A Pop Tart chewed into the shape of a firearm. An empty .22 case in a toddler’s pocket. Or a gun-shaped keychain. All of these items can get kids into big trouble at school nowadays. But according to an article I recently read about a young girl not too far from where I live in Alabama, a water gun on a high school campus is grounds for a one-year expulsion.
A few months ago, the Autauga County Board of Education expelled a 16-year-old Prattville High School student for a full year from all schools in the county for having a water gun. She was also banned from setting foot on school property and from participating in any extra-curricular activities for the same time period.
Clearly, it’s important that children are not coming to school with weapons or with malicious intent. But in many cases, “zero tolerance” policies have created the proverbial mountains out of molehills, such as when a 7-year-old was suspended from school for nibbling his breakfast pastry into the shape of a pistol; and when a preschooler was suspended for seven days for bringing an empty .22 case to school; and when a 12-year-old boy was suspended for three days after he brought in a small, gun-shaped keychain that he’d won at an amusement park. These are just a few of the overly publicized examples, less we forget the numbers of youngsters who have been suspended for mimicking the shape of a gun with their fingers, for making a firearm’s “Bang! Bang!” sound or for even saying the word “gun.”
No doubt, the parents of this Alabama teen are questioning the severity of their daughter’s punishment, especially concerning the odd circumstances surrounding the incident.
You may have initially thought that the teenager brought the water pistol to school, herself, for a little harmless fun; maybe she stuck it in her backpack or in her locker with plans to play a joke or surprise a friend. But the article states that a male student gave the black plastic water gun to the girl. She then put the toy in her backpack and later transferred it to the backseat of her car. Subsequently, another student went to the school’s authorities and told them she had seen a gun in the girl’s vehicle.
So … what about the guy who brought the water gun to school in the first place? The family’s attorney is wondering the same thing, and he wrote a letter to the school principal, the Alabama State Board of Education and the state BOE attorneys. He stated that the girl “was the naïve and unwitting victim of a scheme (for lack of a better word) by several boys to set her up and make her take the fall for a water gun one of the boys brought to [school] … Yet the young man who brought the water gun to school … escaped without any discipline whatsoever. There were other boys who knew about what was going on, and may have participated in the scheme, yet none of them were disciplined either.”
It looks like there are more details to be discovered before anything can really be determined in this situation. But one thing we can determine is that the punishment does not seem to fit the crime. And the anti-gun zealots who helped put these policies in place could ruin this girl’s educational pursuits and forever change the outcome of her life with these overreactions. What message are we sending with these suspensions and expulsions, anyway? That water guns, gun shapes and gun sounds are somehow dangerous? Or that all real guns are bad … and even the thought of them is worthy of punishment?
One commenter on the article stated: “Zero tolerance! It’s so unfortunate for her, but she’s old enough to know what’s going on in the world. Kids get shot and killed for a water gun that looks real.”
But another person — a voice of reason — countered: “Yes, that is a problem with the ‘sky is falling’ crowd of gun control freaks. Having a gun by itself is never grounds to use force. You need at a minimum opportunity and ability and to show intent to do immediate serious injury.”
Unquestionably, I support teachers and school administrators taking real threats of violence on school grounds very seriously. And I fully support parents and teachers having meaningful, informative conversations about guns with children. These are not matters to be taken lightly. But expelling a child for having a water gun sends the wrong message on a topic where the right message is so necessary.
