Paw Paw Student Won’t Be Tried As Adult

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pawpawredskins-10

The Paw Paw High School student accused of plotting an attack on his school in March will not be tried as an adult. The decision to keep the case in juvenile court in Van Buren County was made yesterday by Judge Jeffrey Dufon, who says plenty of people at the school and in law enforcement failed the boy.

“We have the youth intervention program, we have a juvenile justice screener that screens juveniles when we believe that there may be issues,” said Dufon during yesterday’s hearing. “Why this child was not sent to them, I have no idea.”

The 15-year-old’s parents turned him in to the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Department after finding guns and explosives, believing police could get him help. Instead, he wound up in custody. During yesterday’s hearing, the boy’s mother was asked what she thought would happen when she took the boy to police in March by the defense attorney.

“I didn’t think he’d be charged as an adult, for sure. I didn’t even think that would be a consideration,” she said. “If I had known that, I would have never brought him down here. Never. We would have found something else.”

Police contend the teen was just days away from carrying out an attack on the high school had his parents not turned him in. The teen’s parents say he had been bullied relentlessly at school leading up to him taking guns from his grandfather and sawing them off to fit into a bag.