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Kid Almost Suspended for Bringing Tiny Toy Gun to School
Filed under: In The News, Weird But True
Patrick Timoney, 9, holds the small plastic gun that almost got the fourth grader suspended. Credit: Nicholas Fevelo, New York Daily News
School safety is important, but some are saying an elementary school principal overreacted when she saw one of her students playing with a tiny toy gun in the cafeteria.
Mom Laura Timoney went ballistic when she received a call from her son's school. Staten Island fourth-grader Patrick Timoney was in tears, the mad mama told the New York Daily News, because he was being threatened with a suspension by P.S. 52 principal Evelyn Matroianni.
His crime? Possession of a 2-inch toy gun, which Patrick had placed in the hand of a Lego police officer during a lunchtime toy break.
Patrick's father, a retired police officer who shares his little boy's name, tells the Daily News that he has "no problem with the rules" but doesn't see why the tiny gun caused such a big problem.
In this video report from the newspaper, Patrick and his family describe the incident.
"The toy gun is not the issue," Laura Timoney tells the Daily News. "A lack of common sense is the issue." Timoney adds that she wants an apology and might sue the school.
New York City Department of Education spokesperson Margie Feinberg tells the Staten Island Advance that "Toy guns are not allowed in schools," and that NYC schools have a no-tolerance policy in place for fake firearms. Even little ones.
After a meeting was held between parents and school officials, it was decided that Patrick would not be suspended over the wee weapon.
When it comes to punishments, size really does matter.
Related: Trouble in Toyland
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ReaderComments (Page 3 of 5)
2-05-2010 @ 10:50PM
grunt1959 said...School teachers and staff are all idiots, just look at the test scores of kids today. Hell at school we played mumbly peg and whittled with our scout knives. We played cops and robbers with play guns, and no one was ever shot.
There was respect for life in those days, no one wanted to hurt anyone.
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2-05-2010 @ 3:54PM
J.Strasser said...I don't understand why it is such a big deal. Kids, especially boys, are going to be quite interested in guns. I do understand that it is reasonable to show concern and reprimand if the student were to have brought a life size toy gun, but this is ridiculous. Instead of threatening to suspend or even expel the student, the school should simply educate students the dangers of firearms and to always take extreme precautions with them.
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2-05-2010 @ 4:02PM
Patricia said...What a "BOOB". Teachers & prinicpals get real. I guess "zero" tolerance is just that mixed with no common sense.
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2-05-2010 @ 4:05PM
Joeysjeep said...Will you give me a break. What's next. Banning pictures of guns? Hmmmm. Maybe I should be quiet, some school Principal might get the idea.
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2-05-2010 @ 7:07PM
John Q Citizen said...Just to let you know how paranoid people are starting to get, I read not too long agothat a grade school boy was suspended from school because he had a t-shirt on that had a picture of a gun. Whats next? Maybe the thought police?
2-05-2010 @ 4:16PM
Yardbird said...This kid is a danger to society. He should be sent to juvenile court where he should be 35 to 40 years behind bars. Really now, what is this country coming to when we waste our time with such foolishness. Put that Principal up against the wall and shoot him with that toy gun. Wow, I'll bet that will hurt.
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2-05-2010 @ 4:18PM
Joeysjeep said...Wow. I am glad he did not bring a little toy snake to school. Heaven forbid if it broke. He might be charged with cruelty to animals.
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2-05-2010 @ 4:22PM
Jim said...Folks. I said this yesterday but they have changed the format so..... This "no tolerance " policy is not ONLY about weapons on school grounds. It is Academia's attempt to get 'GUNS' out of the consciousness of children so that in the future there will be less resistants to the Govt. when they try and take them away. If kids stop looking at guns as toys they will be less likely to want one as adults ergo they won't care when they are outlawed !!!! Get it now?Academia believes they know what is best for our society... especially since they function 'within it' at such a high level.... NOT !!!!!
