student brings .22 caliber round to school.....nothing happens

[carlrodd]

The only thing I wish you had done differently is if you had tried to make sure the kid didn't get really upset. I know that's tough with a 4th grader, but I remember the days of elementary school (a little bit) and I was the "good kid" and whenever I'd get in trouble for something small, I'd get pretty upset.

Maybe it would have been better to tell this kid not to be upset because no harm came of it, and then explain WHY it's bad to have something like that in school. Explain that there are some substances in it which are somewhat dangerous, and that "potentially" if thrown it could "theoretically" go off (although I've never seen it happen personally - and I have to admit to having dropped a fair amount of rounds).

Also explain how in this day and age, things like that could be misunderstood and that while you don't think he meant any harm, other students, teachers, and especially the media might not know that and may make his life more difficult than it needs to be.

I know he's young and all, but maybe it's best to start kids off with a sense of reality and understanding "why" rather than just "I get in trouble for ________ ".

Also, maybe having explained to his mom that you think he just found it on the street and thought it was neat - would have been nice. B/c to be honest, if I was in 4th grade, and I found a cartridge on the ground (and didn't know what I know today), I'd probably think it was the cat's meow too.

Doesn't sound like the kid did anything really horribly wrong. He broke a rule - yes, and had a potentially dangerous item on him - but if you're right, he just found something cool and wanted to hang on to it like most of us would have back then.

i actually did do a lot of what you mentioned. i let the mom know that i suspected he just found it somewhere, and told her i just wanted to call right away, because i would have been remiss not to. i also told the kid it was not a big deal, and that my big concern was that he be honest with me. this is the city after all, and this kid lives right in the middle of the waste. a lot of these kids think they're gangsters already, and i just wanted to grill him a bit to see if that's what was behind it. i don't believe it was.

 

[TexasRifleman]

I'm not going to name any places or name any names, but...

... At the high school I went to it was not uncommon to go hunting before class, throw your gun in the truck, go school, get out of class and then go back to hunting.

You don't have to name names, that's half the schools in Texas back in the 70's and 80's.

More than once I have parked in the school parking lot with a recently dead deed on the hood, to be processed in the afternoon by the FFA guys who earned extra credit for doing it.

But as to the story, that's as good a result as can be expected these days.....

 

[.cheese.]

Carlrodd - sounds good then

It's a shame things have gotten where they are.

When I went to elementary school, bringing a bullet into school I doubt would have caused as much of a fuss as it would today. It probably would have gotten me in trouble, but not to the point where people call the cops and news choppers are overhead - if you know what I mean. Maybe a day of suspension? I don't really know. I could probably count the number of times I got in trouble in all of my school years on one hand. Nothing was serious either. Most was me just getting in trouble for defending myself (unfortunately when somebody was beating on you, you were expected to just basically lie down and take it - AKA: "Tell a teacher while you're knocked unconscious by a bully." - something which I will make sure to teach my kids thoroughly how to handle when I have kids

Anyways though, so long as everything turned out well, it's good.

I have to admit, if it was my kid, I probably could believe the "just finding bullets in his pocket" story. I constantly find shell casings in my shirt pockets that managed to make their way in there at the range. Sometimes I'll even find a spent .22 case or two in the washing machine. Once I found a unfired .40SW in my back pants pocket - I haven't a clue how it got there. My best guess is I put it in there for some reason at the range and forgot about it.

 

[Blackfork]

You'll be lucky not to be fired!

When I was a kid I worked one period in the office mid-morning. I worked the switchboard. First day I worked it I got a bomb threat. I told the office supervisor and asked what to do.....she said "just ignore those." We did.

Good call on the kid.