Posted on 03/19/2003 11:25:21 PM PST by chance33_98
Fake gun lands costumed 6th grader five-day suspension Wednesday, March 19, 2003
By KEN TH0RBOURNE
Eleven-year-old Daniel Treskunov was under the impression that creativity was called for.
For a picture-taking session held on Friday, March 7, students in Treskunov’s sixth-grade photography class in Renaissance School were asked to “dress up.”
“‘Wear a costume,’” Treskunov recalled his teacher as saying.
On Monday, Treskunov told The Times that his first inclination was to dress as a skateboarder, but it snowed that morning and he didn’t want to change into short pants.
Treskunov’s next decision, to dress as a bank robber, led to the sixth-grader receiving a five-day suspension.
The problem wasn’t the “bucket” cap that Treskunov said he pulled down over his eyes to create a sinister appearance.
Nor was it the swim cap that he said he planned to pull over his face for the actual photo shoot.
The accouterment that won Treskunov his suspension was a blue-and-red toy gun that he brought to school as part of the outfit.
Treskunov’s homeroom teacher was the first adult to spot the toy gun. The teacher sent Daniel to the principal‘s office. After consulting with the district office, Charles Cobb, the Renaissance School principal, told Treskunov that he would be suspended for five days and called the student’s mother to come pick him up.
Treskunov said he doesn’t understand the reason he was punished.
“It was a little toy,” he said on Monday, following his first day back at school since his suspension. Treskunov said he should have been forewarned. “They [school officials] should have told me before. I think they overreacted.”
School officials told The Times that Nmesh and her son should have known better because the rules for student conduct are clearly spelled out in the Renaissance School Handbook, a booklet that is distributed to parents during orientation at the start of the school year.
However, the nearest the booklet comes to addressing the topic of bringing a toy gun to school is a clause that refers to “possession of a weapon other than a firearm.”
Indeed, this is the rule that Kevin Salters, the assistant to the district superintendent, told The Times that Treskunov violated. The penalty that has been established for students possessing a weapon other than a firearm is a minimum five-day suspension, Salters said.
Cobb acknowledged that the Renaissance School Handbook never explicitly addresses the issue of carrying a toy weapon to school.
So to be clear with his students, Cobb said that he went to every 6th-grade class on opening day last September and spoke about the conduct code, specifically addressing the subject of “plastic or toy guns.”
After he was suspended, Treskunov fought back with more creativity.
The 11-year-old printed T-shirts for schoolmates to wear that read “Let Daniel T. back in school” on the front and “Creativity is not a crime” on the back. More than 30 students wore the T-shirts during his suspension, according to Treskunov.
Treskunov’s mother, Magdalena Nmesh, also believed that her son’s suspension was misguided.
“I was shocked because I knew it was supposed to be a portrait day for kids,” Nmesh told The Times. “This was part of a costume. The last thing in the world I was expecting was for Daniel to be punished.”
Nmesh said that she was born in the Ukraine when it was part of the old U.S.S.R. She grew up speaking Russian and Polish. Television is never watched in her home, she said.
The Columbine High School massacre of 1999 in which two students shot and killed 12 fellow teenagers and a teacher before killing themselves is something Nmesh said she heard about, “but didn’t get all the details.”
Even if her son did unwittingly break a rule, Nmesh believed that a five-day suspension was too harsh a penalty. “Where I went to school there was no such thing as suspension,” she said.
Cobb acknowledged the possibility that Treskunov made an honest mistake. If so, was a five-day suspension appropriate?
Cobb said that he has nothing to do with meting out punishment for violation of the rules. Sanctions are established by the Central Office, he said.
Salters defended the decision to suspend Treskunov for five days.
“The idea is that there is a severe amount of concern on the part of people of potential acts against other people, whether they are in possession of something that is construed as a weapon or the weapon itself,” said Salters. “Any type of thing that resembles a weapon is quite serious. For the most part, since Sept. 11 there have been a lot of reminders and reviews of what can and should cause concern.”
Asked if she can understand the concern of the school administrators, Nmesh, the 6th grader’s mother, said it was difficult.
“I feel that a child who was, first of all, encouraged by a teacher to be creative, encouraged to express himself — he was punished, “said Nmesh. “I asked Daniel, ‘Did you learn a lesson?’ He said, ‘Yes, I learned there are 281 tiles on the ceiling in Mr. Cobb’s office.’ He was punished for something he didn’t really understand.”
Cobb said he was pleased to have Treskunov back in school on Monday. He said he spoke with Nmesh and that conversation went well.
“I want all my kids in school,” said Cobb. “He [Treskunov] is a member of our Renaissance family and we care about him.”
Ha! I like this kid's attitude. Glad he's an American and not a Ukrainian.
So to be clear with his students, Cobb said that he went to every 6th-grade class on opening day last September and spoke about the conduct code, specifically addressing the subject of “plastic or toy guns.”
This, my friends, is called "covering your six" (o'clock)
Oh my gooses - that kid has pluck. lol Shame on the school.
Nmesh said that she was born in the Ukraine when it was part of the old U.S.S.R
I guess she didn't expect such idiocy and stupidity, because even the commie schools weren't as loony as the one her son is in now.
I like this kid.
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