St. Maart: No teacher, it's not for real

A sixth grade student of a primary school in the Dutch Quarter area was detained by detectives after teachers found him with a brown Colt .25 calibre automatic gun in the schoolyard yesterday.

A teacher walking past a group of children in the schoolyard spotted the child with the gun. He was aiming at other students while saying, "Bang, bang." She said she had immediately tried to get the weapon, because she feared it was real.

A female police officer arrived at the school later and inspected the weapon. She told teachers the weapon was very real and had yellow plastic bullets in it that could have caused grievous bodily harm.

The student, a French side resident of about 12 years, cried in the principal's office, claiming he would be in trouble if he did not return the gun to the friend who had lent it to him.

Was this French St. Maarten resident trying to tame the Dutch side one bullet at a time? Tune in next week, same time, same channel.