There’s no doubt that the Thomas White case has been a learning experience for the entire community.
White is the Joplin teen who fired an assault rifle inside Memorial Middle School almost three years ago. He was sentenced Friday to 10 years in state custody.
At a hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court, Circuit Judge David Mouton ordered White, 16, turned over to the Division of Youth Services for placement in its dual-jurisdiction program at Montgomery City for juveniles who commit serious crimes.
White was 13 when he took an assault rifle to the school on Oct. 9, 2006, fired a shot into a hallway ceiling and then repeatedly attempted to shoot Principal Stephen Gilbreth at near-point-blank range as Gilbreth ushered him out of the school. Joplin police say the attempt was foiled by an improperly seated ammunition clip in the rifle.
We think the dual-jurisdiction program is the best place for White to serve out his sentence. Both those who thought White should have been kept in the juvenile court system and those who supported White’s certification as an adult appear to be in agreement on the sentencing outcome. The teen pleaded guilty in June to two counts of first-degree assault and a single count of armed criminal action in a plea agreement that dismissed additional counts of discharging a weapon inside a school and attempted escape.
What we know now that we didn’t know three years ago, is that the certification process for White took far too long, and his time in solitary confinement did little toward helping him toward any type of rehabilitation. White had to be moved from jail into a psychiatric hospital for children. Now, the earliest White can request a hearing for consideration of probation will be his 18th birthday.
Make no mistake, White’s crime was serious and if his gun had not jammed, probably fatal. We will not forget that.
We can and should examine our system and the way it treats juveniles certified as adults. Certainly we can all agree that three years is too long for anyone, juvenile or adult, to await their fate.
