"The paper gun posed no immediate threat
March 22, 2001 9:07 AM   Subscribe

"The paper gun posed no immediate threat to the students in the class." Is this a prudent reading the warning signs or knee-jerk reaction to a media frenzy?
posted by fooljay (20 comments total)
 
Forgot to mention this. "No immediate threat"?? Can someone tell me when a paper gun starts to pose an immediate threat? Perhaps he was going to paper cut them to death? Apparently it takes about a 1,000...
posted by fooljay at 9:11 AM on March 22, 2001


``It may appear to some as though we went a little overboard because it was a paper gun, but what would those same people say if this incident was ignored and in a day, week or month the same student came to school with a firearm?'' Palamara asked.

LOL!
Why don't you just arrest all students preemptively? Why, if that'd been done in Columbine, why then, [I dunno, something good would happen...]
posted by sonofsamiam at 9:15 AM on March 22, 2001


"But, being that kids are being shot in schools across the country, children have to be taught they can't say certain words in public.''

I just don't think this reaches the level of yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater. What words shall we ban next? Maybe we should have those pesky kids learn this song.
posted by frykitty at 9:18 AM on March 22, 2001


Smith said. ``But, being that kids are being shot in schools across the country, children have to be taught they can't say certain words in public.''



Yeah, let's teach the kids to keep their mouths shut instead of encouraging them to be open about their feelings and thoughts, especially to "authority" figures.
posted by phichens at 9:19 AM on March 22, 2001


It's not the paper gun that got them in trouble. They got expelled because they stood on a desk and yelled, "I'm going to kill you all!"

And in todays climate I don't blame the school at all.
posted by y6y6y6 at 9:38 AM on March 22, 2001


The two boys were suspended and, under the district's zero-tolerance policy, school officials notified police, who charged the boys.

1. Why does zero-tolerance = fullest extent of the law?

2. What in the hell did the police charge them with?
posted by amanda at 9:55 AM on March 22, 2001


Just remember: guns don't kill people, paper does.
posted by solistrato at 10:04 AM on March 22, 2001


Once again, something that should have been handled privately and quietly in ten minutes time becomes a national crisis.

All the teacher had to do was confiscate the "gun", give a short lecture and make them sit out for a few minutes. No one's saying ignore the situation, just handle it already.

man, it would have really marred my record being suspended for the piece of bark I had in my shoe ala James West twenty five years ago.
posted by auntbunny at 10:05 AM on March 22, 2001


Somebody ought to shoot those kids.
posted by Skot at 10:18 AM on March 22, 2001


when i was in grade school i stuck to pushing girls off the monkey-bars.

kids today.

*tsk tsk tsk*
posted by th3ph17 at 10:18 AM on March 22, 2001


LOL, CrayDrygu. Linked on my blog. :-)
posted by fooljay at 11:07 AM on March 22, 2001


Nice article, CrayDrygu. Where would we be withour Dorchester? Well, we'd be without NKOTB, for one.

I understand why the "I'm going to kill you all!" comment grabbed everyone's attention. But it seems like the administration overreacted. When you're in fourth grade, that kind of behavior deserves only a scary visit to the principal's office.

There are certainly words that kids shouldn't say in public. But they do anyway. Teaching children that words and actions bring consequences is important, as long as they don't become so scared or paranoid about consequences that they don't want to speak up at all.
posted by sixfoot6 at 11:19 AM on March 22, 2001


So now children in 2nd grade shouldn't play? That IS what they were doing. A bit over-reactionary I would say. If they wanted to do something they should have addressed it at the class level so that all the children understand that sometimes things are not appropriate, even at playtime. But NNNOOOOO, we will suspend 2nd grades and forward the case to the police. No trauma to a child there !!
posted by a3matrix at 11:42 AM on March 22, 2001


Home schooling for the entire nation! that way we get rid of the teachers' unions too.
posted by Postroad at 11:42 AM on March 22, 2001


Zero-tolerance laws are a substitute for logic and reason in authority figures that increasingly lack them to begin with. The increasing gap between punishment and criminal action will either cause more people to go berzerk or send them into depression. The former will fuel the law making and the latter will fuel the pharmaceutical market. Since most people don't like each other enough to work together, we can only hope that everyone go's berzerk at the same time by coincidence.
posted by john at 12:52 PM on March 22, 2001


I'm going to cheer everyone up here and play the race card... (Watch me go)....

So there's an "epidemic" of little white shits shooting up their schools across the country... What's the authorities' first course of action? Arrest a couple of black 2nd-graders for playing make-believe.

Good job, America!
posted by TheShovel at 12:55 PM on March 22, 2001


I don't agree with zero tolerence, but my PARENTS made sure that i never in my childhood did anything as stupid as that kid, especially when a gun is involved, even if it's a toy.

I say shoot the parents.
posted by Zool at 2:24 PM on March 22, 2001


That's your race card? That's all you got? Humph.
posted by amanda at 3:03 PM on March 22, 2001


Well, Amanda... I never said it was the Rootinest-Tootinest Race Card You Ever Seen....
posted by TheShovel at 3:10 AM on March 23, 2001


Zero-tolerance laws are a substitute for logic and reason in authority figures that increasingly lack them to begin with.

And here's the latest: Student suspended for drawing a soldier.

"It had hand grenades, knives and guns," Davis said. "We have zero tolerance for drawings with guns. We can't tolerate anything that has to do with guns or knives."

It was a tribute to a relative who as in the Army. I saw the pic on the news, and it's just a guy standing there.
posted by smeat at 11:39 PM on March 24, 2001


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