You’re heard of gateway drugs. Meet the gateway weapon. It is a human hand, the forefinger extended to resemble the barrel of a pistol, the thumb raised (to simulate the hammer), the other fingers tucked under (to form the grip).
Children have been contorting their hands into make-believe guns for eons, but the gesture was sufficient shortly before the Christmas recess to result in the suspension of a first-grader in a Maryland school.
The Examiner reports:
The 6-year-old, who attends Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Silver Spring, made a gun with his hands, pointed it at another student and said ‘pow,’ according to Robin Ficker, the boy’s attorney. He was given a one-day suspension, with a conference on the matter planned for Jan. 2, the day students return to school from winter break.
A letter sent by Assistant Principal Renee Garraway to the child’s parents indicates that this is not the child’s first offense. “Your son … was involved in a serious incident,” the letter read. “[He] threatened to shoot a student. He was spoken to earlier today about a similar incident.”
According to the letter, the ruling can be appealed within 10 days.
Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Dana Tofig said it was standard policy not to make parents are aware of “behavioral issues”:
Generally, in an incident involving the behavior of our younger students, we will make sure that the student and family are well-informed of any behavior that needs to change and understand the consequences if the behavior does not change. And that’s especially true if the behavior is affecting the learning environment or how safe another student feels.
The story comes on the heels of another in which a high school senior was suspended after the “thought police” discovered a poem she had written about the Newtown massacre.
Related Articles
- SF HS student suspended over private Newtown poem
- Michael Moore: ‘Calm down, white people, and put away your guns’ (Photos)
- Father arrested, strip-searched after 4-year-old draws ‘man with gun’
- NYC teacher tricks 5th graders into sending Christmas cards to prison inmate
- School refuses to allow preschooler to eat ‘non-nutritious’ lunch from home
- Elementary school teacher arrested for tying up and feeding students his semen
- School accuses 6-year-old of sexual assault during schoolyard game of tag
- School disciplines 10-year-old for gun-shaped pizza slice (Video)
- TSA airport screeners stop teen with handgun design on pocketbook
- TSA takes toy away from mentally challenged man
- NYC Dept of Ed publishes its list of 50 ‘forbidden words’
- School claims 7-year-old is racist for asking classmate about skin color
