Clearly. It's obvious the kid is miming that he wants to blow his own brains out with his hand gun. Vee haf zero tolerance!
Posted on 03/05/2010 6:52:07 AM PST by TornadoAlley3
YAKIMA, Wash.- Manuel Alvarez eats breakfast and gets ready for school. He's eager but nervous. He was expelled Monday from Barge Lincoln Elementary for making a gun with his hands. His mom says it's a hand gesture that could have easily been corrected.
"He didn't know did they talk to him about it what actions were taken to tell him this isn't allowed," Lorena Hurtado, Manuel's mother.
Manuel has a clean record never in trouble before his mother says a warning would have worked or even a parent-teacher meeting. Instead, His mom says, Manuel's afraid.
"I got a call from the School saying he's not raising his hand or speaking up. He's scared after we talked about not doing any gestures, he probably doesn't want to to do it because that could be a gesture. It might get him pulled out for two days," said Hurtado.
Manuel's mom doesn't see anything wrong with her son putting his hands like this and shooting down at the ground. She doesn't think it poses an immediate threat to the school or Manuel's classmates. We took the issue to School District employees and asked them about their policy.
"When students are at school they should be concerned about learning….safety shouldn't be a concern at school, we have a zero tolerance policy," said Dr. John Irion, from the Yakima School District.
Hurtado understands the policy, but in this case doesn't think the punishment fits the crime, especially when the student in question is in kindergarten.
"A five-year-old shouldn't be held to the same policy as a 12th grader...he is in kindergarten," said Hurtado.
Lorena Hurtado is appealing the expulsion and wants to try to clear her son's record. She says she doesn't want her five-year-old to be labeled as a troublemaker.
I got fed up with the idiots in public, private, and charter schools. I homeschool. Paintball and hunting are P.E. credits here.
You state the condition of our education system most profoundly and strongly.
zero tolerance = zero common sense.
Yes, we’re usually talking about cops and robbers type stuff that I encounter on the playground. Heck, my 7 y.o. son and my daughter in Kindergarten play that stuff here at home—they even take turns taking each other to ‘jail.’ LOL
My husband and son (the 7 y.o.) went on a campout with the Boy Scout pack from our Catholic school last fall. My husband bought him a little Swiss army knife (okay, a cheaper version of one) for the trip. It was explained that it was only to be used for certain things and definitely was not a play toy around his siblings. I think he even used it on the trip a bit. They’re going on another campout next weekend, and it will go with them.
Boy Scouts rock :)
I pity my grandson!
LOL!
This is an idea that may be worth a try at long last. Although, physical intimidation and brute force have worked rather well for me in the past. ;-)
Sounds like these kids could use a round of ‘cowboys and indians”...
Soldier, you NEED to expand this into a full column/essay and submit it to townhall.com.
Clearly. It's obvious the kid is miming that he wants to blow his own brains out with his hand gun. Vee haf zero tolerance!
Well...I agree. About the same time we saw the federal reserve we saw a strong movement for unions and the direct election of senators. These were merely symptoms though of a deeper seated dry rot.
All it took was a generation or two of Americans ( by attending socialist government schools) to feel comfortable with government taking control of their lives.
This is what government schools teach every day simply by attending. It's been that way since they opened in the mid-1800s.
By the way, my father and mother were born in 1913, the year the federal reserve was organized. Just one or two generations of Americans made to feel comfortable with government as god in their government run socialist school is all it took.
Yet...I am appalled at how few conservatives understand what a threat government schooling is to our very survival.
You’re so big and intimidating that all you’d have to do is smile, in a vaguely sociopathic way, and think cold thoughts.
I can just see some pointy-headed principal - Hah-vud educated, no doubt - saying that he's just following policy...
"See, it says right here: 'no hand guns allowed'"
Given what he has to deal with every day in that school, the poor kid was probably pointing that “gun” at his own head.
Crime?
Crime!!?
This is why there simply has to be an alternative to public schools. I had a very fine PS education, but this is what No Choice inevitably leads to - especially in an educational establishment controlled by brain-dead Commies.
I can relate to being in that situation, and I would have no problem with the little brat's back-end being tanned as he's hauled out of school - for the threat, but not for his finger gestures!
Let's be clear about what is unacceptable: punishment for threatening bodily harm, YES; but punishment for "brandishing" a finger is INSANE.
Stupidity at it’s best.
OMG Soldier! Reeducation Camps!
Your gifted suspended student is a future homeschooling parent, or at the least, a future parent who will probably decide not to send her child to a public school under any circumstances.
It’s a basic human right to be able to defend yourself. Where were the administration, hall monitors, teachers? I hope this girl makes a stink about this and sues the bejesus out of this “school.”
For every source you cite I can come up with others. That's how lawyers get rich.
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