Kid suspended for drawing a gun

[blueerica]

I actually think the kid, at 13, is barely old enough to know the implications of a Columbine massacre, just as I wasn't ever old enough to understand that school shooting by Brenda Ann Spencer in 1979. Sure, I was 1 when that shooting happened and he was 4 (?) when Columbine happened, but I just don't think he's going to have the same grasp on the situation as adults, particularly his teachers and counselors.

Unfortunately, school shootings and mass murders have been a part of our lives for well beyond our years. I don't say this to take it lightly, but it's pretty clear to me that in the last 80 years that we, as citizens, they as education professionals, haven't learned an effective way to manage these problems. As these events become more sensationalized, it seems as though teachers, administrators and counselors know how to deal with it less and less, instead of more and more. There's something very backward, to me, about how we - as a country - deal with our youth.

Adolescence is a time where children need as much or more guidance than they did as babies and toddlers. That doesn't mean treating them like babies and toddlers, but to recognize that the buck stops with each and every one of us to solve the problems around us. Whether it was the 1st, 2nd, 10th, 20th time this kid drew a gun on his homework, it just sounds like that kid's school passed the buck onto someone else.

As a collective, we're handling these situations worse and worse each and every time. Of course, we're only hearing about the egregious situations - not the times when a kid was pulled aside and talked with.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by blueerica

I actually think the kid, at 13, is barely old enough to know the implications of a Columbine massacre, just as I wasn't ever old enough to understand that school shooting by Brenda Ann Spencer in 1979.

That was the shooting that the Boomtown Rats wrote I Don't Like Mondays about. I thought it sounded familiar.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

I'm talking about the history of guns in schools. It was/is a huge problem. It's about the safety of the kids and teachers. Boxing gloves, whips, airplanes have nothing to do with what I'm saying. I find those examples absurd. A gun was used to kill people in a school in Virginia as recently as this year. I think the school acted correctly in this case. Yes, kids are not in a bubble, part of not being so is realizing the world they're in. A thirteen year old is old enough to know about Columbine or the wacko in Virginia.

Yes, he may be well aware of such episodes. I don't think that matters in the slightest.

It doesn't mean that a drawing of a gun has anything to do with the act of taking an actual gun in hand, loading it, pointing it at a fellow human being, and attempting to end their existence. You may find my examples absurd - I find the correlation between drawing something and the act of doing something absurd. If all a child draws is guns, then yes, there is some concern there. But one drawing, with no prior history, no threats, no nothing - that is ridiculous.

What if he likes guns - is it not ok to like guns, ever? What if he actually drew his BB gun? I learned about Uzi guns when I was studying Israeli history - what if I decided to draw one? What if he drew a knife? What kinds of knives are ok to draw? A Bowie knife in American History class during discussions of the Alamo? A butcher knife, because he watches Top Chef? A table knife? Would that be too pointy, too threatening? What if he has studied dadaism and wanted to draw random objects?

In other words - this is all thoughtcrime bullsh.t and it's one of the worst symptoms of a society in fear. The suppression of thought....of art.....of self-expression....of actually recognizing the fact that a gun exists.....this is pretty damn messed up in my book.

Soon after Columbine hit, my high school friends had their play CENSORED by the staff. It's a musical titled "Working" which was written many years before. In the play a young office worker has a monologue about how he hates his coworkers and talks about killing them - not in any real sense, just out of frustration. Everyone has said at some point or another "I just want to strangle them!" or "I swear, if he does that just one more time, I'll kill him." Even so, the staff CENSORED the play (I just hate that word, one of the ugliest used in a free country) and my friend was left making strangling gestures without his lines.

Pretending things don't exist is not going to fix anything. Sorry Brad - this is a hot button issue with me.

[SacTown Chronic]

I'm feelin' ya, CP. I don't understand why people are so afraid. Columbine was an aberration in the day-to-day scheme of things. A reminder to stay in touch with our children; to love them more than we love ourselves. It was not a mandate to bubble-wrap them in 14 layers of pussyfication.


