Colleton County student expelled over BB gun incidents

A Colleton County sixth-grader has been expelled after he was tied to BB guns brought to school twice this year, school officials said.

The student ran into trouble at the start of the academic year when he was caught bringing a BB gun to Colleton County Middle School. At a disciplinary hearing, his mother asked officials to give her son a second chance and he was placed in an alternative school, Colleton County Assistant Superintendent Bob Pence said.

Within the past month, another student was caught with a BB gun and authorities traced it back to the boy who had been disciplined earlier in the year, Pence said.

School officials expelled the boy at a Dec. 12 disciplinary hearing, Pence said. Pence did not know if the gun was the same plastic weapon found during the first incident.

Pence said the BB gun was turned over to law enforcement. It could not immediately be determined today whether criminal charges had been filed against the boy.

The weapon was never brandished or fired during the incidents, Pence said.