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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > March > 03 > Entry
BB gun at school — sanity check time?
Rules are rules. But some situations call for leaders to exercise their judgment, too.
So here’s the question — is Xenia school board going overboard if it expels a 12-year-old boy for bringing a BB gun on school grounds?
Here’s what happened. The boy left the middle school he attends after the last bell, went home, got the BB gun and went to meet his buddies for some target shooting into the water of a nearby creek. Unfortunately, he met the other guys on the grounds of an elementary school and he was carrying the BB gun in his hand. A school official spotted him and that’s what initially led to a 10-day suspension.
But the district’s “no tolerance” procedure in a weapons case is to automatically move for expulsion. So administrators are asking the school board to toss him. Superintendent Jeff Lewis says in Ameila Robinson’s story that the kid had no malicious intent, did not realize he was doing anything wrong and the police said he did nothing threating or illegal.
Expulsion is a sensible punishment for bringing a weapon to school, even a BB gun. Every kid, this boy included, should know that under no circumstances is it permissible to bring a gun — real, BB, even a toy gun — onto the grounds of a school in the post-Columbine world.
But is a 10-day suspension enough? Or should the board approve his expulsion?
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: School Violence
Comments
By Barry
March 8, 2006 10:28 AM | Link to this
This is to Riverdale Ghost 1) It is against the law to shoot people with pellet guns, or any other kind of gun. Any such incident should be reported to your local law enforcement agency 2) What we are discussing is some kids who were doing an other wise legal activity, acording to the article they apparently had no intent to anything illegal “Police Capt. Scott Anger said the boy never threatened anyone with the BB gun and likely will not be charged criminally” 3) From your posting I would suppose you have had a bad experience with some local kids and bb guns. You should have reported this to the police at the time. How ever zero tolerance rules at schools (and other places) are a bad idea, and only set the school board up to look really stupid when something like this happens. Here is a case that is completely made up, it never happened, anything like it that may have happened is a coincidence. Let us say the school has a zero tolerance rule on students and alcholol. Most would say that is a good idea, we want to prohibit underage drinking and what not. Let us say Mommy goes to the grocery (driving the family beater) and buys a weeks worth of groceries, including some beer. Then while unloading the car she gets a phone call from work and has to go in to work. She takes one of the other family vehicles (the nice one that only mommy and Daddy drive to work) and leaves the old beater for the kid to take to a basketball game. An hour or so later junior takes the car to go to a basketball game. At half time someone conducts a search of students cars. Look junior (a student) has beer on school grounds. Junior did notheing wrong in this case, however he/she is now going to be kicked out of school. The case is “cut and dry” and we have “zero tolerance”. A zero i.q is more like it.By gk
March 4, 2006 11:08 PM | Link to this
It is with tremendous personal interest and overwhelming dismay that I follow this story. What seems clear to me is that the school officials involved seem to not have experienced the freedom in their youth to explore the rapidly growing world around them (or cannot recall the glory of having done so responsibly). I was caught last year trying to board a commercial aircraft with a small pair of scissors in my toiletries—they were special, a nice, small, high-quality pair, used to trim my nose hairs for years. Viewed from a different perspective, I was in the process of conducting a felony assault. The crew and passengers on my plane that day were spared the potential of a terrorist boarding their aircraft with a weapon—the scissors were confiscated. I read recently of another 12-year-old who, during a school-related field trip, stuck a wad of gum on a valuable painting in a museum (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11626023?GT1=7850). What will be his fate? Or is it really the responsibility of the school officials involved in organizing and supervising the trip? What of the high school students in our own community, placing fake deer in the road, and “inadvertantly” causing an accident? What should we do with them? These latter cases are significant behavior aberrations with complex consequences. Will their punishments be proportional to the case in point? I hope not. But then, it should not take this amount of energy and media coverage to reign justice for a boy experiencing the limited freedom of his youth through his own eyes. I sincerely hope that my blog in this forum is queued for approval by an administrator with more sense than those that would consider expulsion for this boy.By Roger
March 4, 2006 7:36 PM | Link to this
I completely expect that anyone competent to make decisions in an important professional leadership position will have no problem understanding the need for flexibility, depending on circumstances. Such a person will heed well the danger of disproportionate enforcement against a child who happened, without malice, to miss certain implications of a property line in his environment.By Michael McManus
March 4, 2006 6:07 PM | Link to this
