5 year old suspended for cap gun

[inkah]

Maybe they should beat the kid with a rope.

Really?

 

[NextJen]

The schools have an agenda against guns.

 

[Toxick]

Well you completely ignored the first part of my response.

No, I read it.

I just had nothing to add to it, and I have no response to it. I just wanted to draw a distinction between questioning and interrogating, and I did. That's it. I wasn't taking issue with anything you said, or arguing with any of your points.

 

[BOP]

The schools have an agenda against guns.

Good find.

 

[mamatutu]

This agenda has been going on longer than we thought. Do you think Holder and Obama use the reverse product to color their hair, so they will look distinguished, and want their gray to show. Nah, their gray has come from all the lies, deceit, and the worry that they are going to Hell. I want out of here, but our country is the last suckiest place on earth; so, I guess I will stay.

 

[daylily]

This entire situation is absolutely ridiculous, although it's certainly taught me something. My little man will start kindergarten in Calvert next year. Every morning before he leaves for school, I guess I'll have to strip search him and go through his backpack to make sure he doesn't have anything he'll get suspended for. While I agree that no toys should be brought to school, I also think that it's pathetic that administrators aren't given any ability to show common sense with this zero tolerance policy.

The kid is 5 and brought a toy gun to school. He wasn't trying to hurt/kill anyone. Take the thing away, call the parents and move on. I'm glad the suspension has been reduced to 3 days but to upset a little boy to the point he pisses his pants....I have a HUGE issue with. As I type this, my 4 year old is asking me to take him outside so he can play with his nerf gun his buddy gave him for his birthday. I must be a crappy parent because I let him use it.

 

[Lurk]

This agenda has been going on longer than we thought. Do you think Holder and Obama use the reverse product to color their hair, so they will look distinguished, and want their gray to show. Nah, their gray has come from all the lies, deceit, and the worry that they are going to Hell. I want out of here, but our country is the last suckiest place on earth; so, I guess I will stay.

this video is almost 20 years old. It's prior to F-and-F.

 

[Lurk]

If he was found with a box of condoms, there probably would have been no problem. Seriously, though, Calvert County Schools are WAY overrated. I have a daughter in one of their schools, I have visited their schools, and I have heard and witnessed plenty of things which used to surprise me until I came to realize it was commonplace. I am talking about teachers using vulgar language (including the f-word), teachers obnoxiously talking to each other about such topics as drug use, masturbation, and sex during staff meetings; students throwing around hate words such as "f#gg#t" and "n-word" and the teacher not doing anything about it except pretending not to hear it; teachers trying to be "cool" to the class by talking about "bong hits"...I could go on and on. Seriously, though...when people talk about how much better Calvert County Public Schools are, what they really mean is that the schools are whiter. CCPS has the same problems in their schools (drug use, promiscuous teens, classroom disruption) as Charles and St. Mary's; the only difference is that the students look a tiny bit different. By the way, the teacher above that regularly uses the f-word to his class, he has been called to meet with the principal several times regarding this from what I understand, but nothing apparently happens to him because he just keeps doing it.

A great deal of the problem is evident because most of the teachers are products of today's American public school system. "The best that Billion$ can't buy."

 

[my-thyme]

20 years ago (good lord!) my then second grader took his collection of pocket knives to school, had 5-8 of them.

Teacher saw him showing them to his friends, called the pricipal to the classroom, pricipal took the knives to her office and called me to come retrieve them.

I went and got them within the week, and didn't give them back to boy for two weeks, while going over with him daily that he was not to take anything to school without asking me first.

And he never was found with anything that didn't belong there in school again.

That's NOT to say he never did it, just that he was never again caught. . .

 

[terbear1225]

But, that is true with just about every other profession too. I think the thing with teachers are that many of them were the heavy partiers in college that didn't know what the heck to do with their degrees in liberal arts, P.E., or psychology, so they got into teaching.

You have no #####ing clue what you are talking about do you?

 

[terbear1225]

Yes I am, and I will defend my profession to my last breath. Yes, there are poor teachers out there who got into education because their other plans didnt work out. Those are typically the people that dont last very long in education. The majority of us are in the profession because we chose it and love what we do.

As for my "language", as agrown adult I have the ability to distinguish between my professional life and my personal life. The language that I use in my professional life is not the same as my personal life. Just like I can enjoy a beer sitting on my couch on a Saturday night but I would never do so in my classroom

 

[twinoaks207]

I'm a bit late to the party -- apologies. According to a news update that came out late yesterday, the student was questioned for about 5 to 7 minutes which is about how long it would take to find out exactly what was going on from a kindergartner. He then spent the rest of the time sitting in the office doing classwork provided by the teacher. It is unclear at which point in the process the little one had his accident. Having worked with many, many kindergartners over the years, I can tell you with certainty that not all of them will ask to go to the bathroom when they need to go, especially if they are in a location other than the familiar classroom.

