Thursday, January 13, 2000
Jail time for guns brought to school
No more excuses, judge tells man, 19
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — Andrew Szymanski's father said authorities made an unfair example of his son when they arrested him for taking guns on school property last February.
But a judge said the former Lebanon High School student had a habit of blaming his troubles on others.
“When the situations present themselves, it seems always to be someone else's fault,” Judge Neal Bronson said in sentencing the 19-year-old Turtlecreek Township man to 20 days in the county jail Wednesday.
Judge Bronson, who noted that Mr. Szymanski had been charged with theft since the school incident, placed him on probation for three years, ordered him to acquire a General Equivalency Diploma and banned him from having guns during that time. He faced up to a year in prison.
“This is not the crime of the century. Fortunately, nothing came of it. However ... it is a sensitive issue, not just in this county but throughout the country,” Judge Bronson said, referring to weapons in schools.
Mr. Szymanski, who pleaded no contest last month to a charge of illegal conveyance of a gun on school premises, didn't explain his actions Wednesday even though the judge offered him the opportunity.
School officials and police searched Mr. Szymanski's car after students told a teacher they thought he had guns in the trunk.
At the time, Andrew Szymanski had been suspended from school and was there to visit a psychologist. A target pistol and a loaded .22-caliber rifle were found in the trunk of the car.
In previous court hearings, school administrators said they considered Mr. Szymanski a threat because he had exhibited strange behavior in school before the incident.
That behavior included wearing a bathrobe and slippers to school, causing trouble during a homecoming parade and writing threatening remarks on school papers.
In a school questionnaire about student interests, Mr. Szymanski had answered that he liked to “kill people,” Pam Bullock, coordinator for special education programs at the high school testified in September.
David Szymanski said his son had planned to go target shooting after the meeting at school on Feb. 17 and that he and his wife knew their son owned guns for that purpose. He said his son did not know that the law prohibited guns on school grounds.
“There was no motive to do any harm,” he said.
David Szymanski said his family has suffered since the incident. His son lost his job as a life guard at a YMCA. He and his wife have been humiliated by the media attention and by comments they've overheard in public.
“We have been called careless parents and over-protective parents ... He has been accused of the worst, and we have had to live with that for 10 months,” David Szymanski said.
Defense attorney Jay Revelson indicated that he will appeal the sentence. Judge Bronson ordered Mr. Szymanski to turn himself in to the jail on Friday,if an appeal has not been filed by then.
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