Posted on 06/07/2013 4:30:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
The specter of school shootings has brought a too-typical staple to local newspaper sections: the boys disciplined at (or suspended from) grade school for bringing a toy gun or anything resembling a gun.
The Washington Post just found the latest wild overreaction, from Calvert County, Md., a blue state that's cracked down on gun rights. "A kindergartner who brought a cowboy-style cap gun onto his Calvert County school bus was suspended for 10 days after showing a friend the orange-tipped toy, which he had tucked inside his backpack on his way to school," according to the family.
Post reporter Donna St. George relayed, "The child was questioned for more than two hours before his mother was called, she said, adding that he uncharacteristically wet his pants during the episode. The boy is 5 - 'all bugs and frogs and cowboys,' his mother said."
After an uproar stoked by local talk radio hosts erupted the next day, the district held a conference with the parents and reduced the suspension to two days (or "time served").
Your dictionary word here is "hoplophobia" -- an irrational fear of firearms, even toy guns or ... pointed fingers.
This isn't the first time St. George and the Post have reported wrong-headed overreaction since the mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary. In February, an 8-year-old boy in Prince William County, Va., was suspended after he "pointed his finger like a gun in a school hallway after a friend pretended to shoot him with a bow and arrow. The class had been studying Native American culture and had just learned a deer-hunting song."
The boy served an in-school suspension for the day, charged with "threatening to harm self or others," on par with bringing an actual weapon to school. The boy's father was understandably stunned: "There was no threat, which is the part I can't fathom," he stated. "(My) son is going to have this in his file for playing."
This kind of nonsense does indeed go on a youngster's permanent record." Prince William County also suspended a 10-year-old for showing off an orange-tipped cap gun from a dollar store.
Here's another story demonstrating how amazingly stupid educators can be. In March, a school district in Anne Arundel Country in Maryland suspended a 7-year-old boy after school officials charged him with -- ready? -- chewing a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun. The boy, Josh Welch, said he was actually trying to shape his toaster pastry like a mountain, which figured prominently in a recent drawing he made.
In an appeal, lawyer Robin Ficker included pictures of the states of Idaho and Florida because "they look more like guns than Josh's Pop-Tart." Yes, a boy 7 years of age needed a lawyer.
But he isn't the only dangerous 7-year-old lurking out there. Two 7-year-old boys were suspended from school in Suffolk County, Va. for pointing pencils at each other while making shooting sounds. One boy was pretending to be a Marine and the other a bad guy. One of the boy's fathers is a former Marine.
This can even happen to girls, too. In Mount Carmel, Pa., A 5-year-old girl was suspended from school in January after she made what the school called a "terrorist threat." What weapon was she packing? A "small, Hello Kitty automatic bubble blower."
But maybe the silliest panic came in Grand Island, Neb., where school officials wanted deaf 3-year-old Hunter Spanjer to find a different sign for his first name, since in American Sign Language, you make a gesture resembling a gun for "Hunter." Under pressure, school officials quickly insisted they weren't going to make any deaf child change the sign language for their name.
Even teacher permission won't protect you. In breaking news, several grade-school students in Edmonds, Wash., were just suspended for a day for shooting Nerf gun darts before class -- after parents say a teacher asked students to bring in Nerf guns for use in a probability study.
One parent protested: "If the teacher and the school staff don't even know their own rules, how are the children supposed to know them?"
When, oh, when, are we going to start firing these idiots running these schools?
Never! The Progressive state depends upon fouling the minds of the young long before they develop common sense.
“...start firing these idiots running these schools?” Well, you can’t (fire them), as your government protects them.
The other choices are to homeschool your kids or send them to private schools. Unfortunately not everyone is qualified to home school, I know I would not have been, and not everyone can afford private schools for their children
School children are a thousand times more likely to be killed in a car accident on this way to school than they are to be killed by a gun toting lunatic.
Schools should prohibit cars on campus and confiscate hot wheels and suspend any student who makes a pop tart look like a car.
I carry in my wallet a quarter, one of those that has a state on it. My quarter is a Massachusetts quarter and has on it a figure of a Minuteman holding his weapon.
So, when I was at a school board meeting and the board was defending throwing out students because they have a picture of a weapon, I whipped out my quarter and challenged them to throw me out, after all, I had a “weapon” on me. I also asked them if they would throw out a student who received a Massachusetts quarter in change from the school lunch ladies.
The yammering and stuttering was funny to watch.
If you look at the comments section of any article that mentions this type of stupidity, all you see is scathing comments about the subnormal mentality of these fools and how awful the public schools have become.
I’mpreparing myself to see a new rule/regulation/law regarding the method of consumption of Pop Tarts in School Zones...
You will not be allowed to eat (consume) said pastries in a manner designed to alarm the public!!!
And if the shape of the pastries is determined to be the resemblance of a gun, will not be tolerated, we will establish a zero tolerance policy for pastries partially eaten to resemble such dangerous devices!!!
Suspension and or criminal prosecution shall be determined by local, state and Federal laws!!!
Wow. They really did a good job, making that little kid wet his pants. It must have made them feel really macho.
Or did it make them feel like real Khmer Rouge in the
re-education camp.
Just sayin.
IMHO
b******s
I can imagine
This is simply the beginning of another long term propaganda campaign to make our kids believe that guns are wrong in any form for any reason. It will be a slow but effective march toward total reeducation along the lines of what the enviros and gay “rights” crowd has done in our elementary schools over the last 20 years.
Remember, this all began back in 1968 after the murder of Bobby Kennedy by a Palestinian. America went berserk, blamed TV shows, comic books, toy guns, pulp novel covers,movies.
So the Congress passed the 1968 Gun Control Act and all was well.
“Today we begin to disarm the criminal and the careless and the insane. All of our people who are deeply concerned in this country about law and order should hail this day.”
- Lyndon Johnson when he signed the 1968 GCA into law.
How did that work out for you all?
Fast forward several decades...
"Mom, Dad, I hope you understand. The other choices are to take care of you at home or send you to private rest homes. Unfortunately not everyone is qualified to care for their elderly relatives at home. I know I'm not. Not everyone can afford private care for their elderly..."
It all depends on the meaning of "afford."
Me, I didn't have any difficulty affording homeschooling on a 4-figure yearly income. You read that right: f-o-u-r, 4. As I saw it -- the state of public education -- I couldn't afford to send my children to public school. There wouldn't be enough time left in the 24-hr day to undo the damage.
And when the Lord sees fit to harvest me, I'll die at home like all my ancestors did.
Which is all very well, but let's hope they do more than type tsk-tsk-tsk while their kids sit in public schools.
Nobody's going to wave a wand from on high, and shut down public education. A mass opt-out is the only solution, and even the supposedly well-informed parents are mostly too complacent to do what needs doing, to act according to their professed principles.
You’re right. The parents will always go for the free baby sitting and when their kid gets nabbed in one of these stupid zero tolerance situations, they go to the press and complain.
With all the negative publicity about zero tolerance and what it can do to kids and their future, you would think they would check out the school’s disciplinary code with a fine-tooth comb before they register their children. Either that or have a lawyer on speed dial.
Public school is not worth it. A kid could unwittingly become a criminal in an instant.
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