EAG: PORTSMOUTH, Va. – Douglass Park Elementary second-grader Josiah Green missed more than a month of school this year because he brought two guns to class, one a squirt gun and the other a Nerf gun.
The “weapons” were brightly colored and do not resemble a real gun to anyone with common sense.
The boy’s mother, Audreyann Davis, told WAVY that Green was initially suspended for 10 days when he was busted with one of the toy guns during his physical education class, though he did not point it at anyone or make any sort of threats. School officials are now considering expelling the 7-year-old, she said.
“I was emotional and shocked, like is this really happening, because he’s 7 years old,” Davis said. “I understand, ok he’s suspended, but now you’re throwing that he could be expelled on the table.”
Davis said she usually checks her son’s backpack for toys when he heads off to school.
“I blame myself,” she said, “the one day I don’t think about ‘hey, make sure you leave your toys in the house.’” read more
Stories like this always remind me of the time I got a call from my son’s school. He was in First Grade, I think. Apparently, he had been running around on the playground making a “gun” with his thumb and forefinger, and had a “shootout” with another boy in his class.
The principle was very concerned about this violent behavior. I agreed it was most concerning, and asked her to place confiscate his hands, and that I would pick them up from her office after school.
When I got there, she was very upset that I wasn’t taking the matter seriously. My position was that, unless she was accusing him of practicing witchcraft, I really didn’t see any way a 5-year-old could inflict injury by pointing a finger and making a noise with his mouth.
Bear in mind, this was back when the Harry Potter movies were in full swing, and all the kids were Harry Potter-bananas. Which is why I asked the principal why my son was in hot water for pointing his finger, when I can plainly see outside her window at least a half dozen kids running around pointing wooden stilletto knives (aka “magic wands”) at each other.
I hit her with “get those knives off the playground, then I’ll worry about my kid’s finger” right before I turned my back on her and left. We pulled our kid out of that school the next week and he’s been in private (christian) school ever since.
The administration and school board are the ones that need to be expelled– from America.
O.k. I don’t approve of banning “weapons related behaviors” or obviously toy guns from schools. That’s un-American IMO and will only further contributes to our
Marxist indoctrination centers, I mean public schools, turning out a bunch of useful idiot tools.That being said, I don’t see how any reasonable person would think what this kid did warrants anything more severe than a detention.
Perfect example of the unwanted side effects of legislation eh?
I feel sorry for the parents of young kids who will have to deal with this kind of arbitrary “zero tolerance” from schools. Kids can’t be kids anymore.
@pbunyan: A detention? For bringing a toy to school? How about a “You don’t bring toys to school, son. You’re here to learn, not play.” That’s what they would have said to me when I was a kid. Then, if I continued to do it, they would have called my parents. That was a lot worse than detention, let me tell you.
Lady,
Get your kid out of that marxist indoctrination center, and run, as fast as you can, to the Library, to learn to Home-School the little bugger.
He’d be better off growing up with lions, and tigers, and bears – oh my! …
izlamo delenda est …
@Vietvet: I said “didn’t warrant anything more severe than a detention”. As wrong as that rule is, he did break it. But yeah, I agree that a verbal warning would have been more appropriate.
As for calling his parents, that definitely worked when I was in school and I would have much preferred a detention (or pretty much any other punishment) to having my parents called, but these days with our dindonuttin culture, calling parents is often pointless.
I thought we wanted kids in school!
Last few days of school in the 1960’s and early ’70s had to be on constant lookout for water gun ambushes, and be prepared to defend in kind. Darnitall, we didn’t have the more deadly Nerf guns back then. Don’t recall anyone ever getting hurt. Though if someone were particularly disliked, a water gun could be filled with cheap perfume….
A buddy and I had squirt guns at school (during the James Bond craze) in shoulder harnesses we made from large packing rubber bands. The principal saw the water leaking through our shirts and took em from us.
Which he returned at the end of the school day, saying “Don’t bring em back.”
No call.
No detention.
No suspension.
Didn’t take em back, either.
izlamo delenda est …
Today it’s a water pistol, tomorrow he’ll be sneaking 50 cal machine guns into school and wiping out the fifth grade recess. You can’t be too careful.
Write I WILL NOT BRING A TOY TO CLASS about 100 times on the african american board and call it a day. They wasted a month of this kid’s schooling for bullshit.
Good grief!
Do they still make those “Super Soaker” water guns, and if so, is playing with them now a capital crime?