That said, I think that a gun drawn on a homework assignment is a valid reason to bring the boy in for a talk. Depending on the child's history, this could be anything from an informal, discreet, chat with a school counselor to a serious and direct discussion with the child and his parents. But I'm having a hard time coming up with a scenario in which a suspension is the appropriate course of action. If this child does indeed have a 'past history' or is raising actual red flags - as opposed to bogeymen red flags that so bedevil CP - I don't see authority's boot being all that constructive. Surely we can do better for the angry and disenfranchised youth than poking and calling them flawed.

[Strangler Lewis]

Total agreement with SacTown here. Whether it's schools or courts, the tricky question is always what to do with the person. To me, while I would like more context, the drawing of a gun on homework is cause for concern. If the kid had drawn a swastika, we would not speculate that perhaps he liked its symmetry or was thinking about its ancient origins that predate the Nazis' appropriation of the symbol. We'd say, "What the f*** is this?"

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by SacTown Chronic

I'm feelin' ya, CP. I don't understand why people are so afraid.

I think the only people afraid here are teachers and administrators who are afraid of getting their butts sued and/or fired if some aberration did happen. It is a complete and total CYA.

[Gemini Cricket]

MAYER, Ariz. -- A 15-year-old boy made a hit list and threatened to blow up his school on Thursday, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies arrived at Mayer High School around 2 p.m. on reports of a bomb threat.

School officials had placed the school on lockdown in response to threats by a student to "detonate the school," deputies said.

The boy allegedly created a hit list and showed classmates a device in his back pack that he claimed was a bomb.


A Department of Public Safety bomb squad was called in from Flagstaff, which is more than an hour and 20 minutes away.

The bomb squad evacuated the school and destroyed the device. Deputies said the device turned out to be non-explosive.

The student who made the threats was arrested on charges of hoax and disruption of an educational facility, both felonies.

Source

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Scottsdale school bus drivers drove their personal vehicles to all the stops on their routes Friday to inform parents that vandals had broken into a Scottsdale Unified School District bus yard overnight, smashing the windows of 79 buses.

The damaged buses were out of service Friday, but school was held as usual. The 19 schools whose bus routes were affected included all elementary, middle and high schools in the Arcadia, Coronado and Saguaro complexes. A total of 237 bus routes and 4,000 students were affected by the vandalism.

Source

The schools in the state may be on alert because of issues like these above. Maybe that's why the punishment seems harsh. In context with stories like these (granted the 2nd story doesn't say if it's the students or not) I find what the school did to that kid to be just.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

But one drawing, with no prior history, no threats, no nothing - that is ridiculous.

What if he likes guns - is it not ok to like guns, ever? What if he actually drew his BB gun? I learned about Uzi guns when I was studying Israeli history - what if I decided to draw one? What if he drew a knife? What kinds of knives are ok to draw? A Bowie knife in American History class during discussions of the Alamo? A butcher knife, because he watches Top Chef? A table knife? Would that be too pointy, too threatening? What if he has studied dadaism and wanted to draw random objects?

In other words - this is all thoughtcrime bullsh.t and it's one of the worst symptoms of a society in fear. The suppression of thought....of art.....of self-expression....of actually recognizing the fact that a gun exists.....this is pretty damn messed up in my book.

We don't know the history of this kid. You seem to be designing one. I think that erring in the name of keeping the school safe is better than something bad happening. 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.

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

This is not a suppression of art. If this was done in an art class, I'd say cool. But it doesn't seem like it was. 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.

Your examples are going to extremes, claiming suppression of everything. What the kid did was wrong and he paid the price.

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.

[Gemini Cricket]

Haw haw! I just found the infamous gun picture:


Hmmm. It barely even looks like a gun!

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Haw haw! I just found the infamous gun picture:


Hmmm. It barely even looks like a gun!

Maybe the suspension was for bad artistic talent