Two students mugged it up a bit at home with their Airsoft rifles before heading off to the school homecoming dance. After the boy’s father snapped a photo of the couple, they posted it on the boy’s personal Facebook page. For that, the school is suspending the pair.
“It’s not like it happened at school, we had the guns [at home] and that’s where the pictures were taken and they said it didn’t matter,” Jaime Pereira, the female 16-year-old in the photo told local NBC affiliate WHDH. “I guess the school took that as a threat but we didn’t mean it in a threatening way.”
And the “weapons” weren’t even real–they were Airsoft guns, which are replica firearms that use air or springs to fire 6mm BBs, generally made out of plastic or biodegradable material.
But school officials didn’t see it that way. They claimed that because the photo was captioned “Homecoming 2014,” it frightened other students. As a result, the school is slapping Pereira and her boyfriend, Tito Velez, also 16, with a 10-day suspension.
Superintendent Richard W. Gross told WHDH:
What it’s about is a coupled students engaging in an activity that created a total destruction of the school day. They’re juniors in High School, and it’s proactive and they should know better and it scared students.
But look at the photo. Even though the guns are essentially toys, the muzzles are pointed down and their index fingers are resting alongside the lower receiver above the trigger guard–not on the trigger.
Instead of being punished, they should be commended.
Watch the news report, via WHDH:
