School suspends boy for drawing water pistol
posted at 11:33 am on October 22, 2007 by Bryan
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
When I saw this headline I did a double take, because I thought I’d posted this story months ago. It turned out that I had, sort of, only that case back in August concerned a boy in Arizona who’d sketched a very blocky gun with a trigger lock on it. He got suspended. The kid in this New Jersey case didn’t even go that far — he just sketched a toy. And got suspended.
A New Jersey second-grader’s drawing of a stick figure shooting a gun has earned him a one-day school suspension.
Seven-year-old Kyle Walker’s mom told an The Press newspaper of Atlantic City that her son was suspended for violating the district’s zero-tolerance policy on guns. She said her son told her he’d drawn a water pistol.
Kyle gave the picture to another child on the school bus, and that child’s parents complained about it to school officials.
As I said in that post back in August, if zero tolerance had been around when I was in school, this honors student would have been suspended routinely. Zero tolerance policies need to take into account one immutable fact: Boys are going to be boys.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages:
bryan the holy land verdict was just released.
zane on October 22, 2007 at 11:37 AM
Not if the left has anything to say about it!
redshirt on October 22, 2007 at 11:37 AM
On the one hand I almost would want to start weapons training early in a person’s life, but as I think about it there are too many people who don’t have the moral compass to even know the difference between the good guys and the bad guys anymore.
bbz123 on October 22, 2007 at 11:38 AM
But if he had whipped out a condom on that school bus, that would’ve been OK, right?
Nice going New Jersey.
fogw on October 22, 2007 at 11:39 AM
Where are tomorrow’s warriors supposed to come from if we insist on feminizing all the boys today?
Kensington on October 22, 2007 at 11:41 AM
In that our schools are ignoring reading, writing, and arithmetic, NEA and the teachers unions have converted these government processing centers from schools to PC factories.
saved on October 22, 2007 at 11:41 AM
I used to draw 2D battlefields with dozens of stick guys, tanks, mortars and planes, and I turned out ok.
Bad news on the HLF trial today also.
BadgerHawk on October 22, 2007 at 11:41 AM
You can’t find a better two-word summation of today’s Left, than “Zero Tolerance”.
phile on October 22, 2007 at 11:42 AM
Hmm, interesting. Can’t offend people with water pistols, Easter, or Christmas. Also can’t bother teaching who Goebbels was (yes, I asked my cousin if he knew who this was and he didn’t have a clue). I shudder to think that he probably doesn’t know who Hitler was either….
Who needs edumacation? I mean, really.
mjk on October 22, 2007 at 11:43 AM
not if the schools have anything to do with it.
Mojack420 on October 22, 2007 at 11:44 AM
How would you teach the history of war without ever displaying a picture or video that included a gun? Thought police, indeed.
T J Green on October 22, 2007 at 11:52 AM
My 5 year old got suspended for one day for whipping out his own, erm, “gun” on the playground.
He was accused committing a lewd and lascivious act. The Principal said it was due to fears of sexual harassment.
Cheerio on October 22, 2007 at 11:53 AM
Well, suspending lil boys for being lil boys is soo much easier than teaching ‘you shall not murder.’ God forbid!
locomotivebreath1901 on October 22, 2007 at 11:56 AM
And here I was assuming by the headline, he pulled out an actual water gun…
Canadian Imperialist Running Dog on October 22, 2007 at 12:01 PM
Why not ban the word “gun” from the lexicon in schools, and all textural dervivations; i.e., firearms, pistol, rifle, shotgun, etc., then make all written and drawn references illegal punishable by a two-year prison term, make boys wear dresses, and just institute that dictatorship we are moving close to every day in American schools?
Conversely we could allow students and teachers to read the Bill of RIghts. Either or.
IntheNet on October 22, 2007 at 12:03 PM
There cases like this often enough. But trust me, folks–I’m an art teacher–boys are still drawing disgusting, gross pictures today. That’s part of being a boy! I try and dissuade my boys from drawing weapons in school not because of the school board–but because of the parents. I know a lot of teachers, my wife is one of them. To be honest, most teachers aren’t ultra-liberal people. Most are pretty a-political. Teachers have to tread water and walk on egg-shells because they are constantly getting threatened with lawsuits. I should know–after a decade of teaching, my wife and I have been threatened numerous times for the most ludicrous of things. My wife lost many nights of sleep because some Nashville music exec was suing her and the vice principal because my wife told his step-daughter to unroll her left pant-leg. It’s a gang-symbol and not allowed in school. She refused. When sent to the office because she was disrespectful, she refused to roll it down for the vice principal as well. Daddy lawyered up. No kidding. You don’t read about these sort of things in the news.