Where’s the common sense? The only thing that the kid did wrong was to bring a bb gun on school grounds. There are real differences between a bb gun and a 9mm and the rules need to recognize this difference. If responsible school administrators are not permitted to exercise judgement in the enforcment of school rules why do we need them. The kid (and his bb gun) should have been brought into the office, his parents called and required to come get him. Absent any evidence of malicious intent, some afterschool detention should be sufficient. What good will come out of expulsion? How would expulsion further contribute to this child’s understanding of his mistake (and it was nothing more than a simple mistake)? Will expulsion provide any alternative to this child’s education? As we well know, education or lack there of is a powerful predicter of a childs future contribution to society.By Riverdale Ghost
March 4, 2006 7:28 AM | Link to this
If any of the gun enthusiasts had ever been shot at by a sweet kid who was just out there for a little target practice, they might be talking out of the other side of their mouths.By Mary
March 3, 2006 3:01 PM | Link to this
I generally agree with all the previous comments. Schools have got an excellent grip on overtreating the symptoms of Columbine with rules and enforcement like that. However, schools have done precious little to understand and correct the basic problems such as bullying in school, and bored, underchallenged, alienated, and perhaps over-medicated students. One of the Columbine shooters was identified “gifted” and apparently his education neglected. The other (possibly gifted)was bullied and put on some antidepressants that possibly contributed to his suicidal/homicidal tendencies. News reports in the past year have pointed out the problems with antidepressants, particularly with younger patients. If a child is unhappy in school, why do we only treat the child and not the toxicity of the school environment? I would love to hear about this boy’s other educational experiences within the school environment.By Barry
March 3, 2006 1:05 PM | Link to this
Look in your pocket change see that quarter with the little minute man on the back? you can’t take that quarter into a school because… drum roll please… you are not allowed to have guns in school did you know that quarter is going to be recalled because… drum roll please… that little itty bitty gun doesn’t have a gun lock on it (and is therefore unsafe) I think barring weapons from schools is a good thing, however across the board, zero tolerance rules are “zero brain power” rules. Anyone remember last year when a kid got kicked out of school because there was some silverware in her trunk, including some steak knives? I think in the above bb gun story the school board and the school administrators ought to be fired, lose their pensions and benefits, and run out of town for being the useless gits that they are. Maybe they should have to pay for that little boys education in a private school that is not run by useless liberals. Hire someone with some common sense to run your school next time. A school should teach kids how to be good citezens (including how to safely use a firearm), not try to kick them out and mess with their lives for target practice with a bb gun. Thirty three years ago (give or take a few) my grandpa gave me a pocket knife. I still carry one today (not the same one, I broke that blade long ago). Now a days I would have had to put that knife in my sock drawer and only look at it every now and then because if you carry a knife to school you are a violent homicidal monster that is a threat to society and you will get a 10 day suspencion and kicked out of school. Just look at what the useless gits have done to our country.By 3Dale3
March 3, 2006 12:59 PM | Link to this
After reading the article and if the facts in the article are correct, then expulsion is not called for. Somewhere along the way, common sense has to prevail. I would go along with a suspension, say 3 to 5 days, but nothing harsher. Sometimes I think people have forgotton how to think sensibly. People want a quick fix to every problem without thinking first. That’s how your zero tolerance policies came about. “We’ll institute this policy and it will fix our problems”. I’m sorry but it doesn’t work like that.By MandyMo
March 3, 2006 12:15 PM | Link to this
I have zero tolerance for Zero Tolerance policies - they only serve to give administrators and policy makers license to run our schools without thought. People and situations are different, and our justice system (dysfunctional though it may be) realizes that punishment should at least attempt to fit the crime. Why do we expect school policies and discipline to take a one-size-fits-all approach? School administrators get PAID to make and enforce policies - zero tolerance rules are a cop-out at best. Is it right that the kid had a gun on school grounds? Absolutely NOT. But given the facts (lack of malicious intent & the fact that he didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong), a 10-day suspension seems out of line. Expulsion? Cruel and unusual punishment. Why are you going to take what seems like an innocent mistake and risk the rest of this young man’s life for it? He belongs in school, getting an education that will offer him the opportunities to learn from his mistakes and fulfill his potential. It seems to me that community service would be the way to go - have him take a gun safety course, and speak to other groups of his peers about gun safety & gun laws, and I’m sure it’ll be a lesson he won’t soon forget.