4th-grader suspended for gun shell in pocket

When 9-year-old Jonathan Cross dressed up in his duck-hunting outfit for his school's Camouflage Day this week, he never dreamed his love for the sport would backfire on him.

Covered from head to toe in his gear, the fourth-grader was "a very happy camper," according to his mother, excited to show off his new hunting boots, hat, mesh face mask, shirt, bib, pants and boots.

But there was something in his pocket he had forgotten about – a shotgun shell left over from an outing with his father and brothers last weekend.

His discovery of the projectile while on campus has left the straight-A student stunned with a five-day suspension, his teachers in tears, and his parents perplexed over the latest case of "zero tolerance" in the government school system.

"They shouldn't have had Camouflage Day," said Kay Cross, Jonathan's mother. "It's militaristic; it has connotations of violence. He just happened to have a shell in his pocket."

The incident unfolded at the Fred A. Anderson Elementary School, located in the rural town of Bayboro on North Carolina's eastern side.

The school, like many others across America, takes part in "Spirit Week," featuring different themes each day designed to motivate children. One day is Professional Dress Day, where students dress themselves in the attire of working adults. Another one is Mismatch Day, where children can suit themselves in colors and items that clash. Tuesday was Camouflage Day.

Jonathan had been dropped off by his mother and was waiting with other early arrivers in the lunchroom before being dispatched to class. It was in the lunchroom that he felt something in his pocket. When he took it out to see what it was, he realized it was a shotgun shell, as did a teacher who caught a glimpse.

The boy was brought to the principal's office, and because of the school's zero-tolerance policy for weapons and explosive devices, officials say they had no choice but to suspend him for five days, even if there was no intent to use the device.

"A shotgun shell is considered an explosive," said Cathy Dunbar, the school's assistant principal. "We do have some discretion for the number of days [for suspension]. We kind of go with five. ... It's not like we really wanted to come down hard on him. We didn't."

Dunbar says the school has had Camouflage Day for years, and it's the event in which the greatest number of students actively participate, as that part of North Carolina is filled with hunting enthusiasts.

"It never crossed our minds," she told WorldNetDaily. "We didn't think kids would have something in their pockets. [Camouflage Day] is really a very innocent thing."

Mrs. Cross is not laying entire blame on school officials, whom she says are truly remorseful, telling her Camouflage Day would not take place in the future. She says she should have checked her son's pockets, but what's upsetting to her and many American parents is the rigidness of zero-tolerance policies designed to keep the classroom safe.

"Zero tolerance comes from a good place," says Cross, "but it's black and white; there is no gray. There's a common-sense point of view that gets overlooked with this black-and-white law. There's no blurring of the edges, no extenuating circumstances."

That point is echoed by the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil-liberties and human-rights organization that has dealt with many similar cases in the legal system.

President of the Rutherford Institute John Whitehead says zero-tolerance policies are 'spreading like a disease.'

"[Zero tolerance] teaches kids a bad lesson," says institute president John Whitehead. "Make the slightest mistake and the state authority is gonna come down on you like gangbusters. No hearing, no appeal. ... What's the rationale for expelling a student for having a Certs mint or gargling with Scope after lunch? These are actual cases."

The institute has handled high-profile incidents, like that of Virginia eighth-grader Ben Ratner who prevented a suicidal friend from slitting her wrists by taking away her knife, only to face automatic suspension for possessing a weapon in his locker.

The Loudoun County school district defended its action, stating the zero-tolerance policy was not really the issue, since it suspended Ratner for the rest of the semester, not the minimum one-year suspension as required by district policy.

A federal appeals court upheld the expulsion, stating the facts didn't demonstrate that "the school's policy in this case failed to comport with the United States Constitution." The Supreme Court subsequently refused to consider if Ratner's constitutional rights had been violated, thus affirming the discipline by local officials.