Are there bad teachers out there? No doubt! I know a few. Are there people that do stupid things? Yessiree–I know both of the teachers that did the stupid “fake gunman” at the retreat this past Spring. I teach in the same system as them.
robblefarian on October 22, 2007 at 12:06 PM
That water pistol could have been filled with imaginary Holy Water.
If a school administraitor got any of that on ‘em, the results could be tragic.
TheSitRep on October 22, 2007 at 12:06 PM
And stick men will be stick men.
- The Cat
MirCat on October 22, 2007 at 12:12 PM
I don’t think I ever drew anything that wouldn’t get me kicked out of school today.
We’re going to have a nation of sissies if we keep this up.
frankj on October 22, 2007 at 12:19 PM
Zero tolerance takes zero brains, zero judgement, and zero common sense.
James on October 22, 2007 at 12:31 PM
Which is why I’m sending my kids to private school….without the government subsidizing my health care.
Queasy on October 22, 2007 at 12:32 PM
In other education news, Ohio’s governor is sending over $2.5 million so Cleveland can install metal detectors in every school. So students will be safe while not learning anything.
Now that the Cleveland school shooting has blown over, everyone who knew the shooter agrees: all the signs were there, but no one did anything. So I guess the idea is to overreact while they’re little and ignore them when they’re older.
saint kansas on October 22, 2007 at 12:33 PM
The nanny state strikes in Goose Creek SC:
http://www.abcnews4.com/news/stories/1007/465601.html
Not suspended, but expelled! Hopefully, her parents will now home school her!
scmommy on October 22, 2007 at 12:34 PM
And you better not have anything with the “Sopranos” logo on it.
I wonder if a Hisb’Allah flag would be allowed, with that Kalashnikov on it? Saudi flag with the sword?
The Monster on October 22, 2007 at 12:39 PM
What a bunch of hyper-sensitive pansy assed freakozoids.
A 6 year old draws a water gun and some kid’s parents get their panties in a wad? Gimme a break.
These are the same kind of folks who run to the principal’s office when their kid’s feelings get hurt. Instead of being a parent and teaching the kid how to deal with disappointment, they teach him to blame others and rely on mom and dad to solve all of his problems.
In addition to the suspension, I’m surprised the school didn’t order a full psychiatric workup and a double dose of ritalin for the offender.
BacaDog on October 22, 2007 at 12:46 PM
On raining days, if the teacher was in the mood, we played “battleship”. Guessing the squares where your ships were. I guess that is out of the question now.
I like the story Dennis Praeger (sp) tells about the mom who refused guns around her son. She made them sandwiches and they ate the sandwich, carving a gun out of the bread and then began play shooting with the “bread guns”. She realized she had lost the battle, and admitted that it is a passage of right.
My son, a more passive man you could not find, shot more cowboys, indians, bad men, wild animals, spacemen, and sisters than one could imagine.
Fools, the country is loaded with fools.
right2bright on October 22, 2007 at 12:46 PM
I want to see the children of USMC enlisted ranks take with them to school nice big pictures of the parents in uniform, showing the sleeve insignia with crossed rifles. When Zero Tolerance suspends one, all hell will break loose.
The Monster on October 22, 2007 at 12:53 PM
When I see the videos LGF posts of Palestinian kindergarten graduation ceremonies and contrast it with stories like this in the West, it makes me think this war against Islam is going to be much more difficult than it needs to be.
Canadian Infidel on October 22, 2007 at 1:22 PM
And these whoosiefied, pussiefied, Oprhaphied whimps(school administrators) make 6 figures not to think, make judgments and lean on ‘ZERO TOLERANCE’ to do their jobs? My question is what is it they do exactly to earn that kind of money. How about doing away with the lunch schedules and put their wages toward good teachers that want to teach reading, writing and rethmatic…and not sex education…just a thought.
oldernslower on October 22, 2007 at 1:37 PM
I live in a VERY conservative area and still contemplating putting my daughter in private school. I taught her to behave in school like how I think is appropriate, school be damned, kick ass when need be, take the suspension and I’ll give her a big treat for it. Our schools are wussifying our kids.
