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An irate Staten Island mom blasted a grade school principal Wednesday for treating her son like a pint-sized Plaxico Burress after he brought a 2-inch-long toy gun to school.
"This principal is a bully and a coward, and needs to be held accountable," said Laura Timoney, 44, after her teary fourth-grader was nearly suspended for playing with the tiny toy at lunch.
I'm gonna play the devil's advocate here.... ((And probably gonna get scorned for even remotely defending the school, but I don't care))
On one hand, it's a two-inch plastic thing that resembles a gun. On the other hand, schools don't play around at all when it comes to anything that resembles a gun.
Heck, I remember the day I had to visit the school psychologist and principal for a drawing I did that *gasp* had a gun. I found it hilarious, up until the point where they took my drawing and trashed it. ((After that, I stuck with spears and swords.))
One could say that the school went overboard.. but a simple google search for the term "2-inch gun" lead to this: Lethal 2-Inch Gun is World's Smallest - dated March 2008. Take a close look at that gun and tell me it looks deadly. Cause, that monster looks about as harmless as this kid's toy.
The school followed protocol. Bring him to the principal for a talk, call the parents - and inform everyone involved that nothing that resembles a gun is allowed on the premise. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance. No exceptions.
Instead of turning the incident into a cash cow, the mom should discuss with her child that a mistake was made (in him bringing it) and that it shouldn't happen again. Something to the effect of: "You made a mistake and there were consequences. Now you know for next time to not bring it." And that really should be the end of it.
Now, if they interrogated him, locked him in a room, cuffed him, etc, etc - that would be going too far.
I'm gonna play the devil's advocate here.... ((And probably gonna get scorned for even remotely thinking this way, but I don't care))
On one hand, it's a two-inch plastic thing that resembles a gun. On the other hand, schools don't play around at all when it comes to anything that resembles a gun.
Heck, I remember the day I had to visit the school psychologist and principal for a drawing I did that *gasp* had a gun. I found it hilarious, up until the point where they took my drawing and trashed it. ((After that, I stuck with spears and swords.))
One could say that the school went overboard.. but a simple google search for the term "2-inch gun" lead to this: Lethal 2-Inch Gun is World's Smallest - dated March 2008. Take a close look at that gun and tell me it looks deadly. Cause, that monster looks about as harmless as this kid's toy.
The school followed protocol. Bring him to the principal for a talk, call the parents - and inform everyone involved that nothing that resembles a gun is allowed on the premise. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance. No exceptions.
Instead of turning the incident into a cash cow, the mom should discuss with her child that a mistake was made (in him bringing it) and that it shouldn't happen again. Something to the effect of: "You made a mistake and there were consequences. Now you know for next time to not bring it." And that really should be the end of it.
Now, if they interrogated him, locked him in a room, cuffed him, etc, etc - that would be going too far.
But therin lies the problem. Zero tolerance was not zero tolerance for all weapons, only one resembling an ERB. In real life, an ax is just as much of a threat and an ERB is just as much as a tool.
If one is going to have a zero-tolerance policy on GUNS (OMG...shudder) then have a zero tolerance on ALL WEAPONS. The zero tolerance against GUNS only is a political agenda. Zero tolerance against ALL WEAPONS sends a message about no depiction of tools for violence without cherry picking for political purposes. It is just common sense.
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