Posted on 09/22/2014 1:56:59 PM PDT by KeyLargo
Education School tells Missouri boy his 9/11 souvenir violates school weapons policy
A souvenir shell casing handed out by veterans at a 9/11 ceremony landed a seven-year-old Missouri boy in hot water when he took the keepsake to school.
Sherry Falke said her son, Zane, forgot he had the souvenir in his pocket when he showed up for class on Tuesday, Fox4KC.com reported. The boy was given the souvenir at a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony in Carrollton, Mo.
"He felt it in his pocket, and he took it out and was showing some of his friends at school," Falke told the station.
"The principal proceeded to reprimand him as though he were bringing live ammunition to school," she said. "I understand that's in the policy, in the handbook, that they can’t bring guns to school. I fully support that, but it's an empty blank casing."
Falke said her son's teacher seized the shell casing and took him to the principal’s office. She claims they Zane he could be suspended from school for 10 days, but instead gave him a silent lunch where he sat by himself and missed two recesses.
I wish they were. I’m an umemployed IT consultant, thanks to the the H1B invasion.
RaveOn
Since Apr 21, 2014
Welcome to Free Republic.
Cleaning up one of the ship's utility boats (in about 1962) a shipmate and I opened a panel and discovered a few survival ration packets. They were packed in 1942, a year before I was born! I don't remember all the contents, but I recall some hardtack type biscuits, some kind of jelly-like candy in several flavors and cigarettes.
I’m still stuck on what the actual policy is. As far as I can tell, nobody reporting on this has taken an actual page out of their policy manual, and posted it.
So I don’t think we really know if spent casings are against policy.
The closest we get is this statement:
“The school handbook specifically says weapons, firearms, knives and the like are not allowed on school grounds”
That statement is VERY BAD reporting. I doubt the policy uses the term “and the like”...and the reporter is using it as a catch all.
So I’ve done their research for them. The handbook:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9d-sEwmeIYyZTZZR0NYMXljcEZjU2ZVS0lwSUp6YlF0SnhJ/edit
Item number 10 on page 12 says “Matches, lighters, tobacco, knives, and other dangerous instruments or substances shall not be brought to the school”.
So if “policy is policy”, their policy is not at all clear in this situation.
They still “punished” him...for an object that is far less harmful than a sharpened pencil...
IDIOCY!
“If you know how to handle firearms then you’d know not to be concerned about empty shell casings.”
I’m not a school teacher with class full of seven years olds to look after, and one that looks like he’s holding a bullet. And need I mention Sandy Hook?
As for the rest of your post, I’m grateful to be here, but Jim can pull my membership any time I go over the line. I don’t know of any FR policy that says I have to agree with everybody all the time, but there is one against personal attacks.
Who cares what the idiot teacher thinks? It’s harmless. If the teacher declared a marshmallow to be a dangerous weapon, does it make it true? Of course not.
Anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that a spent shell casing is a harmless, inert object.
My God! They’d execute the poor kid if he brought in his Ranger Rick decoder ring or his Green Lantern Power ring.
Time for some lawsuits.
Thank you. I’ve been reading FR for eight years, and I know how it goes sometimes.
Me too.
“There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”-- Ayn Rand
My ASS you do. If you even own a gun at all, you obviously have no idea how to operate it or how it works. If you did, you would not think that spent brass is dangerous.
Sorry, but a “bullet” is the lead that fits into the casing...This is called a cartridge...
You really don’t seem to know much about firearms or ammunition...
Anything can be a weapon.
Now you’re comparing a child with a single empty shell casing to a raving lunatic on a murderous rampage? Hyperbole much?
JimRed,
I opened a K Rats box in Vietnam and the cigarettes inside was Lucky Strikes...with a GREEN label!!!!!
That’s WWII also...*LOL*
More on the school policy - The district has a 5th and 6th grade campus, with its own policy manual. Now this kid was too young to go there, but if he did, the exact wording of their policy is a prohibition of:
“Possession or use of ammunition or a component of a weapon”
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9d-sEwmeIYyMGF0UExybHVnMWVJa1oxWWlmeWZlN3VkN0tZ/edit
We’re getting closer...but still not there. I haven’t yet found a policy that this boy actually violated. The item above it refers to weapons or ‘instruments or devices’ defined in 571.010 RSMo. Here’s that list:
http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/c500-599/5710000010.htm
No mention of spent casings.
And it also cites 18 USC 930(g)(2) - here it is:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title18/pdf/USCODE-2011-title18-partI-chap44-sec930.pdf
Nothing in there about spent casings either.
Ponder this - the teachers did over-react, overstepping the bounds of their own policy manuals....and now they are generically saying it was against the rules, without citing exactly what rule it was against.
Thanks for digging that up! I write corporate IT policy which goes through legal review, and terms such as “the like” are intentionally ambiguous so the person responsible for enforcing the policy can exercise their own discretion as a trained professional. Admittedly, it can also be an escape clause for the company.
That’s my whole point in engaging with you people on this, because this whole issue is a matter of policy enforcement and personal responsibility vs. school safety, in the age of terrorism and mass shootings.
It’s not a 2nd Amendment issue at all, and I wish you guys would understand that. Someday this conversation might help get you out of a pickle at work, in court, or with your kids at school.
Ooooh, a kuboton that writes! That’s awesome!
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