The madness Continues, suspending 3rd graders

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Bob R

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Yes, the world has finally gone mad. These guys were suspended for a day because of GI Joe guns!! I have been contemplating a move to Idaho, now I think I will be on my way.

In Spokane, WA

Boys Suspended After Tiny Toy Guns Brought to School
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Jan. 26 - They're small enough to fit in the hands of G.I. Joe, but school officials say a gun is a gun. Three third graders face suspension after bringing the tiny guns to school.

It happened at Bemiss Elementary where three boys were caught playing with the tiny guns on Friday.

The third graders, ages eight and nine, were in the cafeteria at Bemiss Elementary when the toy guns were discovered.School officials say the guns posed a threat to other children's safety so the boys were suspended.

For one parent, it's a punishment that's gone too far."I just think that this was a little ridiculous."Terry Wilson-Spence still can't believe what led to her 8-year-old son John being suspended from school."In the lunchroom, other boys knew he had them, all wanted to see them, so they came out and they we're playing with them and that's all they did was just play with them."

They were playing with small guns.So small they fit in the hand of a G.I. Joe action figure.

No matter what the how small they are, Wilson-Spence admits her son knew better than to take the toy guns to school, but she questions the school's degree of punishment, and worries about the letter of suspension that will follow her son through his school career.

Bemiss principal Lorna Spear wasn't in on Friday when the suspensions took place and she hasn't ruled out changing the punishment.But she says bottom line, students and parents are well aware of the zero-tolerance policy on guns."We do take large guns, small guns, toy guns anything that could make other kids feel unsafe, very seriously," Spear said.

The one-day suspension for the three boys is set for Tuesday.The principal says that could change after she meets with parents Tuesday morning.She says her main goal is to keep kids at Bemiss safe, and to make sure this doesn't happen again.

School district officials will not allow pictures of the guns they took from the kids, citing privacy issues.KHQ Local News is told the three miniature guns were found in the cafeteria, and one bigger gun in one of the boy's desks.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4067676/

Editorial content: What a bunch of marooons, the school, not the kids.

bob
 
School officials say the guns posed a threat to other children's safety so the boys were suspended.
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How did they pose a threat? Were they afraid that their presence in the cafeteria posed a choking hazard?

Zero tolerance = zero brains.

You WA guys really have to get this crap in front of your legislator's face and act to change these stupid "zero-tolerandc" laws.
 
At the same time, there is this ...

SOURCE

Boy in'Wrestling Death' Freed From Jail

By JILL BARTON
Associated Press Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- Lionel Tate, the teen who killed a 6-year-old playmate and became the youngest defendant in the nation to be locked away for life, was released Monday after three years behind bars.

Wearing a light blue golf shirt, Tate emerged unshackled from the jail surrounded by his mother, attorneys and other supporters. Tate and his mother held hands and raised them in the air.

"For now, Lionel wants to go home, he wants to feel his pillow, he wants to sleep in his own bed and his mom cook to make him his favorite meal tonight," said his attorney Richard Rosenbaum.

Circuit Judge Joel Lazarus earlier ordered Tate freed without bail, a month after an appeals court threw out the boy's conviction because his mental competency was not evaluated before trial. Tate, 16, has since struck a plea bargain that will mean no further time in prison.

Supporters have rallied from the Vatican to the United Nations to free Tate since he was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 6-year-old playmate Tiffany Eunick three years ago. Tate was 12 when he punched, kicked and stomped the 48-pound girl to death in 1999.

Tate had claimed he accidentally killed the girl while imitating professional wrestling moves he had seen on television.

The case stirred debate over a Florida law that requires children convicted of first-degree murder to get life in prison without parole.

After Tate's conviction was thrown out, prosecutors renewed their offer of a three-year sentence in exchange for a guilty plea to second-degree murder - the same offer Tate's mother had turned down before the trial.

After meeting with a psychologist who will test his mental competence, Tate is to appear at another hearing Thursday, when he is expected to plead guilty to the second-degree murder charge and be formally sentenced.

He has agreed to one year of house arrest, 10 years' probation, counseling and 1,000 hours of community service.

"I just want to give God thanks first and foremost," said Tate's mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate. "Continue to pray for us because we're going to need it. This is a new chapter in our lives and we're just going to go forward."

Tiffany's mother, Deweese Eunick-Paul, said she agreed to the plea sentence because Tate was so young at the time of the killing.

"In some cases people are rehabilitated," she said Monday. "If he wants to do better and do something good with his life I think he should be given that opportunity to do that."

Eunick-Paul also said she hoped Tate would admit he was responsible for the death and stop claiming it was an accident.

"We wanted Lionel to step up and say, 'Look, I have done something wrong here. I'm guilty of this, I'm sorry about this," she said.

"I do hope that Lionel will express remorse, at a minimum, for what occurred," Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Bob ... hard to comment ... politely!!

The world is goin mad .... for sure. Isn't the symbolic ''pointed finger'' also now banned as being too much a likeness of a gun?!

Oh my ... another Zoloft please! .......... :banghead:
 
She says her main goal is to keep kids at Bemiss safe
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They must use really tiny little cartridges to wreak havoc amoung the third grade crowd.
sigh.
Think of the outcome if the student in question had brought the GI Joe Jeep w/ 57 MM Recoiless Rifle mounted on it! Blood flowing on the playground, I tell ya.
Well, they certainly taught those little boys a lesson. It's bound to be on their "Permanent Record... Suspension due to bringing Weapons to School"

Words fail me.
 
Wilson-Spence admits her son knew better than to take the toy guns to school,
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anything that could make other kids feel unsafe,
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BINGO.

It's not about the damned piece of plastic. It's about the kids adhering, without question, to a meaningless behavioural dictum established by fiat.

