Kids have to remove "firearms" from toy soldiers in school!

[losangeles]

Disarmed in RPV

By Paul Clinton
Staff Writer

Who knew a 2-inch toy army man could cause such a stir?

A fifth-grade promotion ceremony in Rancho Palos Verdes turned into a free-speech battleground Thursday, when students were asked to remove weapons from toys that had been placed on mortarboard caps because of the school's zero-tolerance policy for weapons on campus.

Each year, students decorate wide caps with princesses, football goal posts, zebras, guitars and other items to express their personalities and career goals. Cornerstone at Pedregal School is the only Palos Verdes Peninsula public school to practice the tradition.

On Thursday, before the ceremony, one boy was told he couldn't participate unless he agreed to clip off the tips of the plastic guns carried by the minuscule GIs on his cap. Ten others complied with the order before the event.

Parents reacted angrily, calling Principal Denise Leonard's decision censorship, but the Palos Verdes Peninsula School District defended her.

Cole McNamara and Austin Nakata, 11-year-old buddies who share an interest in all things military, said they put the toys on their hats to support American troops in Iraq.

"I was kind of mad because they just went over and clipped them off and didn't say anything about it," Austin said.

His father, Glen Nakata, said he was disappointed that parents were not approached or consulted on elimination of the "firearms."

"I felt they were keeping the boys from expressing their patriotism, their strong beliefs toward the military," he said.

Glen Nakata's father served in the U.S. Air Force. And Austin wants to attend a military academy when he's older. Cole wants to join the Marine Corps, said his father, Paul McNamara.

To treat the "injuries" caused by the order to remove the offending weaponry, Austin wrapped the plastic stumps in white gauze and painted on faux blood.

The principal pulled Cole aside Thursday morning, handed him a pair of scissors and said the guns had to go.

"We're supporting our troops," Cole said. "But I wanted to graduate, so I just cut the guns off."

A teacher at Cornerstone started the mortarboard tradition about a decade ago. At Thursday's ceremony, the 62 fifth-graders each gave a 30-second speech in the auditorium, as their pictures flashed on a large screen.

Leonard, a first-year principal, didn't respond to several requests for comment, deferring to district administrators, who said the toys with miniature rifles and grenades violated a zero-tolerance weapons policy.

Leonard "directed students not place images of weapons on student-created mortarboards to be used in the promotion ceremony," according to a district statement. "The district fully supports her decision to comply with school rules and practices. In addition, practically all fifth-grade parents understood and accepted this decision and, in some cases, modified the student mortarboards, sans the weapon images."

In enforcing the decision, the district cited its Safe Schools policy and the federal Gun Free Schools Act of 1994, a federal law designed to remove firearms from schools.

Susan Liberati, an assistant superintendent, said she believes "the principal has interpreted district policy accurately, and we support her in that."

A copy of the district's Safe Schools policy obtained by the Daily Breeze includes no mention of toy army men. Students found to be "possessing, selling or otherwise furnishing a firearm" are expelled for one year, the policy states.

Weapons are also mentioned in the board's "weapons and dangerous instruments" policy that allows only authorized law enforcement or security personnel to possess "weapons, imitation firearms or dangerous instruments of any kind" on school grounds.

Board President Barbara Lucky declined comment on the incident or the policy.

"Sounds like a good question for legal counsel," Lucky said.

Here is the link:

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/8013037.html

Freakin' morons in our educational system!

 

[helpless]

These are the same people who will be begging for those gun and soldiers when the Chinese realize that we can not pay up and start parashooting in here RedDawn style.

::: Disclaimer :::
"Chinese" Dont take Chinese all literal. Just for sake of example

 

[losangeles]

Here is that principal's email address:

[email protected]

 

[JohnL2]

I am pretty sure that our education system is in dire straits.
Keeping to the High Road, which is rather difficult considering the anonymous nature of the internet, it seems evident from the facts learned from reading this article that the crackpots are well entrenched in our education system.
There's intellect, then there's common sense. Please THINK about which is absent from reading that story.
God help us.

 

[DogBonz]

*hangs head and shakes it side to side slowly*

... Whisky... Tango... Foxtrot...

 

[CountGlockula]

Found the pictures:

Talk about oppressed Freedom of expression, anti-patriotisim, shattered hopes of a youth's career goals and twisting a school's zero-tolerance policy for weapons on campus!!!

Sorry, this is just infuriating.

Anyways, I hope this doesn't traumatize young minds that they can be anything that they want when they get older.

 

[CountGlockula]

MOre pics:

 

[Nomad101bc]

Sounds like a typical day in CT's liberal school systems. They worry about that but ignore the student body. Kids come to class high and the teachers do nothing about it but if i make a conservative remark the teacher tends to bug out. Also if you cite anything from the bible your looked down on like some kind of idiot. I can honestly say more than half my schools on pot, the other halfs binge drinkers, and about a quarter of the populace is into the more fun stuff such as cociane. No wonder they sympathize with animals they dont act much different....