Part of the investigative process would also have entailed interviewing other students on the bus and anyone else who may have knowledge of the incident. School administrators generally do not contact parents until they have the whole story as there is nothing worse than contacting a parent about something their child supposedly did, only to find out later that it was another child, or someone lied, or something else that would verify that the initial report/allegation was untrue.

Having said all of that, I consider the reaction of Calvert County Public Schools to be absolutely ridiculous. The child is 5. Five-year-olds would have no clue that bringing a cap gun (cherished cowboy toy) to school to show his friend would be a heinous crime according to the school system. In his mind, he had a cool toy and he wanted to show his school friend.

An appropriate reaction on the part of school personnel would have been to go to the child's classroom, take him aside, ask him about what he showed to his friend, let him know that school rules do not allow toys like cap guns in school, and tell him that Mom would have to come to school and get his toy because he wasn't allowed to have it in the classroom. Take the cap gun, promise not to lose it and promise to hand it over to Mom as soon as she gets to school. Kid goes back to learning, Administrator calls Mom & explains. Mom comes to school & picks up toy. Mom would be talking to kid about why we don't take toys to school. End of story.

Unfortunately, this can't happen because any time a crazy person goes nuts, our society's first reaction is to "pass a law" -- as though that would actually help solve the problem. After Columbine, everyone was screaming for "zero tolerance" policies. And since, in this country, our politicians are masters of knee-jerk reactions instead of pro-active planning, we now have a plethora of "zero tolerance" policies in our schools.

School administrators are not permitted to deviate from Board policy at risk of being sued or fired. Common sense be damned. Why? Because we parents allow that to be the case. We do not pay attention to what the school Board does at their meetings (possible because they have them during the day which makes it really hard for working people to attend). That is on us. This is what must change if we want things like this to stop happening. Calvert's Board really needs to take a look at ALL of their zero tolerance policies.

I had a 3rd grade student on Friday who was playing around with a friend and using the dreaded "finger gun". Did I report him to an Administrator? No. Did I call the police? No. Did I call the parent? No. What did I do? It was obvious to me that he was just playing around so I just told the child that we didn't do that here at school. He stopped, said sorry, and we went on with what we were doing for the day. Could I get fired for that? Probably if someone wanted to make an issue out of it. Would I do the same thing again? In a heartbeat. Someone has to take a stand somewhere and I'm coming down on the side of common sense. It helps me sleep at night.

 

[twinoaks207]

But, that is true with just about every other profession too. I think the thing with teachers are that many of them were the heavy partiers in college that didn't know what the heck to do with their degrees in liberal arts, P.E., or psychology, so they got into teaching.

Keep practicing. At some point you're bound to get better at it!

 

[mamatutu]

this video is almost 20 years old. It's prior to F-and-F.

This agenda has been going on for most of our life time. It is now coming to fruition. If Americans don't wake up from their freedom slumber, all will be lost. As in, all the patriots that have given their lives for America, will be in vain. That is the most horrific, saddest thought I could ever have. To think that my equals gave their lives to save me/Americans, and died for nothing, makes me want to vomit. That is why I have weapons, and will not be infringed upon.

 

[NorthBeachPerso]

I'm a bit late to the party -- apologies. According to a news update that came out late yesterday, the student was questioned for about 5 to 7 minutes which is about how long it would take to find out exactly what was going on from a kindergartner. He then spent the rest of the time sitting in the office doing classwork provided by the teacher. It is unclear at which point in the process the little one had his accident. Having worked with many, many kindergartners over the years, I can tell you with certainty that not all of them will ask to go to the bathroom when they need to go, especially if they are in a location other than the familiar classroom.

Part of the investigative process would also have entailed interviewing other students on the bus and anyone else who may have knowledge of the incident. School administrators generally do not contact parents until they have the whole story as there is nothing worse than contacting a parent about something their child supposedly did, only to find out later that it was another child, or someone lied, or something else that would verify that the initial report/allegation was untrue.

Having said all of that, I consider the reaction of Calvert County Public Schools to be absolutely ridiculous. The child is 5. Five-year-olds would have no clue that bringing a cap gun (cherished cowboy toy) to school to show his friend would be a heinous crime according to the school system. In his mind, he had a cool toy and he wanted to show his school friend.

