In a country where portions of the population take terrorism threats with a complete lack of seriousness and wave them away like they do not exist, Dennis Township treats 7 yrs like wannabe terrorists for simply drawing a picture.
DENNIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- A second-grader's drawing of a stick figure shooting a gun earned him a one-day school suspension.
Kyle Walker, 7, was suspended last week for violating Dennis Township Primary School's zero-tolerance policy on guns, the boy's mother, Shirley McDevitt, told The Press of Atlantic City.
Kyle gave the picture to another child on the school bus, and that child's parents complained about it to school officials, McDevitt said. Her son told her the drawing was of a water gun, she said.
A photocopy of the picture provided by McDevitt showed two stick figures with one pointing a crude-looking gun at the other, the newspaper said. What appeared to be the word "me" was written above the shooter, with another name scribbled above the other figure.
School officials declined to comment Friday. A message left at the superintendent's office Saturday was not returned.
Kyle drew other pictures, including a skateboarder, King Tut, a ghost, a tree and a Cyclops, the newspaper reported.
How many of us have played cowboys and Indians when we were kids? Or bought a child one of those cool super soakers?
How much longer before we start banning the sale of waterguns from the same people that ignore the threat of terrorists?
Back in August a 13 yr old was also suspended for drawing a picture of a gun, in an equally idiotic town in Arizona.
Officials at an Arizona school suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching what looked like a gun, saying the action posed a threat to his classmates.
[...]
The drawing, which is covered with smiley faces, did not show blood, bullets, injuries or target any human, the parents said. The East Valley Tribune reported that the boy said he did not intend for the picture to be a threat.
"We're not advocates for guns," Mosteller said. "We don't have guns in our home. We don't promote the use of guns. My son was just basically doodling on a piece of paper."
The boy's father, Ben Mosteller, said when he went to the school to discuss his son's punishment, school officials mentioned the seriousness of the issue and talked about the 1999 massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School, where two teenagers shot and killed 12 students, a teacher and themselves. Mosteller said he was offended by the reference.
The boy was initially suspended for at least five days, but after his father spoke to the principal, it was reduced to three.
More from Stop the ACLU about four kindergarten students suspended for playing cops and robbers, in 2000.
Four kindergarten boys were suspended in 2000 for playing cops and robbers, even though they were using their fingers as guns.
The type of people that practice this type of idiocy are the same ones that will cry out about metal detectors in high schools or periodically checking lockers for weapons, they will scream about privacy issues when actual measures are proposed to keep real guns out of schools, and yet they will suspend children for drawing a picture?
So, where is the highly touted, worthless ACLU to protect these children's rights? The right of a 7 yr old to draw a simple picture without a federal case being made of it, the right of a 13 yr old to doodle, the rights of four other children to play an age old game of cops and robbers?
New Jersey needs more than a Rubber Chicken Award, they need someone to slap their officials right upside the head.
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