Kid suspended for drawing a gun

[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.