School arrests two students for legal activity
Pair of 8th graders held in toy gun incident at Farb
Two fourteen year old students at Farb Middle School in the San Diego Unified School District were arrested yesterday for possession of a toy Airsoft gun. A caller reported seeing one of the eighth graders hand a gun to the other as they left their bus.
All of the pupils who had ridden the bus were questioned and two 14- year-old teens were ultimately taken into custody in the school counselor’s office.
They will be released to their parents and are likely to be expelled under the district’s zero tolerance policy, [District spokesman Steven] Baratte said.
This expulsion attempt will occur despite possession of imitation weapons being classified as an offense punishable only by suspension in the school’s discipline policy . By contrast the district policy for suspension doesn’t deal with imitation weapons at all. In order to be expelled according to district policy a student would not only have to posses an actual weapon but would also have to use it.
So here we have a school district that had two students arrested for a legal activity and is expected to expel them for something they don’t classify as an offense. Even the stricter policy at the school level only calls for a suspension. They are enforcing a zero tolerance weapons policy that does not even exist.
Contact information:
SUSD School Board
SUSD Spokesman Steven Baratte
Principal Susan Levy
madness, madness I tell you!
so, now that I have given up on trying to think about these things logically, have I graduated from newbie status?
Chad
http://www.sandi.net/depts/placement_appeal/zero_tolerance.pdf
There’s their ZT policy, and it does include “pistol replica”.
Which isn’t to say that the school’s behavior isn’t painfully stupid, but it is technically documented.
Nice catch, Audrey.
So there is documentation of a zero tolerance policy. However, the school and district discipline codes were apparently never modified to support it.
Well, I knew something was amiss when you posted that possession of a real gun isn’t an expulsion offense until the kid uses it, i.e. pulls the trigger and discharges a round.
Gotta say, airsoft pistols are very realistic. At a friend’s son’s graduation party, some drunk senior called the DC operator from their house and asked for the number for the White House, and when they gave it to him, he was surprised and asked how they could be sure he wasn’t up to no good. That’s all it took for my friend to have some very unpleasant meetings with the Secret Service, have her bank accounts temporarily frozen, etc. There are threats you don’t want to joke about, and these kids are old enough to know that.
Clarification: The discipline policy allows for suspension for simple possession of a weapon. Expulsion requires actual usage such as intimidation, brandishing, or worse.
Obviously this doesn’t agree with the zero tolerance policy.
I feel sorry for students in California. They have to go to school all year long. They don’t even get a damn summer vacation from this ZT bullshit.
Almost chad, almost. You still have to lose the ZT cherry and get reamed on something yourself.
Before passing judgement on this case though, we still have to find out what kind of airsoft it was and whether or not the orange cap was still on. If it was something like a realistic glock replica, even if the orange cap, i can understand a suspension. But if were talking about some kid getting expelled for bringing in a phaser then that’s definitely ZI.
They brought a gun to school. It can hurt people. They had no reason to bring it. Expelling is reasonable in this situation.
I took a pencil to school. It can hurt people much easier than an airsoft gun (which is designed for shooting people in a game). I should have been expelled…
These Airsoft guns are extremely popular. You school administrators and board members who read this site — please check your discipline policies against the fact that it seems like every middle school boy has at least 2 of these. If expulsion is really possible, parents need to know it, in advance… and it may put a damper on AirSoft gun sales, and I won’t find those little pellets everywhere in my yard, and the Chinese can make some other crap for our kids.
As for these 2 kids, in light of the flexibility with respect to the written school policy, Ms. Principal, please use some judgment and show some reasonableness here… EXPULSION?? What if they brought a BB gun? The DEATH PENALTY?
after all the storys posted on here this is the only one i disagree with, bb guns,airsoft guns, ive seen them take eyes out,i knew one kid that got shot and they said if they took the bb out it would cut th evain or somthing so they couldn’t get it taken out.
but desparado, if you used that pencil forcefully you would have been expelled,now if they used the airsoft gun focerfully they should have to be expelled but if they had brought it just to show there friends, well then there shouldnt be any damage done, its only for th ekids saftey that they dont bring it back another day and actualy use it against someone. but expullsions is to far…
Tyler, I think you misread who wrote the message you responded to. It was mine, not desparado’s.
