Girl With Knife in Lunch Box Cleared

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 in Columbia, S.C., lacked criminal intent. He dropped the charge of carrying a weapon on school property. 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. A lawyer for Charlotte, Ben Wofford, has appealed her 20-day suspension, which was not enforced, and probation for the rest of the year.