Bush thanks school-plot hero
Published: October 30, 2007
The heroics of a 14-year-old Plymouth Meeting boy in defusing another teen’s plans for a Columbine-like school assault culminated in a presidential handshake yesterday.
Lew Bennett III was one of about a dozen people selected to greet President Bush as he exited Air Force One at Philadelphia International Airport.
“The president wanted to thank him for doing the right thing,” said White House spokesman Alex Conant.
Bush was here for a private fund-raiser in Bryn Mawr at the home of John M. Templeton expected to raise $500,000 for GOP candidates.
Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. called the teen a hero after he told police Oct. 10 that an acquaintance, Dillon Cossey, 14, had acquired a semiautomatic rifle from his mother to use in a planned attack on Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
Eager to honor Bennett, Castor said, he gave the boy’s name to U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).
“I told Sen. Specter that it would be a good idea if the president could recognize the young man, as a way to send a message throughout the country that it is a good thing to come forward to avert a tragedy,” Castor said. “I would hope others would step forward.”
Bennett, who attends Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, was accompanied by his parents, Lew Bennett Jr., a nurse-anesthetist and Drexel University professor, and Terry Bennett, a nurse by training who works at a preschool, along with his 12-year-old sister, Kirsten.
During a brief, private conversation with the teen, the president shook the boy’s hand and put his arm around his shoulder. He then posed with the family for a portrait.
The Bennetts declined comment.
Last week, Cossey, of Plymouth Valley, admitted in juvenile court that he had assembled weapons and that he had tried to enlist Bennett’s assistance in an attack.
Cossey, who has been home-schooled for about a year and a half, left the Colonial School District after allegedly being bullied.
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