Liberty University offers scholarship to Eagle Scout under fire

What is particularly surprising about this story is that it took place in North Carolina. Fox News reported:

A North Carolina Eagle Scout who was arrested and faces expulsion for accidentally leaving a shotgun in his pickup truck in the school parking lot has been offered a scholarship to attend Liberty University.

Political correctness run amuk?

Cole Withrow was just a few weeks from graduating with honors from Princeton High School when he was arrested on Monday and slapped with a felony weapons charge. Withrow had been skeet shooting with friends a day before and had only noticed he had left his shotgun in his truck as he reached to grab his book bag.

When he realized his mistake, he went to the front office and called his mother. An administrator overheard the conversation and called police.

The story went national ... so how did Lynchburg's Liberty University come into this?

Withrow was wearing a Liberty University tee shirt in the news story. Who should see it but Jerry Falwell Jr. himself, chancellor and president of Liberty University, who was in North Carolina and saw the story on the news ... complete with LU shirt. The rest, as they say, is history:

Falwell told Fox News that he made a few calls and discovered that Withrow’s sister is a Liberty graduate.

“I was really impressed with what a meek and humble Christian kid he is,” Falwell said. “I thought he would be a perfect fit at Liberty.”

So the chancellor made the 18-year-old an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“I told him that we would give him whatever scholarships he needed to attend Liberty University,” he said.

Falwell said the university is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the teenager gets a college education.

“The anti-gun zealots seem to be vilifying him for making an honest mistake,” he told Fox News. “We want to reward him for trying to do the right thing.”

And that means even helping the young man finish his last few weeks of high school. Falwell said they offered to let him finish his high school work through their online academy.

Liberty's 100,000 on-campus and on-line students make it the largest Christian University in the world.

Background on the Federal Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 (commonly known as Zero Tolerance):
- 'What's a zero tolerance policy?' 
- Information on state and local responsibilities