Update: Squirt gun suspension overturned

If the mother is around my age, and played with these as a child, she likely thought, "gee, it's OBVIOUSLY a toy" and didn't think about it further. I know that I would never ever think that a squishy toy my 6 year old had would be covered by an anti weapons clause.

he's 6. A discussion with him and his mother would have made a lot more sense in this case. Of course, I'm waiting for someone under one of these policies to be suspended for making a gun with their hand while playing cops and robbers. Or are kids not allowed to play that at school anymore either?

Regardless, they revisited their original decision, and used their heads. Good for them.

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I read something, somewhere just today about making a gun out of one's hand and going "bang". I don't think our school has that rule but perhaps I should check the regs again.

I think the school board acted reasonably. I'm hope that all the parents know now that anything remotely resembling a weapon is off limits at school.

We have two separate books of regulations - one from the District and one from the school. Each has at least 60 pages and many overlap. Often the teachers don't even know what they all are. Individual teachers have begun enforcing their own ideas of the dress code, for example, at the girls' old elementary school. The "rule" says no tank tops - the teacher scolded a girl for a cap sleeve (which my girls wore in warm weather last year - no problem).

If the teachers don't know all the rules, it's not unreasonable to think a busy parent might have misread one or two.

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I think it is interesting that the District Rep., Phyllis Budesheim, stated originally that no exceptions would be made, to be almost immediately followed by an exception being made. This is another reason that zero tolerance policies are bad - the District lost credibility when it reversed itself so completely.

Not that the right answer wasn't reached, but I think the message sent here was less "we want children to be safe" then "we don't trust our principals to make the right decision, so we create black and white rules which we expect people to follow and intend to follow religiously, but all that goes out the window if you get some publicity."

Kind of takes the attraction out of being a teacher - instead, you could work for the School District!

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While student teaching, a first-grade boy in was suspended for an entire year for bringing in a toy gun. This was not too long after Columbine and schools were still in a state of hysteria for fear of something similar happening, but a whole year? What's worse is the parents did not fight it. They just let this boy miss out on a year of school! You'd be surprised what a young child can sneak into a school. I had a preschooler who brought $60 of his mother's grocery money and distributed it. Parents can't always know what antics their children are up to.

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