This is on my mind again due to the unfortunate incident at the high school last week and i hope the young mans poor decision does not ruin the rest of his life. 6 years ago my second grade child and his friends were playing cowboys/indians, cops/robbers over the weekend in the field and neighborhood. Monday morning my kid rides bus to school with the pictured item in his back pack opens backpack to retrieve something another kid on bus sees the keychain in the back pack informs teacher that my kid has a gun in his bag. My kid gets sent to office where he meets two sheriffs and principal with his bag and keychain on desk. By the time my wife arrives my kid (mind you he is a second grader at this time) is scared to death tears running down his face thinking he is going to prison. Principal informs us he is being expelled from school and it will be in his permanent school record that he brought a gun to school. Not a toy/keychain that resembles a gun but a gun. They said with the zero tolerance policy it does not allow to differentiate between real guns and facsimiles. After much discussion and us the parents not giving in the end game was a 5 day suspension (really what good does that do for a second grader other than have him miss out on a weeks worth of lessons) and no report on record. We also told our child he was not in trouble and had done nothing wrong other than be a forgetful child that did not clean his bag of the weekends toys. We as a society have allowed ourselves to be ruled by fear and these zero tolerance policies for too long and its about time more level headed people stand up and say were not putting up with this BS anymore. Every situation is different and should be handled as necessary. You dont punish J walkers the same as murderers and kids that make mistakes should not be punished the same as school shooters.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 23:28:46 +0000
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