8-year-old who drew picture of gun in response to school assignment in trouble

The thought police in one Colorado community are working overtime. Station KKTV reports (h/t The Blaze):

Second grader Kody Smith was assigned to go outside, look at the clouds, and then use his imagination to draw what he saw.

What he saw was this:

picture of gun drawn by 8-year-old

Because it was a gun, the teacher at Talbott Elementary in Widefield called him into the office, and then filed a behavior report. His parents say that’s too much.

“It hurts. It hurts that he was so scared for being penalized for his imagination,” said Kody’s father, Jeff Smith.

“He’s 8 years old. He was doing exactly what he was told to do for the assignment,” said Kody’s mother, Angel Rivers.

The school maintains that the child’s was “disruptive to the entire learning community,” writing in a statement:

Our primary responsibility as a school district is to ensure safety of all staff, students and community. We exercised an age-appropriate reaction to an incident. The student’s education was never disrupted nor is this incident on the student’s permanent record. Our response was in line with routine procedures focused on school safety.

They’re mistaken. Their reaction was idiotic and over-the-top. It stands, moreover, as a sobering commentary on how deeply ingrained in the psyche of school administrators is the pernicious illness known as “zero tolerance.”

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Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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