It's about training the kids that they're responsible for how someone else FEELS.

It's about training the kids to feel uncomfortable in the presence of 1 inch plastic GUNS.


but she questions the school's degree of punishment, and worries about the letter of suspension that will follow her son through his school career.
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No, this mother should question the school's right to continue existing in it's current configuration, and that principle's fitness to keep her job, rather than worrying about littly Jimmy's black marks in his permament record.

The "permanent record" is to frighten children with, not full grown adults.

:fire: :fire: :fire:


When I was young, our school had a rule against toy guns, it's stated purpose was to prevent disruptions in the classroom and on the buses caused by spontaneous outbreaks of suction cup dartgun fights.

One day, I noticed I had forgotten to remove my .45 dartgun from my bookbag from over the weekend, so I handed it to the teacher with that explanation. He said, "fine, no problem, you can take it from my desk at the end of the day on your way home".

And THAT is perfectly reasonable way to handle it.

Anything else is utter bull????.

School district officials will not allow pictures of the guns they took from the kids, citing privacy issues.
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I've seen this phrase about 10 times in the last week, and on each occassion, it was invoked by someone in power who had done something utterly indefensibly stupid to someone else, and used this new "privacy citation" as the way to weasel out of having to put the embarrassing details of their idiocy on public display.

Just whose privacy is being protected...hmmm?
 
A couple of points:

1 These zero-tolerance policies are just that; policies, not laws

2 Zero-tolerance policies are created by school boards

3 Policies can be changed by changing the composition of the school board

4 School boards are elected by popular vote

5 Get out and vote!



Another thing: Principals don't get to chose which policies they enforce or obey. It's like any other workplace; disobey or ignore the company rules at your own risk. Most principals need the job.
 
Car Knocker, except public schools are run at the behest of the State, and therefore have limited discretion in such matters.

Ban writing implements! They can be used to stab, mutilate, even blind other children! And they contribute to depression when students use them and get lower grades than desired.
 
These kinds of stupidity in govt. schools are so commonplace as not to raise an eyebrow in surprise anymore. Whether miniature toy guns, a fingernail clipper, a finger "gun", or some kind of over-the-counter pain reliever, it's all enough to warrant a suspension, sometimes for quite a long time.

Let's not forget claiming to be an "african-american" when you're more of an African than any of those whose skin color grants them automatic eligibility for the award. Or what about writing some creative fiction that involves killing the teacher in your personal journal. Perhaps you drew a picture of a US soldier killing a terrorist? Even thought crimes are enough to get you suspended.






:barf: :barf: :barf: :barf: :barf: :barf:
 
I posted this on another thread:

The ‘utes in this country are no longer being educated (taught how to think), their being programmed (taught what to think). It’s not just a left coast problem; it’s the malignance that will eventually bring about the demise of the United States. :fire:
 
Sent to the school principal via the
Bemiss Elementary web site:
Dear Ms. Spear,

If, as the MSNBC article on your little tempest in a teapot suggests, your main goal is simply to keep kids at Bemiss safe, then there's really no reason for you to be suspending or otherwise persecuting those little boys for playing with miniscule, harmless gun-shaped toys on school property.

It seems unlikely in the extreme that an 8 or 9 year old is placed in mortal danger by being allowed to play with a 2 inch piece of plastic, and it beggars the imagination that anyone could suggest that his classmates may be endangered by allowing him to do so. Perhaps there is another dynamic at work here?

If the goal were to squash the poor children into compliance, make them feel as though school is an awful place to be, and convince them that there is neither justice nor fairness in the world, it would make sense to punish them for daring to act like children at school.

But if the children's safety is really the deciding factor, I hope that you and the other school authorities will consider the damage being done to their young spirits by being persecuted simply for acting like little kids. You might consider how angry and how helpless a little boy might feel to have the whole educational establishment come down on his neck when he's done nothing but bring a _toy_ to school, and play with it.

Perhaps you might want to consider injecting a little common sense into this cruelly ridiculous situation. With a little intestinal fortitude, you could simply stand up and say, "These kids acted like kids, and we've dealt with it by telling them not to do it again. Oh, and we're sorry for contacting the papers to try to shame their parents. That was simply foolish, and shamed us instead."

Sincerely,
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pax

A lot of people can cover their mistakes, but not teachers. Their mistakes grow up to be school board members. -- John Leo
 
It's simply amazing. Obviously, no one could even remotely feel threatened by these tiny, inert toys.

If something like this is going on, I wonder how badly history and current events must be getting skewed and slanted by these same 'educators'. This is simply amazing.
 
It's simply amazing. Obviously, no one could even remotely feel threatened by these tiny, inert toys.
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I dunno, I think the TSA might agree with the school on this one tho'.
 
Car Knocker, except public schools are run at the behest of the State, and therefore have limited discretion in such matters.
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Nope. Car Knocker had the solution to the problem exactly right. Despite what gets blatted around the errornet, education in the US is still primarily controled at the local level by elected officials. The feds, in particular, have a lot less to do with what happens in public schools than most people think. Don't like the way your local school is run? Vote the scoundrels out. Run for schoolboard yourself. Too many people have no idea who their school board representative is or what that person stands for. That is why school boards are made up primarily of axe-grinders and agenda-driven flakes these days. They are the only ones who run and it only takes a handful of votes to win when most voters stay home. The problem isn't the system, as such. The problem is who we, the voters, keep putting in charge of running that system.
 
As long as the tax payers in that area accept this kind of foolishness the powers that be will continue to act as the have in this case, and worse.

The people in that area should figure out what their legal options are and get people removed from office or fired untill the "policies" are reworked.

It's a simple formula. It worked with the now ex-Govener of Cali why not here?

Until this kind of foolishness bites the hand that delivers it, expect no changes...you get the government you deserve.

S-
 
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