RW Wacko on October 22, 2007 at 2:13 PM
The Socialists now control the public school system; and the message is clear – the children will be re-educated, so that any drawing, thought or playground activity involving a gun will instantly be construed as anti-social, dangerous and abnormal.
Socialism abhors an armed populous. Therefore, each generation of children, in the public school system, must be re-educated – so that the Second Amendment will no longer be tolerated by the State. The key to the elimination of our rights, is to teach the children that the only rights that they have – are those tolerated by the State.
America is on the edge of the abyss; and Socialism is that abyss. I have lost hope for our country; because I have lost hope for our children.
OhEssYouCowboys on October 22, 2007 at 2:34 PM
Seems to be a case of “Take that you little squirt!”
Not to worry, mommy. Just tell Kyle to draw birth control pills from now on. He’ll get gold stars.
Dr. Charles G. Waugh on October 22, 2007 at 2:45 PM
How about drawing a gun that shoots birth control pills?
James on October 22, 2007 at 2:49 PM
I couldn’t believe this! Those 5 yr old kids probably didn’t even know what they’d done wrong!
4shoes on October 22, 2007 at 3:45 PM
These kinds of stories/situations represent an opportunity for parents to teach and instill in their children a healthy dis-respect for authority. The teacher is not always right. The school is not always right. The government is not always right.
“Don’t worry son, you can draw as many guns as you want when you get home.”
deesine on October 22, 2007 at 3:53 PM
The War Against Boys
Christina Hoff Sommers has been firing emergency flares about this for a long time.
I literally take about 15 mins everyday to deprogram any of the babblecock my son’s school may have forced him “learn” during the day.
The Race Card on October 22, 2007 at 4:15 PM
Zero tolerance == zero intelligence
Methinks America would be a better place if the NEA ceased to exist and their mangement and employees were all serving life sentences….On a desert island.
georgej on October 22, 2007 at 4:28 PM
georgej on October 22, 2007 at 4:28 PM
Let them be shipped to the pinnacle of the system that they preach: The Gulag.
OhEssYouCowboys on October 22, 2007 at 4:58 PM
So succinct, so precise. Excellent comment.
The Race Card on October 22, 2007 at 6:44 PM
Ah, so the left has reached the bottom of the pit of stupidity, and they have commenced to digging!
Gatordoug on October 22, 2007 at 7:09 PM
On a positive note, two weeks ago my son came home from the (public) charter school he attends 2nd grade with a drawing done for the class theme on “family.” It featured a picture of a rifle firing that represented his mother’s country (Vietnam) and their war-torn history, and a depiction of a big church with a nice cross on it and Jesus in a robe representing that when he is afraid “I know my mity (sic) God will protect me.”
I love my boy.
No talk of suspensions, no red flags raised, no trips to the counselor’s office. Nothing but a big check mark and nice comment from his teacher.
Captain Scarlet on October 22, 2007 at 7:54 PM
Oops:
…should read “where he attends 2nd grade.”
Maybe his dad needs a refresher.
Captain Scarlet on October 22, 2007 at 7:55 PM
Heck when I was in kindergarten, I (with a few of my friends) pulled my pants down on the playground and proceeded to play a game. We were playing a weird kind of tag, where the objective was for the kid who had been declared “it” to … *ahem* … grab one of the players “gun”s. If I were 5 years old today and that happened, God it would be a nightmare.
Fears of sexual harassment, indeed.
As to the kid in question … There is absolutely no sane reason to suggest a seven year old would assemble a bunch of rifles/shotguns/pistols, dress in his Dad’s trench coat (ten sizes too big for his body) and go on a shooting rampage.
There’s no other word to describe what this country is going through than “pussification.”
I assume you mean most elementary school teachers, since the colleges and universities seem up to their necks in Ward Churchill wanna-bes.
Ryan Gandy on October 22, 2007 at 10:32 PM
I recall an article from a few years ago in which an honors student was expelled or couldn’t graduate with her class or some such. A school security guard saw a steak knife in her car that had fallen out of some things she was moving to either a different home or an apartment.
Sometimes it is just shocking that supposedly educated people can be so stupid.
Zero tolerance? Nitwits on parade.
91Veteran on October 22, 2007 at 11:48 PM
Comment pages: