Fake gun lands costumed 6th grader five-day suspension

Fake gun lands costumed 6th grader five-day suspension Wednesday, March 19, 2003

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.”

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.

“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.”

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.

“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.”

We Were Lucky!

If you lived as a child in the 60s or the 70s. (Some of us in the 40s and 50s), looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have.................

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!)

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

Horrors.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones.

Unthinkable.

We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really hurt.

We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
They were accidents. No one was to blame but us.
Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight........ we were always outside playing.

We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this?

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cellular phones, Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms, .................. we had friends.

We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves!

Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.....

Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.....Horrors! Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

No one to hide behind.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors,ever. The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to accept, cope with, ignore and/or handle the situation.

And you're one of them.

Congratulations!

Pass this on to others that were blessed to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulations took effect..... for our own good?

I will add this one:

Playing army, cowboys and Indians and cops and robbers with toy guns or fingers with your friends without the threat of getting arrested by the police or suspended from school.

We could say prayers in school before we ate our lunch.

Montclair is most definitely a City of Evil! (When it comes to the Second Amendment, there are lots of other candidates in New Jersey: Newark, Camden, Princeton, etc etc.) Still, Montclair deserves special mention. Filled with Limousine Liberals like Olympia Dukakis and Bill Bradley, the town is a center for Million Mom morons. There's even a "nuclear free" peace park on Park Street.

In fact, the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs (the local NRA affiliate) sued Montclair because teachers gave out Commie Mommie sheets to the kids.

Check out the link here: http://www.anjrpc.org/Old_Stuff/montclair.htm

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