So if you think schools aren't getting tough since CT shooting look at this story...

Tiapet

Old Hand
I came across this article:

[h=3]Boy, 6, suspended over finger gun[/h]SILVER SPRING, Md. (UPI) -- A Maryland 6-year-old was suspended from school for forming the shape of a gun with his hands and saying "pow," a lawyer for his family said.

Robin Ficker said a boy, a student at Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Silver Spring, was given a one-day suspension from school with a conference planned for when students returned from winter break for the pretend shooting a week after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., The (Springfield, Va.) Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.

"What they're doing is looking at the worst possible interpretation of a young, naive 6-year-old," Ficker said. This is a little child who can't form the intent to do anything like that.

Assistant Principal Renee Garraway sent a letter to the boy's parents saying the child had been warned.

"Your son ... was involved in a serious incident," Garraway wrote. (He) threatened to shoot a student. He was spoken to earlier today about a similar incident.

Ficker said the school has not told the parents what the "similar incident" entailed.

"It just shows the overreaction," the lawyer said.

He said the school should have discussed the issue with the parents before handing down the suspension.

"They could have called the mother in. They didn't do that. They just said, 'You're suspended,'" he said. Five years from now, when someone in to Montgomery County looks at his permanent record, they're going to see that he threatened to shoot another student.


Copyright 2013 by United Press International
 

buddy

New Member
Where is common sense. These are professionals who are supposed to understand child development. There are many things they could have done that would not be ignoring it, but would have more appropriately dealt with it. When we were kids we used sticks and fingers and played cops and robbers outside. Whole neighborhood of kids and not one of is is a criminal as a grown up. If that is a suspendable behavior, millions of kids are going to be missing school. What happened to teachable moments. (Whole different story if there are other concerns ....suspension is still not the answer. ) well, if this happens and your child is on an IEP there are legal definitions of what a weapon really is. Uggg.

My friends son who has autism got in trouble for drawing a picture of his school with airplanes going overhead and bombs coming down. Totally not a violent kid. But he had lived in the middle east for two years and that threat was real life for him. Instead of looking at his anxieties, they took it as a threat! Like he could get an airplane or bombs. The over reaction was crazy.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I wish I could say I was shocked by either story. We live in a community that seems to thrive on "discipline" and "control" and "respect". I'm so glad to be out of the schools and cringe when I read assinie stories like these. Sigh. DDD
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
That's just really sad...though not surprising in these times. I hate political correctness - everyone should really to grow a thicker skin and just talk. Where is the lesson in suspencing a 5 year old?
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I loathe and despise zero tolerance policies like this. They are stupid and non productive and work to enforce exactly what they want to prevent. I know LOTS of kids who would see a zero tolerance policy as a dare, a challenge, or a vacation from school. Or all 3. This is one reason that I LOVE our school district. They have a strong policy that they will NOT create any zero tolerance policies. Even having a child shoot himself at our jr high a few mos ago did not change this policy. They evaluate problems as part of a whole, not just looking at the action, but why the student did it and what they wanted to accomplish and what contributed to make it happen.

I am glad the parents got and attorney. They will likely NEED one for quite a while.
 
Obviously the school is being ridiculous but OMG a lawyer over 1 day suspension seriously??? Oh and I love the permanent record remark. With comments like that I'm not sure who is overreacting more.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Oh yes, the dreaded Permanent Record. Has anyone ever seen this record? They threaten this thing like it is a tablet that Moses brought down from the Burning Bush and stays with you your whole life. I hate this whole threat. You dont get a permanent record until your an adult and then its only a legal one...lol. No one is running around making marks in it if you call your neighbor a bad word. Ugh.

I think we as a nation have swung way too far into political correctness. A kindergartner cant give his friend an innocent hug and kiss on the cheek because he is then labeled a sex offender for life. Oh please. Heaven forbid he swing a girl on the swings and he touch her on the butt. You tell me how you swing someone without pushing on the backside but that is sexually deviant behavior now.

All the behaviors that were normal play and activities back in the 70's are now seen as violence and punishable by suspension and even being charged in juvenile court. Its absurd. Whatever happened to Cowboy's and Indians, King of the Mountain, Army, and all those type games? I guess we all should have been charged and sent to juvenile detention as kids because we were so dangerous as kids.
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
How utterly stupid. It's just like the 6 year olds being suspended for hugging another kid. What on earth are we telling our kids? No wonder they are getting screwed up. We can't seem to make up our minds. Don't bully, but you'll get suspended if you show compassion. Too much confusion for a 6 year old.
 

svengandhi

Well-Known Member
When oldest boy, who is mildly Aspie, was in 8th grade, he had an art assignment to put a new twist on a classic painting. This was during the beginning of the Iraq war. My son did a take on Van Gogh's "Starry Night." He added some jetfighters and called it "Starry Night over Baghdad with Jetfighters." I still have it hanging up. We did get a call from the teacher about it but our argument was that he is a kid obsessed with military hardware and this is a positive example of him combining his interests.

I have tons of stories but the one I use to illustrate the stupidity of the school system is about difficult child. When he was in 6th grade, he was being tormented by his math teacher. He was sent to school psychiatric. At some point in the discussion, he told her that when he became a grown-up, he would come back to the school with his army and blow it up. The psychiatric asked him if he saw the army to which he responded: "No. Why, do you?" It was only my threat to go to the media that forced them to back off their planned suspension.

I think we have to be vigilant but we can't over-react with stupidity. The finger pointing incident is a glaring example of this stupidity.
 
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