Students rally around teen hunter who brought gun to school

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A southwest Missouri school district is struggling to figure out how to deal with a high school senior who left an unloaded, disassembled shotgun under the seat of his pickup truck parked on school grounds.

Students in Carthage, a town of about 14,000 a half-hour east of Joplin, are rallying around Sawyer Shepherd after he was suspended Tuesday for violating a district policy that forbids guns on school property.

Their concern is that Sawyer, an avid hunter, might not be able to graduate with his senior class next month or be allowed to finish out the high school baseball season.

Judd McPherson, a Joplin attorney for the 18-year-old student, said Sawyer was put on 10-day suspension while administrators investigate the incident.

Carthage School Board policy calls for a minimum one-year suspension or possible expulsion for violating the district's firearms ban, he said. But the policy also allows the superintendent to recommend modification of a suspension on a case-by-case basis.

"This is a very emotional issue," Carthage School District Superintendent Blaine Henningsen said Friday. "We have a lot of people in the area who hunt and are outdoorsmen. This is the case with this particular student."

Sawyer went turkey hunting with a friend before school on Tuesday, McPherson said. He disassembled the shotgun - removing the barrel completely from the stock and receiver - and put it in its case, which he slid under the front seat of his pickup truck, he said.

After the two boys posted photos on Facebook with the bird they had killed, Sawyer went home, changed clothes and jumped into his pickup truck to head to school. But he forgot to remove the shotgun, McPherson said.

Later that morning, district officials received an anonymous tip about guns in the parking lot, he said. When Sawyer, who is well-known for his love of hunting, was asked by an administrator if he had any guns in his vehicle, he said he wasn't sure but acknowledged there was a chance his shotgun might still be there.

It was, but police who were called to the school declined to press charges because Sawyer had broken no laws.

Still, Henningsen said the student violated district policy and administrators have no choice but to suspend him. The School Board will decide on any further punishment next week, though Henningsen said he doesn't see a scenario in which Sawyer wouldn't graduate on time.

Sawyer's older sister, Haley Marie Carter, stressed on her Facebook page that the family is not upset with school administrators who are trying to "follow the law like we would all expect them to."