We just discussed a story of a kindergartner who was disciplined for a LEGO gun that he brought to school that was smaller than a quarter. Now we have another kindergartner who was suspended for the rest of the year (10 days) for bringing an orange-tipped toy gun to school. Rather than simply discuss the matter with his parents, school officials proceeded to interrogate him for hours without calling his parents– a growing problem that we discussed in another story today. The toy was in the boy’s backpack and he was pulled into an interrogation with police. I cannot imagine what officers did for two hours in questioning a 5 year old child but it is clear that Calvert County officials have zero crime and even less judgment. During his detention with the officials and police, the boy wet his pants.
I cannot express the level of disgust and anger that I have over such a story. School officials refuse to use any judgment in enforcing such zero tolerance policies and continue to abuse the rights of students by allowing schools to be used for interrogations.
The boy will now have the incident placed in his permanent record and he will be kept out of school for the rest of the year. Grown ups are responsible for this farce, not this toddler.
The boy wanted to show his friend his toy on their ten-minute bus ride. The principal later told his mother that he pretended to shoot someone on the bus — oh my lord, a toddler pretended to shoot someone with a toy gun. I am surprised that the whole school district was not shutdown. Here is the great part. The principal expressed relief that the cap gun did not have caps to make a pop sound because it would have been treated as an explosive device.
This insanity continues despite public outcry and any semblance of rational thought. We have previously explored how teachers and school administrators are expelling or suspending students for everything from finger guns to stick figures. (here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). For a prior column, click here. Even nibbling a danish into a gun shape can get you expelled today.
I have previously written about the controversy of boys playing with play guns (here and here). This is a boy who was excited about a toy. He broke the rules. Call in his parents but to call in the police is absurd. Teachers may claim that this is in the best interest of the child but it is in the interest of school administrators who believe that they cannot be blamed if they show no judgment or discretion. They just serve up a scared little boy and walk away.
Source: Washington Post
Sam:
are you sure? It might be a couple of over zealous NRA members or IRS wanabees.
Sorry, Sam…this PROGRESSIVE, and many others, have been saddened by the idiotic rulings of “no tolerance” programs. I seem to remember many of these being initiated around the “No Child Left Behind” era.
What are the odds that these pin-headed cops played with toy guns when they were kids?
Calvert County Board of Education
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Address: 1305 Dares Beach Rd, Prince Frederick, MD 20678
Phone:(410) 535-1700
I called the school board and it is true.
Wow, unbelievable.
I am thinking that maybe those police officers are sadists. Who in their right mind would do that to a young child? The poor kid was probably scared out of his mind.
No Paul, we have PROGRESSIVES in charge of our schools
This poor child will never forget this traumatic event in his life. Undoubtedly, the message being sent is for people to fear and obey authority. I can’t help but think that this incident may lead the child either to become a spineless slave to authority or to overcompensate and become a rebel who despises all authority and internalizes the lesson to just not get caught breaking the rules.
And we wonder why our education system falls behind other countries? We have idiots in charge of too many our school systems.
Never met a school janitor who wasn’t far more effective dealing with the kids than the administrative paper-worms promoted to their level of greatest incompetence.(Peters Principal)
Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius.
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
The gods must really hate the US.
And some think that terrorism is the big problem?
Prioritize baby!!!
And to think that we used to play cops and robbers with all kinds of toy guns. I don’t remember taking the toys to school, but my brothers might have since it wasn’t all that unusual for the boys to play cops and robbers during recess.
bettykath – in my father’s generation the kids brought their rifles to PE for target practice. Now education about firearms is taboo. It doesn’t make sense. If a kid is interested in firearms, I guess he will have to go to the criminals in the shadows to learn about them.
This represents another reason for a school voucher system that would allow schools to compete with each other and allow parents to choose what school their child attends.
thats progressives for ya
I guess we can’t play cops and robbers anymore.
I do want to point out that the source story says that the police “would have” been called in if the gun had had caps in it (an absurdity, no doubt) but not that the police conducted the interrogation.
Still a ridiculous overreaction and further demonstrates the anti-gun hysteria out there. Shameful actions by the administration.
In most states children under six are incapable of being held responsible for committing a crime, therefore this is not a police matter, and therefore the police have no authority to question this child.
Police in our state are not premitted to interrogate a child under 14 years of age on a criminal matter where the child is a suspect, unless the parent consents.
When I was a child in grade school in the 1970s occasionally a child brought a cap gun to school and it was no different than them bringing a baseball mitt. In fact, when in second grade, I bought a cap gun and gave it to another boy during the Christmas party. Christmas party and cap guns; now a threat to society today.
A scared, and potentially *scarred* little boy. Incidents with authority figures can haunt us for years. I’ve been through similar incidents with my child. Schools don’t seem to have the judgment or competence to handle issues internally without creating the kind of drama they say they want to avoid. They are also masters of exaggeration of the child’s behavior, too. It’s damaging to everyone to create such an adversarial relationship between school and students/parents. They may be the child’s authority figures during school, but it’s terribly unwise to alienate the parents in fostering cooperation with and respect for school rules.
Anyone ‘interrogating’ my 5 year old with out my knowledge and presence would have me removing my child from that school and looking for a lawyer.
Is there an ongoing competition among schoolies and the LEO world to determine who is the most asinine?
Good grief, I’m speechless