An appropriate reaction on the part of school personnel would have been to go to the child's classroom, take him aside, ask him about what he showed to his friend, let him know that school rules do not allow toys like cap guns in school, and tell him that Mom would have to come to school and get his toy because he wasn't allowed to have it in the classroom. Take the cap gun, promise not to lose it and promise to hand it over to Mom as soon as she gets to school. Kid goes back to learning, Administrator calls Mom & explains. Mom comes to school & picks up toy. Mom would be talking to kid about why we don't take toys to school. End of story.

Unfortunately, this can't happen because any time a crazy person goes nuts, our society's first reaction is to "pass a law" -- as though that would actually help solve the problem. After Columbine, everyone was screaming for "zero tolerance" policies. And since, in this country, our politicians are masters of knee-jerk reactions instead of pro-active planning, we now have a plethora of "zero tolerance" policies in our schools.

School administrators are not permitted to deviate from Board policy at risk of being sued or fired. Common sense be damned. Why? Because we parents allow that to be the case. We do not pay attention to what the school Board does at their meetings (possible because they have them during the day which makes it really hard for working people to attend). That is on us. This is what must change if we want things like this to stop happening. Calvert's Board really needs to take a look at ALL of their zero tolerance policies.

I had a 3rd grade student on Friday who was playing around with a friend and using the dreaded "finger gun". Did I report him to an Administrator? No. Did I call the police? No. Did I call the parent? No. What did I do? It was obvious to me that he was just playing around so I just told the child that we didn't do that here at school. He stopped, said sorry, and we went on with what we were doing for the day. Could I get fired for that? Probably if someone wanted to make an issue out of it. Would I do the same thing again? In a heartbeat. Someone has to take a stand somewhere and I'm coming down on the side of common sense. It helps me sleep at night.

And add to the above the Principal at Dowell is a woman. Only ever knew one that was worth a ####. The rest follow every rule down to the punctuation and common sense be damned. Then again, the new wunderkind male administrators who have spent maybe 3 1/2 minutes in the classroom aren't much better.

 

[dustin]

I had a 3rd grade student on Friday who was playing around with a friend and using the dreaded "finger gun". Did I report him to an Administrator? No. Did I call the police? No. Did I call the parent? No. What did I do? It was obvious to me that he was just playing around so I just told the child that we didn't do that here at school. He stopped, said sorry, and we went on with what we were doing for the day. Could I get fired for that? Probably if someone wanted to make an issue out of it. Would I do the same thing again? In a heartbeat. Someone has to take a stand somewhere and I'm coming down on the side of common sense. It helps me sleep at night.

We had a kid down here in VA Beach area (3rd grade?) get suspended for the "finger gun". We also had one get suspended for chewing a poptart into the shape of a gun.

 

[RPMDAD]

This guy Joe Chenelly sounds like a real a$$hole, this is all about a cap gun, UFB, guess he was afraid someone would shoot the cap gun

"Joe Chenelly: Obviously, this is troubling news. To be upfront, I have known this student’s family on a personal level for a couple of years. Two of my five children attend Dowell — one in kindergarten. As a Board member, I have to reserve judgment until all the facts of the situation are known, but I am deeply concerned about this."

Toy Pistol on School Bus Leaves Unanswered Questions | Southern Maryland News Net

 

[fromchaptico]

Sadly, you are probably right that you could get fired for letting the "finger gun" go, and most likely, it would be an unhinged parent who would make an issue of it. "He threatened to kill my child and you didn't do anything about it." Then THAT parent would be the one at the board, calling the police, and threatening to sue everyone in sight. Happens every day. People are all about using common sense, until someone else's common sense decision turns into their idea of bad judgment -thus the zero tolerance policies that lead to situations such as this one.

 

[pebbles]

I would agree that if the kid was questioned for two hours, that would be wrong. Are you suggesting that if a kid does something wrong in school they should not be questioned unless a parent is present?

I guess I wasn't very clear in what I said. I have no problem with the kid being asked what happened etc. & left at that. But interogated, absolutely not. BUT since this is such a "serious" issue, I believe the parents should've been notified sooner. Especially since anything with a "gun" toy or otherwise can become a legal issue.

 

[sockgirl77]

This guy Joe Chenelly sounds like a real a$$hole, this is all about a cap gun, UFB, guess he was afraid someone would shoot the cap gun

"Joe Chenelly: Obviously, this is troubling news. To be upfront, I have known this student’s family on a personal level for a couple of years. Two of my five children attend Dowell — one in kindergarten. As a Board member, I have to reserve judgment until all the facts of the situation are known, but I am deeply concerned about this."

Toy Pistol on School Bus Leaves Unanswered Questions | Southern Maryland News Net

The student was brought to the principal and questioned about the incident for approximately 5 – 7 minutes.

I'd just like to point out that the child was NOT "interrogated" for 2 hours like the parents stated. I just knew that they were full of chit.