Author Topic: Tiny toy gun causes big trouble  (Read 935 times)

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Offline Dali Llama

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Tiny toy gun causes big trouble
« on: February 26, 2004, 01:22:42 AM »
Tiny toy gun causes big trouble


02/26/04

HANNAH WOLFSON
News staff writer


A third-grader at Sun Valley Elementary was suspended this week for bringing a G.I. Joe toy handgun to school.

   
Austin Crittenden, 9, and his family say the school in eastern Birmingham went too far by sending him home for bringing a tiny plastic handgun that accompanied a G.I. Joe action figure.

"It's about an inch long," said Vicki Stewart, the boy's grandmother and guardian. "(The principal) had to tape it to a piece of paper to keep from losing it."

The length of the suspension has yet to be determined, said Birmingham City Schools spokeswoman Michaelle Chapman. Possible punishments for a Class III violation such as this one include expulsion and alternative school, she said.

According to a notice sent from the school to Crittenden's family by Sun Valley Principal Teresa Ragland, he was suspended at 2 p.m. Monday for "Possession of a weapon Firearm replica."

That's a violation of the code of conduct all students are given and asked to sign at the beginning of the school year, Chapman said.

"The code of student conduct specified that the violation of possession of weapons includes firearm replicas," she said.

There have been questions recently about whether strict adherence to such codes has gone too far, especially after a Clay-Chalkville teen was sent to an alternative school for violating the school's zero-tolerance policy after being caught taking a Motrin. Last April, two boys at Oak Mountain Middle School received one-day suspensions for playing with toy guns one had brought for a project on Treasure Island. A 10-year-old was arrested in October at an Alabaster school, accused of threatening someone with a toy gun.

It's not just Alabama: Last month, an 8-year-old was suspended from a Spokane, Wash., public school for taking two similar G.I. Joe guns to school.

In cases like this, it's up to the community to let schools know how they feel about the policies, said William Modzeleski, associate deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. But it's the schools' responsibility to use common sense enforcing them, he said.

"The punishment has to fit the crime," he said. "On some zero-tolerance policies, the punishment far outweighs the crime."

He also said teachers and principals should make the rules crystal clear to parents up front so they aren't surprised.

In the Sun Valley case, Crittenden's grandmother said she thought "replica" in the handbook meant a realistic-looking fake, not part of a doll's costume.

"I was flabbergasted," Stewart said. "It wasn't something that by any stretch of the imagination you could feel someone had threatened you with."

Crittenden's hearing, which will determine his punishment, has been scheduled for Monday morning. His grandmother said he has no history of violence and, although he is not supposed to take toys to school, just slipped the gun into his pocket on the way out in the morning. Now, she says, he will have this suspension on his record.

"He's not a discipline problem, he's a very sweet little boy," Stewart said. "And he just took a toy to school."
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Offline Squirrelsaurus Rex

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Tiny toy gun causes big trouble
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2004, 06:53:27 AM »
:roll:
Squooshy... the other white meat.

Offline Mikey

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Hmmmm
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2004, 08:10:18 AM »
with this in mind there just might be something to Bush's school voucher proposal.  Think about that - when school districts, teachers and school officials, many of whom have little practical experience with reality, begin making social decisions (as to how to enforce regulations) then doncha all think it is time to put our education money elsewhere??  Mikey.

Offline Dali Llama

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Re: Hmmmm
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2004, 08:21:58 AM »
Quote from: Mikey
when school districts, teachers and school officials, many of whom have little practical experience with reality, begin making social decisions then doncha all think it is time to put our education money elsewhere??  
Yes, concur Dali Llama. :-)
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Offline jh45gun

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Tiny toy gun causes big trouble
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2004, 09:21:39 AM »
This liberal knee jerk zero tolerance nonsense is really stupid but coming from liberals I believe anything. What morons!! Jim
Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use it.

Offline ernon

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Tiny toy gun causes big trouble
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2004, 10:23:40 AM »
Quote from: jh45gun
This liberal knee jerk zero tolerance nonsense is really stupid but coming from liberals I believe anything. What morons!! Jim


Zero tolerance equals zero intelligence IMHO.

Ernon

Offline Dali Llama

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Tiny toy gun causes big trouble
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2004, 01:10:16 PM »
Quote from: ernon
Quote from: jh45gun
This liberal knee jerk zero tolerance nonsense is really stupid but coming from liberals I believe anything. What morons!! Jim


Zero tolerance equals zero intelligence IMHO.

Ernon
Dali Llama say that not be true in all cases.  Dali say, for example, many he credit with possession of significant intelligence have zero tolerance for practice of homosexuality.
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