Student pulled off school bus, charged with littering

Guy Mitchell, 16, said he was swinging a plastic bottle around in the bus as he rode home after school when the  bottle flew out the window.

"I was just, like, swinging ... but I wasn't swinging to make it go out the window. But the wind caught the bottle," Mitchell said.

The bottle caught the attention of a Hoke County sheriff's deputy who was behind the bus on Rockfish Road. He stopped the bus, stepped on board and asked who threw the bottle.

Mitchell admitted he was responsible, and the deputy pulled him off the bus and arrested him.

"He just got me straight off the bus and (was) saying he didn't believe me that it was an accident," he said. "Then, (he) told me to get my stuff, and (he) threw the cuffs on me."

Mitchell said he wasn't being disrespectful to the deputy, who drove him to the Hoke County Jail, where he was booked on a charge of littering.

His mother paid his $500 bail to get him out of jail.

"My son being in jail, booked, fingerprinted, mug shot – that was a little too much for me," Arwanda Cook said.

Cook described her son as a good teen and said he wouldn't start trouble.

"I think by my son telling the truth, (the deputy) just wanted to make an example out of my son," she said.

Sheriff Hubert Peterkin declined to discuss the incident, saying he doesn't address citizen complaints in the media. He said he would be "happy to sit down" with Cook to talk about her concerns.

She said she had left a message for Peterkin with her cell phone number. Peterkin said he had not received any call.