the benefit of mandatory policies????

How very unfortunate that the school board seems to feel everyone is safer by keeping this kid out of school.

"Samuel, now 8, has been out of school for almost a year. His parents have home-schooled him since he was expelled for bringing a clear plastic, spring-action toy gun to school, which fired plastic beads."

I can't even begin to explain how angry and frustrated I get with this nonsense. Now THESE folks have completed my intellectual circle. The explanation the child had makes perfect sense. When did we stop evaluating things on intent? There is not ill intent in this poor little boy - and everyone makes a mistake now and then. We don't even punish prisoners who make very BIG mistakes like this. I wish I could sue them all!!! Maybe someday I will.

And PS: boys like to play with guns - GET OVER IT. We can't feminize them nor should we - we are going to need warriors always but instead we are trying to grow wussies. I'm on my soap box and I ain't leavin! (I know I'm probably a homophobic, racist and worse than Hitler).

ziggy wrote:"Samuel, now 8, has been out of school for almost a year. His parents have home-schooled him since he was expelled for bringing a clear plastic, spring-action toy gun to school, which fired plastic beads."

I can't even begin to explain how angry and frustrated I get with this nonsense. Now THESE folks have completed my intellectual circle. The explanation the child had makes perfect sense. When did we stop evaluating things on intent? There is not ill intent in this poor little boy - and everyone makes a mistake now and then. We don't even punish prisoners who make very BIG mistakes like this. I wish I could sue them all!!! Maybe someday I will.

And PS: boys like to play with guns - GET OVER IT. We can't feminize them nor should we - we are going to need warriors always but instead we are trying to grow wussies. I'm on my soap box and I ain't leavin! (I know I'm probably a homophobic, racist and worse than Hitler).

EXACTLY. First offense child molestors don't necessarily get a year of punishment. The more I am considering this case the more it is bothering me. Why are we crucifying this kid? No one was harmed. There was no maliscous intent. There was no reasonable possibility that someone could have been harmed.

We go way overboard with security AND focus on the wrong things. I am all for enforcing NO FIREARM polices in schools. This was not a firearm. It was a toy that was an approximate likeness to a firearm. It was not even a realistic likeness. [scroll through the tabs if you missed the picture]. It is translucent with an orange tip. No reasobable person could possibly mistake this for an actual pistol.

The childs explanation is reasonable. People forget things in bags. Hell I have to go back to the car sometimes when I go to court because I forget I have a cell phone in my pocket until I get to the security check point [no camera phones in courthouses in VA]. If I as a 36 year old educated working professional can forget things at times cannot we extend a little understanding to a child?

yOu WaNNa kNoW WHY????? You may think I'm nutZZZZ but it's a slow, controlled brainwashing against guns. hmmmm, mr. sociologist/psychologist...let's see what unbelievable lengths we can go to to get people to act like guns are soooo bad.

It's working people. No one can even think for themselves - we've adopted some robot group think that "guns are bad" so we have to teach "zero tolerance" and nobody can figure out what zero tolerance means in any rational way.

The experiment it seems, goes to show how easily our minds can be controlled. Just sayin. Wish we could know better than to go along with this kind of insanity as if it's some great enlightening new way to look at the world. (as my head explodes)

Ruh-roh. I just bought Asa a toy AK-47. He wears his fedora around, "shooting" at the dog. He's been reading about Al Capone. (Oh no--I bought him the book, too!)