Suspension from school? Expulsion? Meh, chickenfeed. Kids who bring toy guns to school need is a stronger deterrent. They need to do time in the big house, the slammer, the pokey.
MLive reports:
[T]wo male students were arrested on disorderly conduct charges about 8:45 a.m., Feb. 5, at [Doyle-Ryder Elementary School] … according to a Flint [Mich.] police report. The boys were released to their parents.
Interim Superintendent Larry Watkins is quoted as saying, “Something will go out [to parents], but we need to get more information. Once we have more details – the intent of the letter is to dispel any rumors.”
Like what? That bamboo shoots were inserted under the kids’ fingernails to get them to talk?
Watkins told police he believed the toy, which is described as an orange plastic gun, was a BB gun, adding that bringing a BB gun onto school grounds is an expellable offense.
In its own report on the incident, Opposing Views quotes Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, who claims that students were angry with their teacher and brought the gun, which had a broken part and was inoperable, to scare her.
The incident was intended to threaten the teacher and that’s not something that the school or the juvenile justice system can ignore.
If that report is true, it casts a slightly different light on the offense. Still, one has to wonder whether the two children involved (their ages aren’t revealed) deserve to have juvenile criminal records. Leyton, who seems worried that toy guns are a gateway to real guns, believes they do:
I think these youngsters need to be brought into the courthouse and we need to get their attention so that’s what we’re going to do.
Flint has been labeled the most violent city in the U.S. for the past three years, with the most violent crimes per capita of any city with over 100,000 residents.
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