I’m gobsmacked by this foolishness!
Two seventh-grade students in Virginia Beach, Va., were handed long-term suspensions Tuesday that will last until the end of the school year for playing with an airsoft gun in one of their front yards while waiting for the school bus….Khalid claims he never took the toy gun to the designated bus stop or Larkspur Middle School, according to the report. Two other students who fired guns were also suspended.
Follow the link to watch the video, I’m impressed at how well-mannered and polite the boy is in his interview. Also for the racists out there, I must note the young boy is black.
This isn’t school property, this isn’t a designated bus stop, but god forbid any students play with toys that look *vaguely* like EVIL GUNS11!!11!!
Let’s hope the public stands up for REAL common sense rather than Joan Peterson’s ignorance and fear-driven brand, and this suspension gets reversed. I simply don’t see any grounds for a suspension, but Schools have been overreaching on student’s rights for decades and won’t stop any time soon!
First, my Son is a middle school teacher in the next town over from Va Beach (Norfolk). It is virtually impossible for a teacher to instill any discipline in the kids under their care. They are not backed up by the school administrators and no meaningful punishment is meted out unless and until the kid does something violently criminal.
But a kid that does something OFF SCHOOL GROUNDS that the administration doesn’t like for political reasons and gets suspended immediately? Something is out of whack here.
The only thing that makes me have misgivings about this is that the news reports locally said that the kids were shooting the airsoft guns at other kids. There wasn’t enough detail to make a determination. If the other kids with them were engaged in mutual play, then I’m back to my original assessment that any reaction other than “hey, look at those kids having fun” is ridiculous.
If, however, the other kids were not involved and the kids with the airsoft guns were shooting at unwilling targets, then that’s a problem…possibly even criminal. Airsoft guns can cause injury if not used safely and firing one at someone that is not voluntarily engaged in such activity could be construed as assault.
With that said, however, that’s a matter for the police and the courts, not the school administration, to figure out.
The school has no business involving themselves with actions that had nothing to do with said school.
According to the video interview kids were being shot with pellets, and all kids shot were willing participants in the game, and were armed themselves with airsoft guns which were all stowed in private property before the bus arrived.
First of all. Just to get this out of the way. Airsoft does NOT equal FIREARM.
Secondly, if it doesn’t happen on school grounds, it isn’t a school matter. The school needs a very sharp slapdown on this one. If we keep allowing schools to discipline students for things that happen outside of the school environment, it won’t be long before the schools think they have the authority to control every aspect of a student’s life. If these kids did anything wrong or illegal, call the police and have them arrested. According to the article, 911 was called. The article doesn’t mention any arrests being made, so apparently the officer (assuming one showed up) didn’t see any illegal behavior going on.
Third, and probably most annoying to me, to the mother. NO, “your kid” is not YOUR FUCKING PROPERTY! He’s a human being. Not property. When he goes to school, he doesn’t become the “school’s property”. He is still a human being. Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine. Kids aren’t property. Just sayin…
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