As WorldNetDaily previously reported, students have also been suspended for playing "cops and robbers" during recess, drawing a picture of a Confederate flag, using nail clippers and stating the intent to launch spitballs.

A National Merit Scholar prevented from attending her own high-school graduation last year in Fort Myers, Fla., because a table knife with a rounded tip was found on the floorboard of her car in the parking lot;

An 11-year-old fifth-grader permanently banned from an elementary school in Oldsmar, Fla., for drawing pictures of a gun;

A 12-year-old honor student in Mount Airy, Md., barred from extracurricular activities when she violated drug policy by sharing her inhaler with a fellow student having an asthma attack on the school bus;

A 9-year-old handing out Certs mints in Manassas, Va., and two students taking them suspended for ten days for drug-policy violations;

And in Deer Lakes, Pa., a 5-year-old boy suspended for dressing as a firefighter for his school's Halloween party. Part of his costume was a plastic ax. Harsh zero-tolerance policies have been adopted by educators across the U.S. in the wake of the Gun Free Schools Act of 1994, in which Congress mandated automatic expulsions for students carrying firearms on campus. Local districts have since approved additional penalties for alcohol, drugs, threatening behavior and possession of items which can be construed as weapons.

In June 2000, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University released a report on the issue, stating a great deal of evidence supports the conclusion "that children are being unfairly suspended and arbitrarily kicked out of school for incidents that could have been very easily handled using alternative methods."

"As a result, everyday zero-tolerance policies force children to be suspended or expelled for sharing Midol, asthma medication (during an emergency), cough drops, and for bringing toy guns, nail clippers and scissors to school. Even the common schoolyard scuffle has become a target, regardless of severity and circumstances," the report said.

Despite the publicity surrounding recent cases, Whitehead says the situation for students is not getting any better.

"[The districts] are not listening," he says. "It's the lockdown of America. The schools are locking down, the courts are locking down. It doesn't bode well for freedom."

Back in Oriental, N.C., Jonathan Cross has an unexpected 11-day break, as his suspension will merge into next week's Thanksgiving holiday.

His mother personally met with school officials and has no intention of pursuing any kind of legal action, as administrators were simply enforcing Pamlico County policy and have now relegated Camouflage Day to a thing of the past.

"I don't have a bent against the school," she said. "I'm still pissed, but I'm satisfied."

I dont know. I caught a troop making that mistake as the range safty officer. I don't think the hour he spent low crawling back in forth behind the firing line looking for brass to have been too harsh of a punishment.

Another poster said that he thought that the parrents are divorced. I do not know why anyone would say this.

I said that because of the mother's comments about camo being "Militaristic and a show of violence". I know very few married men who hunt who's wives could possibly have such views. Many of the men I know who hunt, their wives hunt with them. And the ones' who dont surely would not have such an opinion of camo, or they would have never married the hunter.

I thought that was a quite simple guess.

I worry about him taking a spent shell to school. I tell him not to talk about guns to anyone.

Good advice for your son and I agree 100% with everything you said. Besides Uncle Sam, only my wife and best friend know I have guns. And even that makes me nervous, because you never know when one of them might slip up and say the wrong thing to the wrong socialist. :-(

Dunbar says the school has had Camouflage Day for years, and it's the event in which the greatest number of students actively participate, as that part of North Carolina is filled with hunting enthusiasts.

I dont think the "conspriacy" theory stands up under slight scrutiny. This isn't the northeast or the left coast. Its North Carolina for crying out loud.

I we wonder why we have such lax security in this country....

we are spending an outrageously disproportional amount of our time, money and expertise in this country going after all politically incorrect "crimes"..

you know ...the biggies...like this little kid....arresting people for buying "Rez" cigarettes....confederate flag waving...and walking too close to an abortion clinic....saying not nice words outloud....geez....

Five day suspension not harsh? Boy, it's a good thing they decided not to REALLY punish him. Our prisons are already too full.

