By Wendy Ruderman
The Philadelphia Daily News
Related: 14-year-old arrested with stockpile of weapons; planned school attack
PHILADELPHIA — Teachers are used to hearing all kinds of excuses for school absences.
But yesterday morning, student Lew Bennett III had a seldom-heard explanation.
The 14-year-old freshman at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School missed class because he had a rendezvous with President Bush.
“I think that [absence] will be forgiven,” joked school spokesman Dave Sherman.
Bennett is being celebrated as a hero for alerting police about another teen’s plan to stage a Columbine-style school attack.
“The president wanted to thank him for doing the right thing,” White House spokesman Alex Conant said yesterday.
Bush shook Bennett’s hand and warmly clasped him around the shoulder as they greeted one another at Philadelphia International Airport. Bush, who arrived on Air Force One, talked with Bennett for several minutes, praising the boy’s courage.
“It was pretty unbelievable,” said the youth’s father, Lewis Bennett Jr. “I expected him to just kind of breeze by and shake hands and be gone.”
Bush was in town for a private GOP fundraiser at the Bryn Mawr home of John M. Templeton. Lew’s father said a Bush staffer called their Plymouth Township home Friday afternoon to invite the family to meet the president.
“We heard that it might be a possibility but we didn’t really plan for it,” Lewis Bennett Jr. said.
Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said he had approached Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., with the idea and Specter contacted White House staff members, who quickly arranged for Bush to meet the Bennetts. Specter joined them at the airport.
“I want the public to know that we considered this to be very important, and what better way to show that than to have the President of the United States recognize the boy for his service?” Castor said.
“He sets an example for other students throughout the country who come in contact with information that might avert a catastrophe.”
Earlier this month, Bennett confided in his parents and then went to police after learning that 14-year-old Dillon Cossey had acquired a semiautomatic rifle from his mother. In addition to the 9mm rifle, police found four live grenades, 13 BB guns, eight knives, five swords, handcuffs, and a ski mask in Cossey’s bedroom.
“I was just sick of hearing about all these school shootings,” Bennett told the Daily News in an Oct. 11 interview. “I wanted to stop him.”
Cossey, an overweight outcast who was home-schooled, had tried to enlist Bennett in a plan to shoot bullies.
Cossey pleaded guilty last week to criminal solicitation to commit murder, risking a catastrophe, and possessing instruments of crime. He is facing up to seven years in juvenile detention.
Plymouth Township Police Chief Carmen D. Pettine said about Bennett: “He’s a hero. If he didn’t come forward, it could have been a very tragic event. What he did should be recognized by a high authority and it’s quite an honor getting recognized by the president.”
Bennett, a slender teen with dark brown eyes curtained by long bangs, has shied from press attention and is reluctant to see himself as a hero. To no avail.
The Philadelphia branch of the Anti-Defamation League is planning to honor Bennett at a Dec. 5 dinner, according to branch executive director Barry Morrison.
“He certainly will be singled out along with others being honored this year,” Morrison said.
Copyright 2007 The Philadelphia Daily News