Fifteen-year-old Poul Boevski, son of Bulgarian weightlifting Olympic champion Galabin Boevski, has threatened classmates with a gun for months, the management of Sofia's 18th William Gladstone high school said in a statement published on April 21 2008.
"Poul Boevski is a problematic student who repeatedly violated school discipline, arrived late and skipped classes. This is something about which his parents have been repeatedly informed by the school and the reason why the school counselor has been working with Poul for some time".
According Poul Boevski's classmates he had pointed one of his guns at teachers' backs while the rest has hidden".
The statement referred to an incident that happened on April 18 2008 when Poul Boevski injured himself by allegedly playing Russian roulette with an air gun.
Poul Boevski suffered a minor injury on his head and when questioned on TV minutes after the incident he accused two of his classmates, the brothers Georgi and Stoyan Pirlovi. However Boevski's classmates told Bulgarian-language media that it was Boevski who played with the air gun and not the brothers.
According to the statement, Poul's father Galabin Boevski arrived at the school three hours after the incident and started shouting at the staff calling them names and threatening that he would not vote for the new school budget.
The school is owned by the municipality and Boevski is on Sofia's municipal council from Sofia major Boiko Borissov's party, the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB in Bulgarian). Boevski is also head of the municipality's sports and youth committee.
"The image that media in Bulgaria try to create of Mr Boevski has nothing to do with his behaviour and that of his son, both of whom tried to blame Georgi and Stoyan Pirlovi for the incidents."
"We ask: who will protect the dignity of the two children now after their names were leaked to the media," the school statement said.
"We call upon Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov to accept Boevski resignation from the post of a city councilor" the statement said.
Later in the day on April 21 it was announced that Borissov has indeed accepted Boevski's resignation and that Poul Boevski will be moved to another school.
Talking on commercial Nova Televisia in the early hours of April 21, Boevski said he felt responsible for his son's behaviour. "If I have insulted the teachers with my behaviour I want to apologise to them but I acted as a concerned parent," he said.
"I am shocked because I have always viewed my son as a clam child and I had no idea that he had any guns."
"I don't own guns and we don't keep weapons at home. I am really shocked because it turns out that I have a stranger in my house, so to speak. He told me he is sorry about the incident and I am willing to help him and even send him to talk to specialists" he said.
As for the gun which according to Poul Boevski's classmates was an air gun, Galabin Boevski said "he told me that he got the gun from one of the boys he goes to sport practises, but there is a police investigation going on and I don't want to comment any further."
Galabin Boevski became Olympic Champion weightlifting in 2000 in the lightweight class, after which he ended his sport career. Currently he owns a chain of fitness clubs under the name Boevski 2000.
