14YEAROLDGUNADDICT
Member
i was readiing this on the net 
Three young boys (3rd grade) were suspended for bringing toy guns in to school. The forbidden items were the little plastic accessories for GI Joe action figures.
But the school district is standing by its zero-tolerance policy on weapons, which doesn't specify size or type, school officials said.
That's the nature of the beast though. A pencil is the same as a switchblade knife. Oh, wait. Pencils are allowed, aren't they?
"Our children are in control of sharpened pencils every day, and that seems to me more of a threat than those toys," Wilson-Spence [mother of one of the suspended boys] said.
But school officials don't think so.
[Bemiss Principal Lorna] Spear said the three boys were making threatening actions while playing with the toys. That made other students feel unsafe, she said.
Threatening actions. With a miniature plastic GI Joe accessory. Take the cap off of a Bic pen. Look at it. Imagine it was a fraction of its size. Try to make it look threatening. Go up to your coworkers and see if you can make them feel unsafe with it.
This week is assessment testing at the school. Wilson-Spence said she worries her son is missing valuable class time.
She is also worried that what was intended as innocent play will follow her son through his school career and beyond.
"He's just too young to have something like that on his record," she said. "The paperwork just said that he brought toy guns to school, and that could mean anything."
Sorry, ma'am. The rules are not there to promote children learning. They are there to keep order at any cost. No matter how ridiculous they are. Besides, this has been going on for a while, you should have known about the GI Joe gun problem long ago.
The Seattle School District suspended a 10-year-old boy in 1997 for bringing a replica of an Army-issue handgun to school. That inch-long plastic gun also belonged to G.I. Joe, an action figure that's been a favorite of boys since 1964.
Three young boys (3rd grade) were suspended for bringing toy guns in to school. The forbidden items were the little plastic accessories for GI Joe action figures.
But the school district is standing by its zero-tolerance policy on weapons, which doesn't specify size or type, school officials said.
That's the nature of the beast though. A pencil is the same as a switchblade knife. Oh, wait. Pencils are allowed, aren't they?
"Our children are in control of sharpened pencils every day, and that seems to me more of a threat than those toys," Wilson-Spence [mother of one of the suspended boys] said.
But school officials don't think so.
[Bemiss Principal Lorna] Spear said the three boys were making threatening actions while playing with the toys. That made other students feel unsafe, she said.
Threatening actions. With a miniature plastic GI Joe accessory. Take the cap off of a Bic pen. Look at it. Imagine it was a fraction of its size. Try to make it look threatening. Go up to your coworkers and see if you can make them feel unsafe with it.
This week is assessment testing at the school. Wilson-Spence said she worries her son is missing valuable class time.
She is also worried that what was intended as innocent play will follow her son through his school career and beyond.
"He's just too young to have something like that on his record," she said. "The paperwork just said that he brought toy guns to school, and that could mean anything."
Sorry, ma'am. The rules are not there to promote children learning. They are there to keep order at any cost. No matter how ridiculous they are. Besides, this has been going on for a while, you should have known about the GI Joe gun problem long ago.
The Seattle School District suspended a 10-year-old boy in 1997 for bringing a replica of an Army-issue handgun to school. That inch-long plastic gun also belonged to G.I. Joe, an action figure that's been a favorite of boys since 1964.