 

[TallPine]

I think I'm having a bad dream ... would somebody please wake me up into the "normal" world?

 

[Sistema1927]

:banghead::banghead:

 

[Old Fuff]

We have some absolutely brain-dead people running our schools these days, and many are determined to wipe out our "gun culture." But there is some hope. State legislaturers are starting to react by passing laws that will hopefully straighten out some school systems. If not, parents will have some weapons to strike back with by taking them to court.

Backlash Forms Against ‘Zero Tolerance’By RAY HENRY PROVIDENCE, R.I.

(AP) - Fifth-graders in California who adorned their mortarboards with tiny toy plastic soldiers this week to support troops in Iraq were forced to cut off their miniature weapons. A Utah boy was suspended for giving his cousin a cold pill prescribed to both students. In Rhode Island, a kindergartner was suspended for bringing a plastic knife to school so he could cut cookies.

It's all part of `zero tolerance'' rules, which typically mandate severe punishments for weapons and drug offenses regardless of the circumstances. Lawmakers in several states say the strict policies in schools have resulted in many punishments that lack common sense, and are seeking to loosen the restrictions.

`A machete is not the same as a butter knife. A water gun is not the same as a gun loaded with bullets,'' said Rhode Island state Sen. Daniel Issa, a former school board member who worries that no-tolerance rules are applied blindly and too rigidly. Issa sponsored a bill requiring school districts to decide punishments for alcohol, drug and non-firearm weapon violations on a case-by-case basis after weighing the circumstances. It passed the Senate and House and now heads for the governor's desk.

Some have long been aware of the problems of zero tolerance. For the last decade, Mississippi has allowed local school districts to reduce previously mandatory one-year expulsions for violence, weapons and drug offenses. More recently, Texas lawmakers have also moved to tone down their state's zero-tolerance rules. Utah altered its zero-tolerance policy on drugs so asthmatic students can carry inhalers. The American Bar Association has recommended ending zero-tolerance policies, while the American Psychological Association wants the most draconian codes changed.

`It may be a bit of self-correction that you're beginning to see where the pendulum is coming back,'' said Kathy Christie, vice president of a research clearinghouse for Education Commission of the States in Denver. A decade ago, more than three-quarters of public schools surveyed reported adopting some version of a no-tolerance policy, according to the U.S. Department of Education. `Zero tolerance'' became a popular political buzzword during the waning days of the Reagan administration's `War On Drugs,'' and the rules spread rapidly after a series of high-profile school shootings, according to a report issued last year by the American Psychological Association. A 1997 survey of more than 1,200 public schools by the U.S. Department of Education found that 79 percent had zero-tolerance policies against violence, 88 percent for drugs, 91 percent for weapons and 94 percent for firearms.

Some parents have mixed feelings about zero-tolerance rules. Christine Duckworth, 50, is the mother of an 18-year-old daughter who just graduated Portsmouth High School in Rhode Island, which has a zero-tolerance policy. Duckworth said she wanted her daughter safe at school, but she said rules must reflect that teenagers make mistakes. ``I think there's pretty much always a gray area,'' she said.

`You're dealing with individuals. How can you possibly apply one law to every single person and their circumstances?'' There are some signs that policies could be changing. Texas decided in 2005 that schools can consider students' intent and other mitigating factors before punishing them for any offenses other than those involving firearms, and Rep. Rob Eissler said he wants the weighing of those factors to be mandatory.

`It's hard to legislate common sense,'' he said. `If we get intent into part of the code, I think we'll be in good shape.'' Critics of zero-tolerance rules cite multiple problems. Academic achievement often lags in schools with the highest rates of suspension and expulsion, even when socio-economic factors are taken into consideration, said Cecil Reynolds, chairman of the APA's Zero Tolerance Taskforce.

`The kids feel like they're walking on egg shells,'' he said. Reynolds also questioned what lessons zero-tolerance rules teach, citing reports that a 10-year-old girl was expelled from a Colorado academy after giving a teacher a small knife her mother placed in her lunchbox. ``What she learned from the school was, 'If something happens and you break a rule, for God's sake, don't tell anybody,''' Reynolds said. `Zero-tolerance policies completely ignore the concept of intent, which is antithetical to the American philosophy of justice.''

The principal at Portsmouth High School in Rhode Island - whose mascot is sometimes depicted carrying a rifle - censored a yearbook photo because it showed a student who enjoys medieval reenactments wearing chainmail and holding a sword. Citing the cost of litigation, the school relented this year and recently published in the yearbook graduate Patrick Agin's senior photo showing him with the sword. Agin said he understands rules against guns and drugs, but he was perplexed about how school administrators drew distinctions in his case. He never brought the sword to school.

`You can't really have a zero tolerance,'' he said. ``We have track and field. We throw javelins. If you think about it, you can pretty much make anything into a weapon.''

http://webcenters.netscape.compuser...10&idq=/ff/story/0001/20070615/1306107668.htm

 

[nicoll]

Hey Nomad you go to the same high school as me, as I live and CT too and your

description is dead on. Its a seriously messed up system they have got going on here.

