Father arrested, strip-searched after 4-year-old draws ‘man with gun’

posted at 1:34 pm on February 26, 2012 by Howard Portnoy

A picture, it is said, is worth a thousand words. But according to a teacher at Forest Hills Public School, in Kitchener, Ontario, a sketch by four-year-old Nevaeh Sansone communicated only one word: “Draw!”

Which is precisely what police did—on the girl’s father when he came to pick her up from kindergarten on Wednesday. The Toronto Sun reports that authorities arrested 26-year-old Jessie Sansone on charges of possession of a firearm. The father of four was reportedly handcuffed and eased him into the back of a waiting squad car. A strip search was in his immediate future.

So what did Sansone do to deserve an all-expenses-paid ride to central booking? The late astronomer Carl Sagan might philosophize that his crime was contributing his seed to the formation of a daughter who would someday draw a picture of a man pointing a gun. When the child’s teacher asked her to explain the sketch, she said it was a picture of her father “getting the bad guys and monsters.” That was enough to prompt school administrators to notify Family and Children’s Services, who in turn phoned the police.

When the cops got Sansone down to the station house, they told him to disrobe, lift his testicles, and bend over. Presumably they were on the lookout for a hidden crayon that might be used in future deadly sketches.

Sansone’s run-in with the law didn’t there, either. He told the Sun:

They came to my house, told my wife that I had been charged with possession of firearms, that she would have to come with them, and that Sundae [their infant daughter] would have to go with the social worker.

While they were there, police also searched the residsence and found a plastic toy gun that shoots foam darts. There is no word on whether the family had obtained a permit for the weapon.

Sansone, the story notes, had run afoul of the law five years earlier. If he had a rap sheet, it is conceivable he might be a suspect—assuming there was an actual crime.

Now, he and his wife are faced with the onerous task of explaining to their children why Daddy was a jailbird for a day. Sanasone laments:

When I was finally able to see my family, after this ordeal was over, my little girl ran up and gave me a hug me and asked: ‘Daddy, are you mad at me?’ How could she ever think that I would be mad at her? She knows this has to do with her drawing.

He is also understandably vexed over his treatment:

I know the principal really well, how could he judge my character in this way? I drop off and pick the kids up every day, I always say hello, I sign every report card, I go to every parent teacher meeting, I am an active parent at that school.

At least now we have a clue who the bad guys and monster’s in Nevaeh’s picture were.

P.S. One assumes (hopes?) there is more to this story than early reports out of Canada are suggesting. Mitigating details will be added as they are furnished.

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