Read the story again. Unless Legos are a working weapon this is sheer stupidity.

Worst, we enjoyed hangman at school. I know, a deadly and worthy of expulsion offense.

on DU, about a kid who was suspended for pointing his finger at another student, and saying bang bang. The kid only used his hand to represent a weapon, and I thought that was rather off the wall. The kid, like this one was very young.

the story starts by saying the boy received a warning letter. It ends with a quote from the mother, "couldn't they have given him a warning?"

I am asking a very serious question. In the current environment I would have been expelled as early as first grade, if not earlier...I could draw some really violent pictures...involving...guns, I know, the horror!

This is sheer stupidity...or can I somehow make a working gun from...Legos?

you could ask me about some random school in the middle of nowhere, "do you think that kid should have been sent home for not wearing a tie?" My honest answer would be that the tie is not that important, but I would also say, if you're at that school just wear the stupid tie. And if your kid gets sent home for not having a tie, don't call the local news.

Not to draw super heroes, with gunz I know...horror!

Funny you mention dress code, we had uniforms. A five year old gets warned due to the über dangerous super fully automatic Legos gun...

A teen at the top of her class faces expulsion for writing a somewhat violent poem after Newtown...

Are you starting to grasp the problem here? For the record, I would have been expelled for violent poetry too.

I am thankful I don't ave kids...we are killing that creativity in the name of security...what did one of the Founders write on the Subject? Oh never mind, in the name of security will stop teaching that too

when they act like this, esp when they actually are dumb enough to call the cops over it.

school policy. I don't think they have much choice in the matter.

was making a generalized comment about the general 'kid with a watergun/finger gun/lego gun' craziness.

I should NOT have implied that teachers are responsible -- I know they have to follow whatever idiot rules have been put in place. I also should have expanded on my frustration by asking whether the school boards/states/counties who install such rules are overrun with Pubs who want to make the schools look stupid (thus aiding in their destruction) or whether this is the result of other kinds of craziness.

My main point is that it is the teacher and the school are both made to look stupid in these scenarios, and it behooves them (and us) to determine what can be done to bring sanity back into these situations.

Vietnam was still fresh in everyone's minds and talked about in school (Our teacher had someone she knew there, can't remember the relation to her though). This was like 1973/74.

We had tanks, guns, paratroopers, etc we would draw in our down time and play 'tank game' where you draw a tank and use your pencil to shoot at the opposing on (hold your finger on top of the pencil, apply pressure, and let it fly, mark the spot, next turn, etc).

Teachers smoked on the playground and in the lounge

The thing we were most afraid of was tornadoes. We had drills for those and fire.

Outside of that we did get into 'stranger danger' discussion in our patrol group (I was a crossing guard in 5th/6th grade and would walk a good distance away from school to help the other kids cross - this job is done by grown ups now).

We had baked goods our parents would send for birthdays. Sang Christmas and Hannukah songs. No state testing.

School was fun for the most part.

Now it is a business.

"Have you noticed there aren't as many homemade gifts given anymore? It's the Gun Grabbin' Liberals."

Those were the olden days. This is now.

I think it's fine for schools to discourage guns, pictures of guns and Lego guns if they want to. Not be heavy about it, just ask the child not to do that. Images of guns disturb others.

Not a lot to ask.

Guns have not changed but society has. Why and how?

in a big way. Not many people want to live in a country where you can get gunned down in a public place. The tipping point has been reached.

I would answer your question in more depth but I don't have time right now. If you or people in general can even ASK this question, then there is a whole lotta territory to cover. Suffice to say, a lot of people have had it up to HERE.

Life is not worth living if you have to be afraid to go out of the house--whether you carry a gun because of that, or not.

Legos today, machine guns tomorrow!!!!

Come on this is a kid and Legos ....

It's not surprising, but it makes it less likely that any decent gun control measures will be passed. It turns the gun control issue into a parody of itself. This story is one example of that.

A 5 year old is obviously not going to kill anyone (and wouldn't have the mental capacity to even contemplate it).

teacher or aide or whomever to sit down and help the child build something else - perhaps gently explain that making a gun isn't nice and there are so many other interesting and fun things to create?

They could have made it a learning moment instead of shrieking hysteria - with a note home to mom and dad that they should keep an eye on him and - again - encourage him to express himself in different ways.

Second paragraph:

Why couldn't they have just given the child a warning and let it go at that unless he did it again. Why send a formal letter of warning to his mother?

Addressing disruptive behavior with 5 year-olds is rough sledding on all fronts; a reasonable caregiver would be forgiven for thinking a parent might be an ally in helping change the behavior.

Rather than, for instance, heading to the local news with her story.

also it's dumb that the article did not address that contradiction. It shows they report on these things kind of mindlessly.

Sort of like >>> "Hey everyone, school wildly overreacts to perfectly normal childhood behavior".

The 5 year old probably was not trying to make a gun. He started stacking lego's, ended up with an L, and if you pick up that L shaped lego stack, it would have to become a gun.

He'd get a gig on FUX

and has been asked by his teacher to plan on selling them at a craft fair. I am a bit surprised because, even though the kid doing it had been working on it as an independent craft project, they were distributed to her art classmates as xmas presents the week after the CT massacre. Then for the teacher to suggest selling them at the student craft fair - I was thinking she needed some money to buy a clue and some sensitivity.

