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Kid Suspended 3 Days For Bringing a Weapon to School...Oh Wait What's That? It Was a Nerf Gun For S

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by i3artow i3aller, Aug 11, 2014.

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  1. i3artow i3aller

    i3artow i3aller Member

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    [​IMG]

    (Source: Houston)     - After a couple of days into the school year, fourth grader Ramsey McDonald of Warner Robins was given what he thought was a fun assignment. Bring in some of your favorite toys to talk about. “They were trying to get the kids to know each other,” his father, Scott McDonald said. The Miller Elementary School student told his father Friday night he was going to bring in his iPad and a couple of toys. His father didn’t think much about it and said “OK.” McDonald learned it wasn’t OK when he received a call from the school Tuesday. “They told me my son brought a weapon to school and they asked me if I was aware,” McDonald said Wednesday. “I asked them what it was and they said it was a plastic Nerf gun.” McDonald said had he known his child was planning to take the blue, orange and green plastic toy to class, he would’ve told the child not to take it. The child was initially given three days suspension, which was reduced to three days in-school suspension, McDonald said. “He told me he didn’t know they would think it was a weapon or he wouldn’t have brought it to school,” McDonald said. On Friday, Houston School Supt. Mark Scott said Ramsey McDonald’s suspension was always in-school; he said the boy was never supposed to be suspended out of school. He declined to discuss the specifics of his case, but said the suspension was not based on school officials viewing the Nerf gun as a dangerous item: “We never viewed that as a weapon.” Had the boy brought an actual weapon to school, Scott said, he probably would have been diverted to an alternative school. The three-day in-school suspension is typically the lightest form of suspension, considered a “minor-level intervention,” he said. Without discussing McDonald’s case, he said such suspensions are typically handed out for matters like disobedience or disrespect toward a teacher, having items not allowed in school, like a cell phone, or disrupting school. On Friday, Scott McDonald said he had contacted the superintendent’s office to ask for a face-to-face meeting. He said he was never notified in writing what his son was suspended for, but that a school official told him verbally it was for bringing “something that looked like a weapon.”

    Let us take another look at that weapon:
    [​IMG]

    Well ****! Call in the FBI! The swat team! We have a mass murderer on the loose! Can’t blame the school administrators for doing it big here at all. When they requested the kids to bring in toys for show and tell, they forgot some kids still play with actual toys. While every other kid was showing off their new phones and xbox games, this killer brought in his WMD and sent the school into lockdown. You can just never be too careful when an 8 year old has an electric orange, blue and green Nerf gun on school grounds. Kids might start moving around, exercising, or god forbid they begin using their imaginations. Can’t be having that in Texas, no siree bob. They need to sit still and learn about how dinosaurs never existed, no distractions allowed.

    PS: First week of school the first week of August? Gross, Texas. So ****ing gross.
     
    #1 i3artow i3aller, Aug 11, 2014
  2. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    Probably more to the story.
     
    #2 CometsWin, Aug 11, 2014
  3. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    Never!!
     
    #3 Rocketman95, Aug 11, 2014
  4. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    My guess is the school (and school district) has a zero tolerance rule against bringing any gun-like item to school. That prevents the teacher or any other school employee from the need to determine whether something is a weapon or not. Seems a pretty reasonable rule. Its probably also spelled out in material sent home to parents every year (and I suspect its something few parents read).

    I also guess the parents decided to make a fuss about it, bringing in the 2nd amendment and anti-school crowds...
     
    #4 NewRoxFan, Aug 11, 2014
  5. Bandwagoner

    Bandwagoner Contributing Member

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    Go on.
     
    #5 Bandwagoner, Aug 11, 2014
  6. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    More to the story? No, I doubt it. They probably have a zero-tolerance policy and reason that its better to hand out suspensions for ridiculous stuff than to allow for any ambiguity about the policy.

    If the 'more' to the story is that the teacher made it painfully clear to all the students in describing the show-and-tell that the school had this expansive policy that banned plastic nerf guns so don't bring those, and the kid did it anyway, then fine.
     
    #6 JuanValdez, Aug 11, 2014
  7. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Contributing Member

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    Why would you even bring a Nerf gun.

    Only gun acceptable would be glue or nail
     
    #7 Mr. Clutch, Aug 11, 2014
  8. Duncan McDonuts

    Duncan McDonuts Contributing Member

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    School policy on toy guns is stupid. When I was in 7th grade, I was on a band trip to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. I bought a toy musket gun, wooden construction, orange tip, that all it did was **** back the hammer and clicked when you pulled the trigger. It didn't have any type of projectile.

    Once we got back on the school bus, chaperones and band director made a big deal about it saying how toy guys weren't allowed. They hold onto it during the trip and gave it back to me once we got back from San Antonio, but it was a completely dumb policy.
     
    #8 Duncan McDonuts, Aug 11, 2014
  9. leroy

    leroy Contributing Member

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    By the way, this story did not happen in Houston, TX. It happened in a Houston County school...in Warner Robbins, GA. Was really easy to figure that out as the link you provided was clearly not from a Houston, TX news station.
     
    #9 leroy, Aug 11, 2014
  10. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Contributing Member

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    People in the d&d don't read anything
     
    #10 Mr. Clutch, Aug 11, 2014
  11. apollo33

    apollo33 Member

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    I've always failed to understand the basis behind the policy

    Is banning all things that resemble a gun suppose to make the schools safer?
     
    #11 apollo33, Aug 11, 2014
  12. edwardc

    edwardc Member

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    That's just stupid of the administration to do that to the kid over a Nerf gun a toy C'mon man.
     
    #12 edwardc, Aug 11, 2014
  13. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    I think a nerf gun that shoots out big foam balls is getting into a gray area of what even counts as a toy gun. I understand it's vaguely gun-shaped and launches a projectile, but I'm not sure where the line will rest. What about a launcher that spins off a little helicopter? The launcher is vaguely gun-like and the helicopter is a projectile. Is that a gun? What about some little catapult that helps you throw foam balls? What about balls, generally, which roughly approximate bullets? What about a tube that squirts water with a pump action? What about those tubes that make a funny noise when you turn them upside down -- you could always put one up to your shoulder for an impromptu rifle. Can you shoot a rubberband off your index finger without a 3-day suspension?

    From the article, it sounds like the parents were very cooperative and understanding toward the school.
     
    #13 JuanValdez, Aug 11, 2014
  14. Lil Pun

    Lil Pun Contributing Member

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    Zero tolerance policies are kind of dumb.
     
    #14 Lil Pun, Aug 11, 2014
  15. Ender120

    Ender120 Contributing Member

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    In another ten years, this kid will be responsible for the deadliest school nerfing in history.

    Better lock him up now.
     
    #15 Ender120, Aug 11, 2014
  16. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    Yeah, I have no tolerance for any of them.
     
    #16 JuanValdez, Aug 11, 2014
  17. Qball

    Qball Contributing Member

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    What the F kind of school system thinks taking a kid out of the learning environment is actually adding any value here?
     
    #17 Qball, Aug 12, 2014
  18. RedRedemption

    RedRedemption Contributing Member

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    I almost got suspended once for having a rubber band that shot little paper balls from it.
    Oh yeah and a lecture how I could have blinded kids for life.

    The school systems take no tolerance to an extreme level.
     
    #18 RedRedemption, Aug 12, 2014
  19. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

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    I don't know that you need to call or even talk to the damn paper every time your kid has an issue at school. Just have a meeting with the principal, hear him out and then spend the next twelve years not teaching him how to graph parabolas or write a bibliography.
     
    #19 Dairy Ashford, Aug 12, 2014
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