ZeroIntelligence.net

‘Inch long’ toy gun causes big trouble

Updated 27 Feb 2004: Student allowed to return to school

A third-grader at Sun Valley Elementary was suspended this week for bringing a G.I. Joe toy handgun to school.
…
“It’s about an inch long,” said Vicki Stewart, the boy’s grandmother and guardian. “(The principal) had to tape it to a piece of paper to keep from losing it.”

This is a Class III violation and punishments include expulsion and alternative school. Seems this violent third grader violated the rules by possessing a “weapon firearm replica”. A clearcut violation of the student code of conduct. Is GI Joe toy abuse becoming an epidemic? You may recall a similar situation last month where an 8-year old in Washington was suspended for bringing two of these terrifying and dangerous items to school.

There have been questions recently about whether strict adherence to such codes has gone too far, especially after a Clay-Chalkville teen was sent to an alternative school for violating the school’s zero-tolerance policy after being caught taking a Motrin. Last April, two boys at Oak Mountain Middle School received one-day suspensions for playing with toy guns one had brought for a project on Treasure Island. A 10-year-old was arrested in October at an Alabaster school, accused of threatening someone with a toy gun.

The epidemic isn’t GI Joe toys, it’s the loss of common sense in school administrators. When will they figure out that these excesses do not help to make schools safer or to protect the learning environment. All they do is shock parents and disillusion students.

In cases like this, it’s up to the community to let schools know how they feel about the policies, said William Modzeleski, associate deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. But it’s the schools’ responsibility to use common sense enforcing them, he said.

“The punishment has to fit the crime,” he said. “On some zero-tolerance policies, the punishment far outweighs the crime.”

All zero tolerance policies, by their nature, are prone to abuses like these. Any policy that can be literally interpreted to read that expulsion is an appropriate response to an action figure accessory is fundamentally and fatally flawed.

(Link found at Best of the Web Today, tipped by Joey and Mark Johnson)

Third-grader back in school after suspension for having toy gun

After a fairly universal cry of “Shenanigans!” by the populace at large, the school system cried “Do overs!” and let Austin Crittenden back into school. They decided that a replica weapon is only a problem if it was dangerous.

“Obviously, this little piece of plastic could not be perceived to cause bodily harm to someone,” [Vicki Stewart, Austin’s legal guardian] said.

Not only will the school let Austin make up the work he missed over the 3 days that they kicked him out of school, they’re also marking those 3 days as excused absenses and expunging the suspension from his record. Isn’t that nice? Isn’t that typical?

How about an apology? How about Principal Teresa Ragland getting down to that child’s eye level and saying “I’m very sorry, Austin. I overreacted and behaved in a completely improper manner. You did nothing wrong and I punished you for it because of my own fears, slavish devotion to the minutiae of rules and lack of common sense. Fortunately for you enough people sounded off about my idiocy that I was obligated to correct my mistake after only a bit more than 3 whole days. I’ll make it up to you by pretending it never happened and letting you do all of the work you missed when I kicked you out.”