Anyway, you seem to think airsoft guns and BB guns are equivalent. They aren’t. BB guns are designed to shoot as hard as they can using air pressure (I’ve seen some that will shoot 1500 feet per second). Pellet guns are an improvement on this for better air dynamics giving more range and power. Neither of these are intended for shooting people and, just as you noted, can take out eyes easily. Airsoft guns are something different. They don’t shoot metal BBs for one, they shoot plastic BBs. They also don’t shoot very hard at all, and are INTENDED to shoot people in a game similar to paintball (eye protection is still required just to be safe). The odds of someone losing an eye to one airsoft gun in a school are, in my opinion, much lower than the odds of someone losing an eye to one of the many flying pencils, paper clips, and other projectiles school kids find ways to launch at high speeds during class.
Now if the kids were actually shooting other kids with this gun, then punishment would be necessary, although nothing even close to expulsion unless the intent was to harm. (The cute girls at my school occasionally went home with sore behinds because the jocks would bring BB guns to school.) In this case the kids should have just been told that if they brought it to school again there would be consequences and end it there. From the details given, I would guess that one kid was simply letting the other borrow it and they had no intention of shooting it, brandishing it, or anything else at the school. No one even saw it at the school, it wasn’t seen until after they left the bus.
My fourteen year old shot me in the arm with his Airsoft gun from a distance of about 1 inch. (He swears it was an accident.) It stung a bit and broke the skin. That’s about it.
well there policy could use a little less tolerance if you ask me: they have to USE a gun to be expelled? If you have a gun, you need to be expelled. If you have an imatation gun, you need to be suspended.
My 14 yr. old son was riding the bus home when he and a friend decided to show each other their airsoft guns. The friend got caught by the bus driver with his gun and my son didnt. The next day my son was called into the office and admitted to having an airsoft gun also. He was suspended for 10 days with an additional 30 days added by the superentindent for the severity of the crime. This is bullcrap, isnt 10 days long enough for such an irrational decision on my sons part? No one was hurt, shot, or died due to this event. Now my son faces repeating 8th grade, but thank goodness we can appeal the decision..so here is hoping for the best in such a ridiculous situation. In my opinion and my son’s airsoft guns are toys.
Perhaps we’re all missing a point here. Schools are for learning. Students should have no reason to bring either toys or guns (of any nature) to school where it is their job to learn. Granted, the airsoft guns are made to greatly reduce the possibility of someone being hurt by them, but that’s not the point here. Teachers and all adults employed by the school should never have to ask the question “is that real or not” as it would take roughly an equal amount of time for the student with the real gun to shoot and kill them. Adults with children (I won’t call them parents since they’re obviously doing very little parenting) who are not preventing their children from taking guns to school, and some who even go so far as arguing on the childs behalf because of a punishment resulting from possession of a gun at school (or on a SCHOOL bus) need to realize this is for their childs safety. If a child has to repeat 8th grade because of a parent’s inability to prevent them from violating school policy and ultimately it prevents someone from risking bring a real gun to school later, then so be it. Know what your kids are up to and you won’t sweat it!
Um im about to get expelled for bringing one to school. I know its stupid but i brought it because a friend bought it from me. I brought it in a gym bag. The other kid was the one who initially got caught. I already am getting 5 days suspension minimum and the vp said theres a chance that ill get expelled. Now im not a failure student. 3.6 gpa with all honors and ap classes and im in the 10th grade. This could potentially ruin my life forever. This zt policy is bullcrap. I agree with suspension but expullsion, bs.
Bilal, my question is why didn’t you make other arrangements if you knew your school had a ZT policy? Why bring the airsoft gun to school? Why not make arrangements for transfer at home or some other place that wasn’t public? Also realize it’s not the schools themselves that set policy. Most of the time it is your School Boards that do that, and those positions are usually elected. Our campuses have ZT policy and that covers everything from drugs to tobacco to guns. I don’t agree with the policies all the time either, but the Administrators are the ones that set those. Until you can get a collective group of parents, adults and students to back you the changes will not be made. And even then they may not be changed simply because the Administrators are in charge and they like it that way. Think politics here, not minions. Got to go to the top. The rest of the people are just followers, claiming it is their job and school policy. You won’t find them taking responsibility for those policies.
This is so stupid…they expel them for taking airsoft guns to school…thats like giving them a vacation. d’uh