Kid suspended for drawing a gun

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

We don't know the history of this kid. You seem to be designing one.

I'm not talking about this particular kid, because I don't know his history. I guess I didn't get this across. GD said it well -

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Very true, but it's still an interesting hypothetical question. Assuming an ideal kid, or even semi-ideal (not a perfect angel, but never done anything that deserved more than an occasional talking to or lunch detention). Would suspension be the right reaction if that kid did this?

I also would like to point out that if there was a shooting and warning signs were ignored, quite possibly the same people who are bashing the school now would bash the school for doing nothing.

If a child repeatedly draws guns all over the place then yes, they should talk to the child. I don't see suspension as a constructive option, ever. It does not fix the possible problem of a violent child. Like Sac said above. Anyone who would bash a school for "ignoring" a first time offense is just scared sh.tless.

No one's saying the boy shouldn't like guns. No one's saying that drawing a gun is bad. Drawing a gun on homework is not cool and can be seen as a threat by someone. It's inappropriate.

Just because something CAN be seen as a threat doesn't mean it IS a threat. I find that a particularly weak argument because lots of things can be seen as a threat, or inappropriate.

There are times to express yourself in art, even illustrating a creative writing piece with pictures but on homework that seems to not have required pictures, it's inappropriate.

I used to doodle on my homework. Why? Why would I put something on there for the teacher to see? Because I was bored. Because I hated homework. Sometimes it was because I felt confined by the textbooks and repeated pet tricks I had to pull to keep my grades in line. Other times, though, it was because I actually liked my teacher, and the idea of a certain kind of banter with them was fun. I recently unearthed some of these (which I SAVED, because I enjoyed them so much) and they involve silly faces, odd quotes from songs, odd conversational snippets. I asked my teacher to write NBC and protest the cancellation of Quantum Leap. I made jokes about the homework, I wondered aloud about current events, you name it. This was my coping mechanism with the tediousness of school.

Lots of other kids doodled on their homework. They'd inscribe the logo of their favorite car, or band. I remember 7th grade well in that respect - many of the girls I knew write NKOTB on every paper they touched. Yes, a gun is a whole other class of things to put on the homework. But like I tried to illustrate with my knife example, where does it end?

I think the children of this school will be thinking twice before doing something like this again.

Yes, and they are going to think twice before drawing a whole world of other objects and ideas, or crossing any other set boundaries for them. It's called fear.

What the kid did was wrong and he paid the price.

It was wrong? Drawing a gun where a teacher will see it is wrong? I know you don't like my examples, but where does it end? Is it wrong to draw a knife, or a pair of scissors, or a caveman's club?

For a while I had this odd image I liked to draw - a heart with a cupid arrow through it, with blood dripping out of the wounds. Yeah, I was an overdramatic kid. Are arrows wrong? Is blood wrong? Is the idea that love can be painful wrong? Is expressing my own pain wrong? If I were a teen and I was suspended because of that drawing, what does that tell me?

Steps were not taken before Columbine and now people are criticizing a school that's trying to prevent another one. I'd rather people learn from mistakes in the past than just ignoring them. I mean, what's really being suppressed is the past and the history of violence in schools.

I'm not comparing Columbine to this kid because again, I don't know this kid's scenario. However, the fact that those Columbine kids did the worst possible thing conceivable now means that no child ever in any public school shall ever draw a weapon that may be seen by a teacher is, to borrow a word, WRONG. This is like having your firstborn die of drowning so you never let your second kid near water. Overcompensating fear BS cripples our society, and doesn't even help the kids it's supposed to help!

Sometimes I hate this country.

[flippyshark]

Back in my grade school days, us boys used to draw pictures of guns (usually big guns, like tanks, cannons, missile launchers, machine guns) and actually turn them in for a grade. Granted, it was art class, but weaponry, whether military or science fiction related, was an extremely common subject, and didn't raise an eyebrow. (Though, I imagine our art teachers probably ROLLED their eyes after the umpteenth battle zone picture they received per week.) I have to wonder if this kids' picture, though inappropriately doodled in the margins of a homework assignment, came from this same place. (We liked this imagery because we associated it with exciting comic books and movies we had seen.)

[Prudence]

I have some sympathy for the school. They're in a tough position. As more and more parents take a hands-off approach to raising their own kids, a bigger and bigger burden gets piled on schools. They don't just teach anymore - now they have to teach to the standardized exam, try to teach self-control without infringing on wittle pwecious's right to free expression, walk the line between exposing kids to a variety of ideas and fending off parents who want Stepford children. Sometimes "zero tolerance" policies seem like the only realistic solution; there just aren't the resources to evaluate individual circumstances.

That doesn't mean zero tolerance policies are appropriate. As others have said, we don't know the surrounding circumstances. I know I'm suspicious after past zero tolerance sweeps rounding up kids as drug peddlers for passing out an aspirin or Midol.

I'm also concerned because if it *was* nothing, this is the kind of thing that "turns a good kid bad." Granted, I have a unique perspective from spending my grade school years in surrounded by neurotic high achievers, but if you had suspended one of us for something we felt was unjust - that was it. The record was blemished. All hope of getting into the Ivys would be dashed and one might as well head out back to smoke.

I guess my thinking is, if it was part of some larger pattern of intimidation or insubordination, then THAT was the offense: intimidation or insubordination or whatever. And I think school's are within their rights to punish those sorts of behaviors. And maybe that's what it was - goodness knows the media wouldn't report "student suspended for disobeying teacher" when they could go with "student suspended for drawing a gun."

[Strangler Lewis]

Kid drew a bad-ass automatic. Fry him.

[Kevy Baby]

Out of curiosity, I checked, and the image that GC posted is the actual drawing.

Corroboration

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Out of curiosity, I checked, and the image that GC posted is the actual drawing.

Corroboration

It's weird. I got it from Fox "News" and yet there's another drawing with the smiley faces all over it. Two different pictures. (???)
:shrug:

Edit to add: I should have put a link to my source when I posted the pic. I forgot.

[Ghoulish Delight]

From Kevy's link

However, the school failed to contact police, and failed to provide counseling or an evaluation for the student to determine if he intended it as a threat, officials said.

[Gemini Cricket]

CP ~ Not sure where you're getting the idea that I or anyone would think that drawing an arrow with blood is wrong or that I'm not validating your pain. I'm confused.

The act was seen as inappropriate, the officials saw it as a threat. There it is.

This kid can bounce back from something like this. It's not a scar for life unless he and his parents treat it that way.

I don't find this an issue of censorship, either. It's about appropriateness.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I still don't know where you stand, GC, on the hypothetical question posed.

If a kid had a clean record with no prior indication of behavior issues, authority issues, depression, etc., would a single drawing of a gun be enough, in your opinion, to justify suspension without any attempt to address it with either teacher talking to the kid to a visit the school counselor first?

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

I still don't know where you stand, GC, on the hypothetical question posed.

If a kid had a clean record with no prior indication of behavior issues, authority issues, depression, etc., would a single drawing of a gun be enough, in your opinion, to justify suspension without any attempt to address it with either teacher talking to the kid to a visit the school counselor first?

It depends on where the drawing was. If it's on homework to turn in to a teacher as this kid did, yes. On a test, yes. If it was his own journal or at home or in an art class, no.

I have an issue with the school doing it without having something in the student handbook about it. They should have been more clear on it.