Truthfully, how can a kid use a freaking toy inappropriately unless he used the blocks to whack the kid over the head! Heck, 1/8th of any Toys-R-Us is filled with guns - no matter where you go. You have the action figures with weapons, then the dress up play sets to match the action figures that have full size weapons, then there is several rows of Nerf guns, Aqua Blasters, Cap guns, Super Soakers, Power Blasters, Airsoft, and Paintball guns, etc...

Among the many toys were army men, action figures etc.. Overall I think we have gone f*cking loco and bat shit paranoid. IMHO.

if it keeps you alive.

These days, when a school can easily become a war zone, you have to draw a line in the sand.

It's a good thing he was stopped before he built some bullets for it, or they'd all be dead.

But next thing you know they have banks of high-speed centrifuges cranking out fissile material high-yield tri-phase nuclear warheads that induce anti-proton sub-atomic singularity inductions that swallow the entire solar system.

Surely, you don't think the 2nd Amendment protects those, do you?

Legos are the gateway doomsday device.

This was a good call by the school.

This "zero tolerance" business is odious.

You can't even have toy guns?

Back when I was a kid, we had toy guns all the time. They didn't have the orange things on the ends of the barrels to show they're toys. Sometimes, they even shot projectiles. Usually not hard enough to damage people very much.

Most of the boys in my neighborhood all had toy gun and the more realistic the better. We would all play cops/robbers or war or any other number of things our young imaginations could come up with and typically have the arguments of "I shot you" "No you didn't". Many of us had a gun with a clip in the handle to put a strip of plastic caps to make to pop. When there was no more noise we were out of bullets and had to reload. Back when kids could be kids.

sometimes they have swords or bows or guns. I've told him that to make sure he doesn't draw guns at school because it could be taken wrong by some.

When he raised an eyebrow at me, I sat him down an explained that guns are a very sensitive topic and that besides, ninjas don't need guns. We don't have guns in our house, but I was concerned that his drawings could be taken wrong.

I used to draw pictures of deaths that today would make it into a Saw movie, and the teachers didn't bat an eye.

No, I didn't grow up to be a serial killer.

This makes a mockery of the real problem.

A 5-year old with Legos is innocent, and I'm surprised that anybody recognized what it was. He should have been praised for ingenuity then incouraged to make something like cars, planes, etc.

Poor kid. Poor parents..

You know, the Lego "bricks" that are actually plates that you can stack tons of smaller bricks on? They have no business being on the streets. I should know - I accidentally stepped on one of those little suckers while barefoot, and it hurt like Hell.

Warning: Lego Porn

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1702253

Okay, I understand the problem with guns and the concerns at schools. But we get a steady litany of these kinds of stories (not just about guns) where administrators seem to just blindly apply well-meaning rules in ridiculous, oppressive fashion.

Zero tolerance seems to come down to zero critical thinking.

Essentially a powergrab by water-cooler and playground dictators.

and the next person WILL want favorable treatment.

"That's why they're called EXEMPTIONS. I chose to give the last guy one. I don't have to give you one."

As if it is the rule and not the exception.

The school is prohibited by law from discussing the incident. As others have posted above, the parent "received a warning" (probably not a 'warning').

"Although her son had been in trouble a few weeks earlier for pointing his finger as if it were a gun, Cruz said she hadn't heard any other complaints about his behavior.

Joseph, who pointed the Lego gun at other students and made shooting sounds, received several verbal reminders that he must be safe and respectful before he was formally reprimanded, Barnstable schools Superintendent Mary Czajkowski said Tuesday.

“At least five verbal reminders of proper, respectful and safe behavior were given,” she said.
Other students became uncomfortable and moved away from Joseph because of his behavior, she said.
School officials reacted appropriately in issuing the reprimand, Czajkowski said"


Cape Cod Times.

A child is making gun gestures at me! I am so uncomfortable! Call the police!!!

The people that were uncomfortable were 5 yr old children. The teachers have an obligation to protect them. I agree that some 5 yr old pointing a gun at an adult would not elicit fear, but we have scared our children death in this country with everything. "Call the police" is also a far cry from a written letter to the parent stating that your child has not been obeying the rules. This is the result of our society trying to cocoon our children from the world, they are ruled and regulated into submission. One size fits all rules, usually bad rules.

My friends and I were making gun gestures and bang-bang noises (or pew-pew noises - we were all into Star Wars), pointing toy guns at each other, and engaging in endless hours of pretend violence. Nobody was "uncomfortable."

Bomb squad was called in just to be safe.

But it's not as simple as it seems. Everyone saying, "Well, in my day we..." is missing the larger picture.

We have a more violent culture than before. We have greater population densities and our schools are hopelessly underfunded.

All these things play into the impetus to develop zero-tolerance policies.

I'm not agreeing with them, mind you, but stepping back and observing why officials move in that direction becomes a little clearer when you look at all the factors involved.

Dialog between teacher and student

Teacher: "You're gonna get your mind right--and I mean right"
Student: Don't hit me anymore...Oh God, I pray to God you don't hit me anymore. I'll do anything you say, but I can't take anymore.
Teacher: You got your mind right, Luke?
Student: Yeah. I got it right. I got it right, boss. (He grips the ankles of the teacher)
Teacher: Suppose you's back-slide on us?
Student: Oh no I won't. I won't, boss.
Teacher: Suppose you's to back-sass?
Student: No I won't. I won't. I got my mind right.
Teacher: You draw a picture of a gun again, we gonna kill ya.
Student: I won't, I won't, boss.

Mr. Mackey's of the world unite.