NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- High school students awaiting trial after arrests on charges of armed robbery, assault and murder often remain in mainstream high schools until their day in court.

Timothy McKnight and Melvin Jackson are convicted armed robbers. They remained high school students at Stratford and Hunters Lane high schools even after they committed and admitted to an armed robbery spree.

After confessing to police and then pleading innocent, the two were put back in mainstream high school while awaiting trial.

"They were dangerous people who had a plan to rob people at gunpoint," said Assistant District Attorney Rob McGuire. "Those are the kind of situations where people get seriously injured or killed."

Metro schools' policy is that if a student commits a crime on school property or during school hours, he or she is expelled, but if it is off-campus and after hours, the student is in class until incarcerated.

"As a parent I don't want an armed robber sitting next to my son in class," said Russ Pulley, PTSA president and former FBI agent. "I want my son and if I had a daughter, I'd want my daughter to experience a learning environment where they will feel safe."

Metro schools said this is a longstanding policy that an individual is innocent until proven guilty.