Replica weapon leads to arrest, suspension, possible expulsion and imprisonment
Teen Civil War Buff Busted For Having Musket In Trunk
Teen Suspended Over Civil War Weapon
Joshua Phelps answered his schools’ call to arms. He joined the Civil War Club after seeing posters in school encouraging student participation in the group. He spent the weekend fighting off the Rebs at a recreation of the battle of Chancellorsville. He never expected he’d be fighting a real life battle just days later.
The 17-year-old … was called down to the assistant principal’s office Tuesday, where he was told that a weapon had been spotted in his car.
Also found inside the vehicle during a search by school officials was a bayonet, rolled cartridges with black powder, and a Union soldier’s uniform.
…
when Town of Crawford police showed up at the school 67 miles north of New York City, where they not only confiscated the musket, but handcuffed Phelps and charged him with misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon, punishable by up to a year in jail.Phelps, who was looking to expand his extracurricular activities to beef up his college applications, also was suspended from school for five days.
Joshua’s mother is incensed and cannot believe the actions the school is taking to punish her son for an item that they effectively put into his hands. The school remains recalcitrant about their actions.
David Ernst, spokesman for the state School Boards Association, told the AP that even fake guns that are incapable of hurting someone could still cause chaos in a school.
“Districts have to be concerned any time there is an apparent threat to student safety,” he said.
Pine Bush School Superintendent RoseMarie Stark did not return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.
Ernst’s comment really defies any civil response so I’ll leave it to y’all to supply in the comments.
(Tip credit to: Oliver Trimble, Tigerhawk, Aaron, Mitchell Weiss, Matt Theil, Bettina)
What a jackass! The only advice I can give Phelps and his mom is to get a good lawyer and sue sue sue!
Where is the club advisor? He/She should be standing up for this student!
Perhaps Phelps will conclude that henceforth he would rather be a reenactor for the cause of the South!
Was it in the trunk, or the back seat? The news stories give conflicting information. If the piece is capable of firing a projectile it qualifies as a firearm, and a high-school student should know to leave it at home or lock it out of sight in the trunk (although leaving it in the trunk out of sight, on a public school campus, probably violates state law and school policy). If it was in the back seat, visible to anyone passing by, it is hard to fault the school district for acting.
Any piece of tubular metal is capable of firing a projectile. The officer’s statement is effectively meaningless as given.
I saw this in the local paper, but they didn’t give much detail.
Assuming that it’s actually capable of firing a projectile (as opposed to just making a loud “bang” and a puff of smoke), what sort of “projectile” could it actually fire? I wouldn’t be surprised if an unbent paper clip fired by a rubberband slingshot could do more damage.
I guess it really comes down to whether or not this really qualifies as a “weapon”. And even then, how much damage can it do sitting in a car? (The bayonet, on the other hand, might be more of a concern.)
I don’t think it matters if it can fire a projectile or not. What matters is how the investigation and subsequent events are handled. All it would take for a thinking administrator is to call the boy to his office, ascertain that it was left in his car after a battle reenactment for the Civil War club, take into account the student’s behavioral history and see that there was no threat. Keep the “firearm” until school is let out and let him take it home with a warning to not let it happen again. If it did happen again, then you can address it at that time. But that would require initiative and thought, something that ZT policies are deliberately designed to avoid.
As far as I’ve ever heard, reenactors use real muskets, although they are supposed to load with the blackpowder equivalent of a blank, just powder and wadding. So I’d expect that this is a real weapon. It’s like to be a very heavy caliber (IIRC, .69 was common in the Civil War, and older muskets were even heavier). Load it with a lead slug and it’s quite capable of killing. My brother in law has successfully hunted and killed dozens of deer and a few bears with a similar weapon.
But … this was for a school-sponsored activity! Most high school kids are responsible enough to safely own firearms. If they aren’t, the school had better be careful what extracurricular activities it encourages.
The point is… the kid did not do anything wrong. He is not a threat to anyone, and should not be treated as a common criminal or a social menace with a criminal / academic record that may hurt his future prospects for job or college.
We find ourselves in a world where the political/social views of a minority have caused us to replace common sense and justice with dogma and righteous indignation regardless of the consequences to the innocent individual.
The American pendulum swings both right and left, and it is now obvious that it has swung too far to the left in academia and other government mandated institutions (both high school and college) and now is the time to force a return to the common sense center.
Can you recognize the difference between a psycho kid with a columbine arsenal of semi automatics walking into school cafeteria and a good kid with a replica civil war era black powder muzzle-loading antique and uniforms in the back of his pickup?
If so, apparently you are much more intelligent then David Ernst, Rose Marie Stark and the other Pine Bush school system administrators and local authorities.
I wonder if they will be reelected or appointed next term. It�s up to the good citizens of Pine Bush decide what kind of world they wish to continue to live in.
But as an outsider, I can only suggest that this simply cannot be good publicity for your property values�
Because I think a large majority of Americans think your local administrators are nuts!
This is stupid that he got in trouble. Bull.