Hope that the father had the good sense to explain to this kid that it's not him, it's them. Also, not to carry live ammo to school.

Finally, I wonder if Ms. Asst. Principal Dunbar has ever fired a weapon, or if all she knows about firearms was gleaned from "Cosmopolitan".

Isn't funny how incidents like this have a Zero-Tolerance policy, no matter if there's a perfectly innocent, logical reason why it happened. And yet on the other hand, whenever a criminal commits a REAL crime, there's hardly ever any black or white. It's... We need to know why he chopped the heads off the whole family, after all, maybe he had a tough childhood and it wasn't really his fault!

Liberalism is a GREAT thing ain't it!? It can always be shaped to fit the way you feel.

"They shouldn't have had Camouflage Day," said Kay Cross, Jonathan's mother. "It's militaristic; it has connotations of violence. He just happened to have a shell in his pocket."

These two statements from the mother are contradictory. I'm confused.

Well, it was definitely over quicker. Once me and the other 4 trainees on KP forgot to put on our masks when the platoon sarg yelled "GAS". That was quite a lesson. Ever heard of the dying cockroach? :-D

Following your line of thinking, not a single member of Congress would dare attempt to bury the Constitution, as they all took an oath to defend and protect it.

Further, since when did geography figure into where anti-2nd Amendment anti-American pretender citizens figure can be found?

"A shotgun shell is considered an explosive," said Cathy Dunbar, the school's assistant principal.

Right. Just like a pencil drawing of a gun is considered a gun.

Major National Education Association Moron Alert!

Ohhh yes, I just loved the dying cockroach. I even came up with the "supported" dying cockroach. Same thing but holding your backpack :-)

My other "instrutional exercise" for gas attacks was the spin and drop. Since gas is very disorienting and makes you want to puke, I would have the troop spin in place as fast as he could and then drop, recover, and repeat. Never had a troop last 10 min before they left the lunch in the dirt.

Got lots of other instrutional exercises I use as well. To this day, I drop my kids as my "first level" of punishment if they are not behaving. It works especially great if their friends are around. ;-D

My wife says that it is mean but you know what? There is not a single kid in my whole Church that gives me any trouble. I dropped my kid for running inside the Church, right in front of ALL the kids. Now when they see me, they straighten RIGHT up.

Following your line of thinking, not a single member of Congress would dare attempt to bury the Constitution, as they all took an oath to defend and protect it.

This makes absolutely no sense. I have no idea what you are even talking about.

Do you seriously think that the school implemented "Camo Day" years ago, for the sole reason of hoping and hoping that one year, just maybe, some kid would have a shell in his/her pocket and then they could suspend the kid(which has nothing to do with the 2nd Amendment)?

Please tell me that you don't seriously believe this.

The spin and drop sounds rough. Our platoon sarg used to say "You want to get ate up with the dumb sh*ts I got some things for yer ass that'll nightmares!!"

I tried dropping kids in Awanas once and it didn't work very well. They screwed around too much and got noisier. I probably should have experimented with it a little more.

Having 8 kids I do tend to sound an awful lot like a drill sergeant. I hate repeating things so they get them pretty strong the first time.

In 1982 in my Highschool commumications/English class I gave a demonstation on how to reload a shotgun shell and explained the different parts of the shell. I used real powder, but a dead primer. No one gave it a second thought. How times have changed! What has happend to my country?

Ok, I'm probably going to get flamed for this but here goes: I'm an NRA member so don't think I'm some gun control wacko but I'm going to have to side with the school. Everyone knew the rules and he broke the rule. It doesn't matter whether it was by accident or on purpose. If the school lets him get away with it then thats not setting a proper example. Getting suspended for 5 days is not the end of his life, he'll learn to check his pockets next time. Any kind of hard strike on that primer can set it off too and get somebody hurt. I'll have to agree, the mothers comments seem to indicate she is a left winger and I'll bet his parents are divorced.

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