We have previously seen absurd examples of disciplinary actions taken under zero tolerance rules for drugs and guns (here andhere and here). This includes cases involving kids using finger guns (here). Now Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Montgomery County has joined these ranks by suspending a six-year-old boy for making a finger gun with his hand and saying “Pow.”
Assistant Principal Renee Garraway wrote to the child’s parents about this “serious incident” and said that by using he “threatened to shoot a student.” The letter also reference to a prior incident that the parents say was never conveyed to them.
It would be absurd to suspend a student for a finger gun, though this is not the first time. At most such an incident should result in a note asking the parents to speak with the student. Frankly, I fail to see the danger in kids using finger guns. I have made an intensive search and failed to find a single fatality linked to a finger gun. I am waiting for the NRA to issue bumper stickers insisting that schools will have to “pry my finger gun from my cold dead fingers.”
Source: Examiner
I would be interested in Elaine’s take on this. Zero tolerance is a mainstay in our school system. What kind of experiences she had since subsequent to zero tolerance becoming the accepted policy would be edifying. I had a student of mine suspended for having tylenol in her purse. A repulsive decision in my opinion.
See, what I don’t understand is what happened to embarrassmet? What the Hell? Why aren’t those people embarrassed about harassing the finger-bearing kid? OMG!
You should have seen us in the 40-50s. The first rubber bands came, and we make slingshots out of coat hanger wire. But left them at home.
But a pocket full of rubber bands went there. Stretch one from forefinger to thumb to fire when the thumb is dropped.
Of course we did it mostly at recess.
Glad to see that we are in agreement on what we must do to counter gun massacres. SARCASM????
OS,
They have quotas to meet, promises to delete, and politicians to greet.
It is like the cops in NYC, not meeting quota on stops will get you demoted to Far Rockaway. Allegedly.
I’m aghast.
Mike A.,
“Under sharia law does assault with a finger gun result in amputation of the offending finger?”
Only if you’re assaulting a man. They actually go for the index finger (barrel), the middle finger (trigger) and the thumb (hammer) just to make sure you’re disarmed, er, disfingered. (You may laugh, but at one point in my life I had read a big chunk of Sharia from SA and Iran as part of comparative law studies and some of their amputation guidelines are just that specific or more so. It’s creepy.)
“What about shooting daggers at someone with my eyes?”
Daggers? Yeah, they’ll blind you for that, but many people are upgrading to lasers as Sharia, like many legal systems, is slow to adapt to new technology.
It makes me shudder to think how the coming generations of children are going to turn out, when this kind of crap is what they’re having to deal with. Thank GOODNESS in MY day growing up we could shoot anyone we wanted. We even had CAP guns! I don’t know how so many of us managed to live through those horrible terrorist people that raised my generation of the 60s and 70s. It’s a miracle any of us made it. Good thing there are such brilliant and caring people to intervene with the little ones now!
They’ll be trying him as an adult and make an example of him, I’m sure! They’ll put him in solitary probably, until the decision comes down to just go ahead and throw him in Gitmo where he belongs. Are these people even SANE????
The dangerous mind reeking of authoritarianism is the weapon to watch out for.
Hey, insert “kill” between “don’t” and “people”. But you knew that didn’t you?
It was obviously an assault finger, but capable of semi-auto, three-burst, and full-auto. I know people that would duck and cover just by the sight of his finger weapon if he left it on a table (painful but doable).
” At most such an incident should result in a note asking the parents to speak with the student.” Primarily so the adults-in-charge, I’m not sure who they actually are, won’t wet their pants in fear.
” Frankly, I fail to see the danger in kids using finger guns. I have made an intensive search and failed to find a single fatality linked to a finger gun.” You missed the eyes, no fatalities, but a finger gun could poke your eye out. Oh, wait, a non-gun finger could do the same. We must stop fingers from harming eyes. We could call it “eyes law”. I’m sure Southern dialect police could go for that.
I was in Weps in the USCG. Handled, cleaned, and shot .45 Colt autos, M-16s, .50 caliber machine guns (a real big hoot, nothing like it), and a 5-inch (really just loud, no real satisfaction except for a dust cloud or a big splash, cleaning I left to the Gunner’s Mates because they told me to go away). In private, I’ve shot .357 Magnum, .38, and .44 Magnum (just too damn loud, but amazing damage), as well 12 and 16 gauge shotguns (prefer the latter).
Personally, I don’t like guns but see them as tools for appropriate uses. Like all tools, just setting on a bench represents no danger. The fools that go into paroxysms of fear when they see a gun, well, I fear them. If they touch the damn thing, I’m going to run because nothing is more dangerous than a gun in the hands of a fool. If you’ve been in the military, you know the drill when you pick up a gun, and the drill before you hand it to someone; the fools just pick the damn thing up and point it. Now if we could only teach the police that if it’s in your hand it never goes off accidentally; it’s because your finger was on the trigger, and you should keep that damn dangerous thing away from the trigger until it’s time to pull…
Guns don’t people, fingers do, and finger guns are really dangerous because they are both.
Really, can we get any sillier. Oh, wait, can we discuss sporks and plastic knives? I read about this one kid…
Yes, but was it an assault finger or a semi-automatic finger?
“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Fingers, shall not be infringed.”
The middle finger is mightier than the sword.
i’ll bust a cuticle in yo a$$
What a farce, but increasingly no longer unexpected from some schools. How about the school instead focus its attention on educating the students instead of oppressing them.
Gene:
Under sharia law does assault with a finger gun result in amputation of the offending finger? What about shooting daggers at someone with my eyes?
Maybe we should outlaw fingers altogether.
But if we outlaw finger guns, only outlaws will have finger guns.
Was it loaded, ya doofus Garraway?
Incredible. Why are people in authority soooo stupid ?
Heck,
I can remember my son picking up a Heinz ketchup bottle out of the grocery cart when he was 2 or 3 and pretending to shoot everyone in the grocery store. A 6 year old should not be suspended for using a finger gun. How about if we concentrate on the adults using real guns?
I have decided that way too many school bureaucrats check their common sense at the door when they go to work. Dr. Dwight Allen of UMass/Amherst once told me that middle level bureaucrats have no real power, but people need to feel empowered in order for their work to be validated. Therefore, a bureaucrat’s only recourse is to obstruct in order to feel worthwhile.
Dr. Laurence Peter was right as well.