"" Meet Jordan Wiser, a high school senior you
might call an overachiever.
Enrolled in an Ohio vocational-technical
school, Wiser was taking Firefighter 2 and
EMT courses to bolster his dream of future
public service.
“Last year, I completed the law enforcement
course,” the 18-year-old told The Huffington
Post. “I received several certifications,
including the National Terror Defense
certification from FEMA, the Terror
Recognition certification and (certification as
an) Emergency Vehicle Operator.”
Wiser also joined the Army, enrolling the
Future Soldiers program, and was scheduled
to ship out in August. After his planned
military service, he figured he’d embark on a
career as a police officer or firefighter.
But Wiser’s big dreams of public service are
on hold. In fact, he’s now enduring a
nightmare.
It all started Dec. 12 when administrators at
Ashtabula County Technical and Career
Campus (A-Tech) in Jefferson, Ohio — about
60 miles northeast of Cleveland — questioned
Wiser after an alleged tip regarding videos
uploaded to Wiser’s YouTube account .
Among the clips are reviews of video games
and merchandise, home defense tactics, and
an interview with a local police officer.
“The principal said he had reason to believe I
had weapons in my vehicle and needed to
search it,” Wiser told the Huffington Post. “He
made me empty out all my pockets, and the
vice principal grabbed me and patted me
down very forcibly. It was somewhat
awkward. Then they took my car keys. I told
them what was in my car and said, ‘Don’t be
alarmed.’”
Wiser added that he didn’t give school
officials permission to search his vehicle, nor
was there a warrant to perform the search.
But they cited the school handbook as their
warrant, he said, adding that they denied his
request to call an attorney.
And what did they find inside Wiser’s vehicle?
A folding blade pocketknife, a stun gun and
two Airsoft guns.
Airsoft is a game akin to paintball in which
participants shoot each other with round
non-metallic pellets, and Wiser said he had
plans for an Airsoft game after school. The
stun gun was for self-defense, he said, adding
that the pocketknife was part of his EMT kit.
“My stun gun was locked in the glove box,”
Wiser told the Huffington Post, “and the knife
was in my EMT medical vest. I bought it at
K-Mart and have it as part of my first
responder kit for cutting seatbelts.”
Image source: WOIO-TV
Wiser was arrested and jailed for illegal
conveyance of a weapon onto a school
ground, a Class 5 felony.
Harold Specht, the chief assistant prosecutor
at the Ashtabula County prosecutor’s office,
said the charge is related only to the
pocketknife.
“I was in jail for almost 13 days,” Wiser told
the Huffington Post. “The first bond hearing I
went to was on December 15. The judge
ordered me [to be] held on a half million-
dollar bond, pending a psychological
evaluation. I did that and passed. They found
I was not suicidal, homicidal or a threat to
anybody. My attorney brought it up in front
of a different judge, who let me out on a
$50,000 bond and an ankle monitor. I was
released from jail on Christmas Eve.”
Given his school’s locale, Wiser doesn’t
understand all the hubub over his pocketknife
— nor the wide-ranging fallout from its
discovery.
“There are kids at my school all the time who
get caught with knives and are suspended,”
he told the Huffington Post. “My school is
very rural, and people carry knives. I can
accept the fact that there was a lapse in
judgment, and I can accept a punishment,
but I have already been expelled from both
the tech school and my home school.”
Jerome Brockway, the A-Tech superintendent,
declined to discuss the case.
And since Wiser’s felony charge, he said the
Army discharged him pending a not-guilty
verdict or dropped charges without prejudice.
That’s not all. If the felony charge sticks,
things could get way worse.
“If I am convicted of a felony, I’m never going
to be a police officer. I’m never going to be a
fireman. I’m never going to be in the
military,” he added. “I won’t even be able to
be a janitor. I’m 18 years old, and this is
going to ruin my entire life.”
If all of the knocks against Wiser weren’t
enough, he added that the conditions of his
bond prohibit him from contact with his
grandfather, who is dying from cancer.
“The one judge I went in front of told me to
remove any firearms from my parents’ house
and put them at my grandpa’s house,” Wiser
said. “The next judge freaked out about me
even knowing what a gun is and put a no-
contact order against me and my
grandparents. My grandfather is dying right
now, and I am not allowed within 500 feet of
him.”
There was a petition on change.org that
demanded Wiser’s charges be reduced to a
misdemeanor, and within 48 hours, it
attracted 1,349 signatures. But Wiser said he
asked that the petition be closed, which it
was.
“The court threatened to hold sanctions
against me and my lawyer,” Wiser told the
Huffington Post. “I guess the prosecutor was
upset because his inbox had been flooded
with emails as a result of the petition.”
Specht said he’s aware “there’s a load of
people out here that just think we’re the devil
because we’re allegedly ruining this young
kid’s life,” but he insisted that’s not the case
and that the felony charge is justified and
there are no plans to reduce the charge.
“There are all these school occurrences where
people are shot, people are killed by other
students,” Specht said. “We see it every day …
so we don’t take these things lightly. … We
have to be sure that we don’t have a
potential for something like that to happen
here.”
Wiser said he’s offended by Specht’s
characterization.
“I was enlisted in the Army and went to
school to be [a] police officer and fireman,”
he said. “Why are they trying to paint me as
a potential school shooter? I never had any
intentions of hurting a soul.”
Wiser’s attorney, William Bobulsky, did not
return calls for comment from the Huffington
Post.
Wiser is scheduled to appear in court again
on April 1 for a pretrial hearing. A jury trial is
tentatively scheduled for June 11.
“Never in my life did I think this would
happen,” Wiser said. “I dedicated my life to
public service, and now a four-inch
pocketknife could ruin everything.”"
Link.

That's so damn ridiculous!

Crazy

That's beyond fu.cked up!

That just makes me angry all over again! My youngest daughter was 12 yrs old when my brother was murdered and she started havin nightmares about someone killing her. Well I gave her one of my brothers prized pocket knives as 'protection' told her never to pull it on someone unless they are physically harming her. Well this little pocket knife that was really just a token of strength got her suspended and I had to home school her for that year:( she did not pull it out either-her purse fell off top shelf in her locker and everything tumbled out-the knife included. Some kid reported it because before her next class was over they called her to office-searched her purse and confiscated my bro's knife he had used since he was a little boy...they refused to give it back to me it was evidence, and its long gone now:(

Yep guilty until proven instant!