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2-05-2010 @ 4:33PM
L said...Sorry, but I have to disagree with you. One of the boys involved in the Columbine Massacre was a child who had never been allowed to play with toy guns. He wasn't allowed to play cowboys and indians or cops and robbers or GI Joe - or any other "game" that involved the use of weaponry. He grew up to shoot up his school. I guess keeping guns out of his childhood didn't really help did it???
2-05-2010 @ 4:39PM
Jay said...Jim, I thought the same thing and also posted such yesterday. I feel sorry for our children and grandchildren, if this ploy works, their world will be controlled by bigger criminals than ours.
2-05-2010 @ 4:26PM
Jim said...Email the school and the board of education expressing what an idiot their principal is. Also who were the idiots who put her in that position? She is an absolute moron.
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2-05-2010 @ 4:37PM
Joel A. said...I'm surprised Obama did not blame George Bush on this issue.
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2-05-2010 @ 4:40PM
Ed said...This is about mind control, and using children in the schools to impose political ideology through mental programming. If toy guns are a forbidden object, then by extension so is the real object they mimick, and therefore children, and adults, are subtley indoctrinated that firearms are an evil and forbidden thing. That is what is behind this-- not school safety, but a civilian disarmament effort.
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2-13-2010 @ 2:27PM
Courtney said...Why is it assumed the school went overboard? The way I see it is that they made it known they could suspend him over it but they didn't. Why did the kid need to take toys to school anyway? That's why kids aren't learning, and then the kid gets coddled by his own idiot parents, who's first instinct was to go to a news organization? That's what's wrong with kids today parents are letting them feel that they are entitled to go against the rules and do whatever they want. Although I do believe that maybe the school shouldn't have mentioned suspending the kid to the actually kid, make him sit in the office and then talk to his parents.
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2-05-2010 @ 4:44PM
Bill said...As a retired psychologist I am aware of two controlled IQ studies, one done in 1997 and the other in 2005, that indicate to a high
degree of reliability that elementary school majors (teachers)
are at the lowest end of the IQ curve (among college graduates
across the board). Majors in school administration were also
low in mean IQ's for college graduates. Those people not only
walk among us and vote....they also "teach" our young people.
Many, many contempoary teachers and their administrators
are put through low level Mickey Mouse programs and many,
in the interest of "political correctness", are literally pushed
through school. And, many of those people are then
turned lose in our nation's classrooms to indoctrinate our
young people with their "liberal" ideas. The tiny toy gun
is just another example of the tactics of fools in decision
making positions.
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2-05-2010 @ 4:48PM
Tee said...The school is right. The policy is no toy guns. I could care less if the toy is the size of a finger nail, if you say yes to one child then every kid is gonna start bringing in their "small toy" guns, then what. A policy is a policy.
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2-05-2010 @ 5:08PM
baddoggy said...Tee,
Yes "then what" a rogue lego army could take over the school?
I bet the parents feel relieved they have such a heroic principal who is willing to overlook commonsense for the good of the school.
2-05-2010 @ 5:15PM
Brian said...What is disturbing is that the issue has shifted from a safety concern (someone might think the gun is real) to an ideology (guns are bad, and should not be played with).
We need to wake up and realize that ideological indoctrination disguised as safety concerns is bad and has no place in American schools.
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2-05-2010 @ 5:16PM
Frank said...What has happened to common sense in this country, what's next expulsion for drawing a picture of a gun or any object that may be dangerous??? IDIOTS!!!
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2-05-2010 @ 5:38PM
Yoakaholic said...There was a time, long ago, when I had respect for teachers and principals. That stopped some years ago. This is a prime example of why. That was not a toy gun, a toy gun is what I used to play cops and robbers with as an elementary school kid. We had caps too, to make noise. Didnt take them to school. I grew up as non-violent as an adult can possibly be, cannot kill even a little bug.
This is a toy, a lego toy, not a toy gun. The principal is a moron all right, and I would love to see the principal fired.
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