Teen admits stabbing student

Boy was bullied at Great Mills, he says

Friday, Jan. 26, 2007

The hearing in St. Mary’s Juvenile Court ended with the young offender’s release to continue staying with an uncle in Calvert County until a disposition proceeding next month. A judge could order that the boy be detained through the juvenile services system until he is 21. The ninth-grader’s mother is pursuing an appeal to set aside his expulsion from the high school.

On Dec. 13, a prosecutor said at this week’s hearing, 16-year-old Ricky Devonte Thomas went to a classroom, where the younger student blocked him from entering and began stabbing him with a knife. Thomas was treated at St. Mary’s Hospital for injuries to one of his wrists, his back and abdomen.

Initial questioning of the younger boy indicated the attack had been carried out with a pair of scissors, but a paring knife later was recovered from the school office where he had been detained after the incident, St. Mary’s Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin J. McDevitt said.

The boy’s lawyer and family members said he is trying to resume his schooling, either by reinstatement by St. Mary’s public schools or other options.

‘‘He wants to go ahead with an education,” his uncle said. ‘‘He has a lot of dreams and aspirations that he wants to experience.”

Judge Michael J. Stamm told the boy, ‘‘I don’t think you’re going to go back to school anytime soon. What the school has expelled you for is a terrible, terrible crime.”

The judge addressed an assertion by the boy’s lawyer that his client was being bullied at the school.

‘‘You made everyone who goes to classes at that school a victim,” the judge said. ‘‘I realize this is a result of you being bullied, ... but you took the law into your own hands. There are other avenues you could have taken.”

Stamm allowed the boy to remain on electronic monitoring at his uncle’s home as he awaits the disposition hearing, and the judge praised the boy’s family for their ‘‘proactive” measures to help him avoid further trouble.

E-mail John Wharton at jwharton@somdnews.com.