at Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School confiscated the items from John Odgren, but returned them by the end of the school day.
The psychologist reported the incidents to his supervisor, but did not tell John Ritchie, who is both superintendent and high school principal, Fadgen said. He would not name the psychologist and said he did not know if the psychologist was employed by the school or another agency.
The school is required by law to report children who bring weapons to school to local police, Fadgen said.
"I was alarmed that even a folding knife ... was taken and then given back to him at the end of the day," Fadgen said. "I thought it was an improper way to handle it."
Ritchie did not return calls from the Globe, but said in an e-mail to parents Friday, "We are investigating this matter thoroughly and will report as completely as possible as soon as we are able to do so."
Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee member Jack Ryan told the Globe that Ritchie notified the panel in a closed session this week that he'd learned about a week earlier that Odgren had brought a pocketknife to school last year.
Ritchie told the committee that school officials are investigating why they were not told last fall of Odgren's confiscated items, Ryan said. School policy requires that a student found with a weapon face a disciplinary hearing.
The Middlesex District Attorney's office and Odgren's attorney declined comment.
Odgren is scheduled to be arraigned on first-degree murder charges Tuesday for stabbing to death James Alenson, 15, in a school bathroom.
The disclosures about the knife and fake gun raise questions about the school's culpability in the killing, but student talks with school psychologists are sometimes considered privileged and confidential, unless the students are deemed an imminent threat to safety. Fadgen said the psychologist told his investigators Odgren did not make any threats when he showed the items.
Fadgen said Odgren came to school last September and asked the psychologist what would happen "if somebody brought something to school that he wasn't supposed to." He then pulled out a folding knife that was slightly bigger than a Swiss Army knife and gave it to the psychologist, telling him he brought it by mistake. Fadgen said.
The psychologist told investigators he put the knife in an envelope and returned it to Odgren at the end of the school day, Fadgen said.
Fadgen said a few weeks later Odgren showed a fake pistol to the same psychologist and told him it was a prop for drama class. The psychologist took the fake gun, then returned it to Odgren at the end of the day and told him not to bring it to school again, Fadgen said.