 

[Jim Watson]

Our culture is being feminized. The schools are run by women, the boys are drugged and diverted into video games and "games played with the ball" as Thomas Jefferson put it. The girls do more and are encouraged to do much more. I think we are headed for a matriarchy and Hillary is just a first step.

 

[General Geoff]

Zero tolerance weapons policies have nothing to do with femininity. I know lots of girls who love guns, and most are better shots than me!

This is just plain old stupidity, sorry to say.

 

[Doggy Daddy]

Susan Liberati, an assistant superintendent...

LOL!!!




re: Liberati

 

[Nomad101bc]

Well I just finished my last day at fairfield highschool thank god its over with now. I am going to a college in a much more pro gun environment its called Kansas. Granted theres a few stupid hippies around KU but hey at least there they make up only 20% of the school. I intend to live in Texas lol New England is beutiful but the once promised land has been raped by these moraless drug mongers.

 

[ptmmatssc]

In enforcing the decision, the district cited its Safe Schools policy and the federal Gun Free Schools Act of 1994, a federal law designed to remove firearms from schools.

We all know how well this and "zero tolerance" really works in the real world .

 

[sm]

Zero Tolerance my arse!
This BS has to stop!

This is nothing but Indoctrination by the State to Control people.
Tyranny, pure and simple.

Listen up you school boards, media, legislators, and whiny butts with wadded up panties, you folks are either too stupid to realize you are brainwashed and doing dirty deeds, or just flat out evil and want Tyranny.


WE The People are watching and will preserve Freedom.

WE don't need you.
You need us in order to do dirty deeds.

Kapish?

 

[Carl N. Brown]

"zero tolerance" teaches kids that the authorities
have zero intelligence, are totally clueless, and
that exercise of authority means a total disregard
for balance, fair play and commonsense. Maybe that
is a lesson that needs to be learned by kids.
Don't blindly accept everything that authority figures
tell you: learn to think and judge for yourselves.

When I was in first grade back in 1954, I drew
scenes from "Victory at Sea" with battleships on
top of mountainous waves shooting at each other.
Today that would be doubleplusungood. God only
knows what the reaction would be today.

 

[ptmmatssc]

Well I just finished my last day at fairfield highschool thank god its over with now. I am going to a college in a much more pro gun environment its called Kansas. Granted theres a few stupid hippies around KU but hey at least there they make up only 20% of the school. I intend to live in Texas lol New England is beutiful but the once promised land has been raped by these moraless drug mongers.

Just wow ! Stupid hippies and moral less drug mongers . You must be one of those gun toten rednecks in a wife beater driving a beat up old pickup . (yes , sarcasm) .

Statements like that about people that don't fall into YOUR way of thinking , simply by their lifestyle , is not the way to make others see your point of view or have them take you seriously . It will be considered ignorant , and anything else said within the same conversation will be tainted . Just think brady bunch and how they characterize gun owners and you'll see my point .

Btw , you'd be surprised at how many people are "closet smokers" , just like "they" are surprised to find out people they know own and carry guns . Glad to see people are still judging a book by it's cover .

 

[Nomad101bc]

I have no reason to tolerate them they were in no way tolerant of me and pose a direct threat to my constitutional rights.

 

[ptmmatssc]

How's that go .. "you catch more flies with sugar than vinegar" ?

The treasurer of our gun club is a "hippie"and staunch supporter of YOUR RKBA . I have brought a few people over from the "dark side" and now they to are supporters of YOUR RKBA . I did it the simple way . I listened to what they had to say , I corrected misconceptions they had with solid facts , and I invited them to see for themselves what the "gun culture' was really about. Funny thing is , from how your speaking, you would call me a "dirty dumb biker" and not tolerate me either .

 

[shinju]

I think the term "zero tolerance" should be a red flag to everyone possessing an ounce of common sense. It's typically used by close-minded individuals who are seeking to promote a cause that, in the end, ends up further receding our rights as human beings. Gun control supporters, pro-lifers, censors, and most anyone seeking to do "good" at the cost of personal freedom have an affinity for sweeping phrases like "zero tolerance" because it gets people on their side excited.

I really wish it were the stupid people who used birth control, then maybe our species would have a hope in hell of not destroying itself.

 

[Condition Plaid]

Weapons are also mentioned in the board's "weapons and dangerous instruments" policy that allows only authorized law enforcement or security personnel to possess "weapons, imitation firearms or dangerous instruments of any kind" on school grounds.

I wonder if they realize that the elusive California CCW holder is also allowed to carry on their campus. Both California Penal Code and US Title 18 contain exemptions for CCW holders regarding the prohibition of weapons on campus. And as California preempts all other local governments and agencies in the area of possession, too bad for them.

It's kinda funny, with all the other BS laws we have here regarding guns, we can carry pretty much anywhere legally.

 

[coylh]

It's a good thing the kids didn't make a Bang bang gesture.