Are you completely NUTS???
We had a kindergartner suspended for 4 days for bringing a string popper to school in Racine, Wisconsin. They used the 'firearms and explosives' clause in the school code of conduct to decide that one.
Most children have similar or the same last names as their parents ... there is some disconnect here - just can't put my finger on it ... ;-)
Translation: "You're gonna brush this kid off on me for 10 day?? Whattaya expect me to do with him for 10 day!?"
Wouldn't you love to send Phyllis Budesheim email praising her brave decision?
Idiot. My feeling is that by suspending this first grader for 10 days, they've significantly decreased his chances of graduating from high school.
I'm having a hard time finding specifics, but this spokesperson, Dr. Phyllis Budesheim, appears to be "Executive Director for School Leadership", whatever the heck that is.
I bet we could use less of it.
Couldn't find contact info on the school system site.
http://www.kcmsd.k12.mo.us/home.asp?b=8&id=1
Contacting her would probably be pretty useless, anyway. Going directly to the school board is typically the only way to get any traction, on things like this.
This is nothing. A friend of mine had her daughter suspended from school for pointing an oak leaf at another kid on the playground and making sounds simulating the firing of a gun. One week under zero tolerance rules.
This has gotta stop. We cannot allow our children to be treated this way. This is inhuman.
When squirt guns are banned, only little squirts will own guns.
This is way it was so hard for me to resist choking educators when my oldest kids were in school. People in charge of teaching our children should at least be required to have common sense.
I would at least give 'ole Phyllis a good scare. :)
It's not about safety, it's about stamping out the "gun culture".
Now a squirt gun can be a disruptive item, the same as a squirt bottle, and thus they probably should be controlled or even prohibited, but not at the level of a permanent entry on the kid's record, nor at the level of suspension for 10 days for a first violation.
Where are the parents when these asinine rules are being made?
I'm 48. I started carrying a knife to school when I was in the third grade. My classmates and I would stand around on the playground and see how far we could throw our knives and have them stick in the ground.
But at least we didn't bring 3 inch red water pistols to school!
Zero Intelligence = PC Zero Tolerance .
Kansas City, Missouri run by liberal democrats.
This is part of leftist anti-firearm brainwashing. School kids are punished and humilated for even talking about or drawing a picture of a gun. The hope is that these kids will grow up and become gun control supporters.
There are some awfully realistic looking squirt guns out there – do you want to put the schools in the business of deciding which are “realistic enough” to fool other children or staff? Realistic enough to be mistaken by security staff for the real thing? IMO, the most even-handed way to avoid such difficulties is to issue a blanket ban on any sort of object “gunlike” enough to pass muster as a “squirt gun”.
And then, there is also the issue of what's in the gun – children do some pretty stupid things for reasons often unclear to the adult around them; if their child gets a squirt of bleach or insecticide in he face are most parent going to accept the explanation that “boys will be boys” or “it's only a squirt-gun anyway”?
Finally, there's the question of why any child should be in the possession of any object that's sole purpose in a school is to distract and disrupt.
As for the response having been something as serious as a 10 day suspension, how else do you otherwise intend to get the child and their parents to take such questions seriously?
We are attempting to to raise children to understand that actions have consequences, and an important part of this process is the develop the ability to understand what will be required of them as adults - and in the current climate of concern with “workplace violence”, a squirt gun - realistic replica or not - is not part of the job description, And using one – even as a “joke” - will likely get you in deep trouble, if not summarily fired.
Are you completely NUTS???
Stop abusing your child, lady. Get him out of government school. They will traumatize him into thinking his every playful impulse is some kind of crime against the state. They're making a good little comrade out of him one trauma at a time.