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"I was shooting the markers at the front of the board," Taylor Trostle said. "It was just like this and I was like ‘pow pow’ and then she just turned around."Taylor was sent to the principal's office and immediately suspended for three days. Her write up says the finger gun was pointed in the teacher’s direction.
"That was considered a terroristic threat because the teacher feared for her life," Taylor's mother said.
What is this world coming to?
If an alleged adult is "threatened" by some kid making a gun with their finger, then that "adult" should be the one taking a break from school and getting some help. It is unconscionable that the school’s code of conduct is supporting the teacher in this ridiculous claim.
If only this were an isolated incident. But, it's not:
• A high school senior who was in the Young Marines program had some wooden dummy rifles in her car. The dummy "rifles" were used by her drill team. Busted. Zero Tolerance!
• A high school boy went hunting before school. Still having his shotgun in his vehicle, he wisely chose to park off campus to avoid violating his school's Zero Tolerance policy. The school administration didn't care where he parked. Zero Tolerance!
• One graduating high school senior was joining the Army and, for her yearbook picture, she wanted a photo of herself on an antique cannon in the city park. Nope: Zero Tolerance!
• An 11 year-old student folded a piece of paper into the shape of a gun. She and two classmates were suspended and sentenced to 30 days of alternative school for their flagrant violation of district anti-gun policies. Zero Tolerance!
• A boy doodled a picture of a gun. Busted. Zero Tolerance!
• A teacher who brought two plastic replicas of antique muskets onto a middle school campus Friday for a summer-school lesson on the Revolutionary War. The incident prompted a police response and 90-minute lockdown. The teacher will not return to finish teaching the class. Zero Tolerance!
• A student wore a t-shirt with the image of a rifle on it. A school official ordered him to either take it off or turn it inside out, threatening to suspend him should he not obey and forbidding him from wearing the shirt to school again. Zero Tolerance!
• Three boys were suspended for bringing to school miniature toy guns from GI Joe action figures. Zero Tolerance!
• A picture of a soldier holding a canteen and a knife earned the third-grade boy who drew it a suspension from school. Zero Tolerance!
• A nine-year-old was suspended for 5 days because he had a harmless, fired, empty shotgun shell in his pocket. Zero Tolerance!
• An eighth-grader who prevented a suicidal friend from slitting her wrists by taking away her knife faced automatic suspension for securing the weapon in his locker. Zero Tolerance!
• After bringing a Cub Scout dinner knife to school to eat his lunch, a six-year-old boy was ordered to attend an alternative school for students with behavioral problems for nine weeks. Zero Tolerance!
• An Eagle Scout was suspended for three weeks for having an emergency supply kit in his car, that included a pocket knife. Zero Tolerance!
• A third-grade girl was expelled for a year because her grandmother sent a birthday cake, and a knife for cutting the cake, to school. The teacher used the knife to cut the cake, and then reported the girl to the authorities for having a dangerous weapon. Zero Tolerance!
• A 15-year-old girl was prohibited from sharing a photo of her brother, a US Marine and a decorated veteran of the Iraq war because the photo showed him in combat uniform and holding a gun -- a typical picture of a Marine at work in a war zone. Zero Tolerance!
These are examples of what any reasonable person would categorize as harmless incidents that are repeatedly blown out of proportion over and over again in our schools.
The National Center for Education Statistics says that no evidence exists that proves that Zero Tolerance laws lower school crime rates. Of course not! All this policy does is target innocent children, branding them as criminals and terrorists!
The kids aren't stupid. They know the school adminstrators and teachers who impose and enforce these silly Zero Tolerance rules are fools.
There is really something wrong with our country. And what's wrong seems to originate and fester in our government school system!
It seems to me that the real agenda is to acclimate our children to living in a police state!
How about Zero Tolerance for stupidity in the ranks of our educators?
Now, some irony: While the government school system imposes the terrorist label on 13-year-old girls with finger guns, the obama administration does not consider the actions of Nidal Malik Hasan, the radical Moslem US Army officer who killed 13 fellow soldiers and wounded 32 other people at Ft. Hood, Texas last November a terroristic act!
Evan was nearly expelled as a 3rd grader for having a 2-inch tool man type "weapon" in his pocket. It was Sun Microsystems giveaway at a trade show and he sold it to another student for $2. The other kid got caught with it and was expelled. Evan had just changed schools and escaped punishment because he had not yet signed the zero tolerance policy. The weapon in question had a small nail file and "working" scissors with about a half inch blade. The scissors were what got them in trouble. Funny, since they are allowed to use scissors at school--just not allowed to bring them from home.
ReplyDelete---Then there was the time when he was a senior in High school, Evan and a friend were playing keep-away with a bag of chips (teasing another friend who ended up with the chips back without incident). Someone in the office heard about it and the two boys were charged with FELONY EXTORTION. The girl whose chips it was didn't have an issue, but come to find out that type of activity over money or food on a school campus in California is considered a felony so the dean called in the police. Charges were dismissed against Evan, but the other boy ended up doing a number of hours of community service.
What a waste of resources...
Back when we were kids (50s and 60s), we used to take toy guns to school all the time -- especially those we just got for Christmas. Every boy had a pocketknife. (Dunno what dangerous implements the girls had in their purses.) During recess, we used to play Army, Cops and Robbers, and Cowboys and Indians. Back in those days, nobody ever shot up a school. Today's teachers would be horrified at such egregious activities. This Zero Tolerance hogwash has stolen our children's' childhood!
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