Student With Knife Won’t Be Prosecuted Carried In Lunch Box, Setting Off School Furor

A sixth-grader caught with a kitchen knife in her lunch box at school will not be prosecuted.

Prosecutor Barney Giese said Charlotte Kirk, an 11-year-old honors student at Hopkins Middle School, lacked criminal intent. He dropped the charge of carrying a weapon on school property on Wednesday.

Charlotte said she put the knife in her lunch box Oct. 18 so she could cut up her chicken. After asking a teacher if she could use the knife, Charlotte was suspended, threatened with expulsion and then arrested.

She returned to class Tuesday as a celebrity, signing autographs and discussing possible television interviews.

“Everyone kept saying, ‘You’re famous,”’ Charlotte said.

Giese said Charlotte would learn a better lesson from her parents and teachers than from a trial.

“Whoever dropped the charges is the person, and the only person in this whole thing, who has used any common sense,” said Christine Moore, Charlotte’s grandmother.

District Superintendent Don Henderson said he also was glad Giese decided not to prosecute: “I’m just pleased it’s gone through the system, and I’m pleased the solicitor did the right thing.”