Boy points finger like gun, gets suspended

[+OverSword]

From the article:

A Columbus principal suspended a student for three days last week after the child pointed a "lookalike firearm” at another student in class and pretended to shoot.

The boy’s age? 10. The “level 2 lookalike firearm” cited in his suspension letter? His finger.

“I was just playing around,” said Nathan Entingh, a fifth-grader at Devonshire Alternative Elementary School in a far northern section of the district. “People play around like this a lot at my school.”

Other kids have been caught playing pretend gun games on the playground at Devonshire and weren’t suspended, Nathan said.

Read here

[Gary Meadows]

You can't be too careful in a post-post world.

[Awake2Chaos]

Was it loaded with a booger or something?

In all seriousness, who didn't play cops and robbers as a kid?

[Ashotep]

Wish they would be as tough on bullies as they are with kids pointing fingers. This is so messed up.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Ashotep

[Imaginarynumber1]

Maybe finally all this damn child finger pointing will end.

[Lilly]

Oh the horror of children pretending to shoot with their fingers! (<insert extreme sarcasm)

[Mentalcase]

I got sent home when I was in high school for doing the same thing. However, it was a bit different for me. Some kid bashed my head into concrete and split my skull open. When I healed up (relearned motor skills, etc.) I went back to school. when I seen that kid, I did a pistol with my fingers. 20 minutes later I got called to the office. Well, I was bullied so bad there (Chicago kid at a northern Wisconsin HS) that I decided to drop out. I got my GED a couple months later when I moved back to Chicago. I will never go back north. Talk about traumatizing!

[Mentalcase]

BTW this was in 98.

[+DieChecker]

They might have a case if the kid is Vash the Stampede. If not... then they are just more of the PC idiots running the world.

[_Only]

Well, principal wanted to make a display of force, and Nathan took the bullet. There's likely a bit more to the story that might not as well fit the sensational blurb it got, but whatever. In the end, nothing major happened one way or the other. We all get suspended at one point or another at that age, except girls, because they were little Miss Perfects.

[Astra.]

Good god...how ridiculous and over extreme.

[seaturtlehorsesnake]

We all get suspended at one point or another at that age, except girls, because they were little Miss Perfects.

i can't imagine what school you went to where girls were never suspended.

as for the story, it sounds like the principal might have been trying to send a message, as it mentions that they had warned other students about similar behavior before. i don't think the kid should have been suspended, obviously. but i think that suspensions in general are a bad idea. they aren't effective as a disciplinary tool, all they do is take kids out of school, which is the very place we're supposed to want them to be. i mean, they might be called for in some extreme situations, but not as a common response to misbehavior.

[_Only]

i can't imagine what school you went to where girls were never suspended.

Middle school USA.

It was hyperbole, but young boys tend to act up more and get into more mischief in and out of class than little girls.

[seaturtlehorsesnake]

fair enough. i remember my own school experience being a bit different, but the administration there were pretty enthusiastic about suspending students in general

[Taun]

They gave swats instead when I was in school... That and detention... And though some girls did get both - it was rare(er)... The thing they were more worried about

in my schools was kids bringing switchblade knives to school... That and boys with long hair, and girls with too short of skirts...

Edited March 5, 2014 by Taun

[JGirl]

Good god...how ridiculous and over extreme.

i totally agree.

[lightly]

Suspension seems extreme? Did he, and his classmates, fully understand what a "level 2 lookalike firearm" was?.. and that gun like finger pointing was strictly verboten! ?.. and would result in a suspension?

I like how the kid summed it all up.. Meanwhile, Nathan reflected on his suspension yesterday: “I was thinking it was dumb.”

[coolguy]

Really stupid to do this to this kid

[Wickian]

When I was a kid, I would play super heroes/villains with my brothers and use my entire arm as a pretend plasma cannon(nuclear powered). I would probably be expelled by today's standards.

[+DieChecker]

I wonder what would happen if he only just said "BANG!"

Is an implied gun enough to be suspended for?

There was a kid recently that was suspended for drawing a picture of a gun. And we had a local boy suspended for taking that gun from a monopoly game to school.

What would the school do if a 18 year old student had a gun tattoo?

[lightly]

I wonder what would happen if he only just said "BANG!"

Is an implied gun enough to be suspended for?

There was a kid recently that was suspended for drawing a picture of a gun. And we had a local boy suspended for taking that gun from a monopoly game to school.

What would the school do if a 18 year old student had a gun tattoo?

probably be ok.. if he wasn't loaded? .. The Monopoly gun!? You can hardly see it!

[Brian Topp]

YES! I was hoping no one said this "Finger Guns don't kill people, people with finger guns do-n't either"

Edited March 6, 2014 by Brian Topp

[Mentalcase]

"Guns don't kill people, guns are people"

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

What they don't tell you is that there was a spate of tripped faeries at the school, and as part of a OHS decision (and to keep the Fair Folk happy) they made pointing fingers illegal.

and if I need to explain that joke, in my part of the world the silly comeback to someone pointing a finger is "Don't do that, you'll trip a faerie".

[Brian Topp]