SAN ANTONIO — Three teenagers appeared before a juvenile judge Thursday, all charged with bringing weapons to school.
Two were ordered detained at the Juvenile Detention Center. The third was sent home under house arrest.
The first teen to appear before the Judge William Cruz Shaw was accused of being caught with a gun at Judson’s Veterans Memorial High School Wednesday.
School officials said they got a tip that someone was posting pictures of weapons on social media. The district said they took immediate action, found two kids with weapons and arrested both of them, adding that in addition to criminal charges the teens are also subject to disciplinary action by the school.
Shaw presided over both cases, for teens aged 16 and 15.
Family members of the 16-year-old told the judge, who already faced a drug charge last fall, that the teen had no parental supervision and that a relative who had been looking after the youngster felt they could no longer adequately supervise him.
Arguing for keeping the teen in custody one prosecutor told the judge, "He had a gun with him at the high school and that alone is enough to warrant detention."
The second teen charged in the Judson case is just 15 years old.
Prosecutors said he has been in juvenile court before as well, for an assault bodily injury charge just four months ago.
That teen’s crying mom told the judge she can't control her son and she thought he would be better off in juvenile detention, so he too was detained.
The mom said she hoped leaving him locked up would prevent him from getting in further trouble.
Speaking sternly to the teen, Shaw said, “Y’all are soft! That’s why you carry these guns! Back in the day when we were growing up we could fight and be done with it but nobody got killed!”
Lamenting a bloody weekend that led to numerous shootings, deaths and gun injuries, Shaw told the teen, “We lost six or seven kids over the weekend to gun violence! And you thought it was a good idea to bring a gun to school? Does that make sense?”
When the teen failed to respond, Shaw ordered him detained for ten days.
Both of these teens return to court June 23.
In a completely unrelated matter, a separate case involving a 16-year-old accused of bringing a pellet or BB gun to Lanier High School in May also appeared for a detention hearing. Prosecutors told the judge even though the teen had a non-lethal weapon, he also had 9 millimeter shell casings in his backpack.
The teen’s mom told the judge she doesn’t allow guns in her house so she didn’t know why her son would be carrying ammunition.
She promised to make a good faith effort to supervise her son more closely.
The teen admitted he made a mistake, but Shaw wasn’t having it, telling the teen, "You made a mistake? You made a choice! It was a decision you made. You shouldn't have pulled out that BB gun and you still did it. There's ways you could have handled that but you didn't and you scared a lot of people."
Shaw ordered 30 days of home arrest with a GPS monitor and other conditions.
It was a crowded docket Thursday. In addition to the school cases, another 16-year-old answered to allegations of discharging a firearm, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated robbery. He also was ordered to remain locked in juvenile detention.
Another 16-year-old was released to family members on a monitor after doing well in detention after his arrest in connection with an unlawfully carrying a weapon charge.
A teen who appeared on his 15th birthday was already on probation for a previous case. He was accused of posting pictures of himself on social media holding handguns.
While the teen’s mom asked that he be released to be able to enter a drug treatment program, Shaw lectured the teen but allowed him to be released under house arrest. The teen told the judge he would follow the rules.
Shaw told the teen, “I’m not playing with you! I got no problem sending you away! You better quit playing. Your mom works hard to take care of you but you’re posting stupid pictures with guns!”
The conditions imposed on the teen included: no social media, giving up passwords and screen names of all social media accounts and no access to weapons or ammunition.
Excusing the teen, Shaw said “I’m releasing you because of your mom. If you mess up, it’s on you.”