Way OT- Punishment

At my school, a young man who is in the 11th grade (junior) brought a pellet gun to school, and it was found by the janitor and football coach while they were cleaning up the locker room.

The school handbook calls for a suspension of at least one calendar year, he got 180 school days, or 1 school year.

What do you guys think? He isn"t a bad kid, I played football with him for the past two years. Dad thinks it"s too strick, it was just a pellet gun. But then again, a rule is a rule.

So what do you guys think?

But.....I remember when I was in High School not THAT long ago (Class of 1981), on Fridays in the fall, I played right guard on the football team. After the game (and sometimes) dance, I left for my uncles place 3 hours away for the next morning's deer hunting. Many, many times, I had my .35 Rem. caliber Marlin in the rear window of my 1968 Ford pickup in the gunrack, in the parking lot at school, and my hunting knife, in its scabbard, lying on the seat. It was one of many pickups like that, so it was totally unnoticed. Also, since I was about 10, I carried a small pocket knife every day, school or not.

I guess the times have totally changed....

Tommy D.

Way bak in the day, some kid brought a pellet gun to school here before it was a 'crime'. He accidentally let it shoot in the cafeteria, hit one of the lunch ladies in the ear and cost her the hearing in it. That lasts a lot longer than 180 days.

On the other hand the chances of him continuing high school after this incident are pretty low, maybe a year is alittle harsh, and he should have counceling instead. Basically nobody wants a shooting, and the school is covering themselves by booting him for a year and the school wants to get across to everyone and even make an example out of him that weapons are not tolerated, period. If they went lightly on him then there would be guns in the school.

Dug

Here in Western Wayne County we had a high school science teacher take a pellet gun into school for a science class demonstration. Someone saw him carrying the long gun into school and called police. There were helicopters, fire engines, rescue squads, police all over the campus in a matter of minutes. The campus has about 5,000 students which had to be secured by a school lock down while the police located the weapon. The school has a zero tolerance policy. I believe the teacher has been let go.

A friend’s son took a Swiss Army pocket knife to high school by accident as it was in his pants pocket from the Sunday before. It was one of those knives that is about 1-3/4 inches long and has a little blade that is about 1-1/4 inch long and a little scissors attached. His son compounded the stupidity by showing the knife to another student. He was expelled. The sad end to this is that several years later while attending a university in Ypsilanti he went to a party and was knifed to death by another person attending the same party. He was just in the way of another argument at the party.

A school administrator said that about 2% of the entire student body is responsible for 100% of the trouble that occurs at the school. Teachers have been attacked and teacher’s cars ruined in the parking lot. They can’t relax the rules for one and enforce the rules on another. It has to be a hard and fast response to any action which could lead to trouble. They have a dedicated security force of approximately 14 guards on site.

The major auto company with which I was employed was very relaxed about what went on in the work place. They had trouble with spouses coming into the plants and shooting their spouse over a lovers quarrel. They also had trouble with disgruntled employees coming into the plants and going on a killing spree. They have really tightened their policies now. My daughter works for the same company now and said that if you swear in a meeting it is grounds for dismissal.

Sit up, take notice, and get accustomed to the stricter policies as these behaviors which were allowed in the past will no longer be tolerated in our society. These policies do not take away freedoms but insure the decent and respectable treatment of others in our society.

Have seen personally kids with BB's and pellets lodged in their livers, skulls, extremities, etc. Eyes that have been shot through. A pellet lodged in a dead kids heart. But, "it was just a pellet or BB gun". It may not be a .22 but it can do damage or cause death.

I also own many guns. But, I have sent my kids to gun safety classes and tried my best to educate them. It starts at home.

As for the schools side. The board that is elected by the people, have been charged with educating and protecting your children while at school. If that is how strict the policy needs to be then support the rules or get elected to the board and change them.

Schools are a lot safer now then they were in the mid 1950's or the 60's when I was in school. Far fewer fights, far fewer stabbings, far fewer shootings. This trend started long before the Columbine hysteria, and is not the result of the knee jerk "liberonormative" rules and information that this typifies.

And, I'll bet the safety book says "firearms", which as we all know it ain't.

AND one last sentence in the rant:

"Those who are willing to sacrifice freedom for a little safety deserve neither."

A tip of the Taler Fedora to BF for the proper adjective. Dang it, tripped when I stepped off the soapbox.

I think they should deal with it seriously. No kid in this day and age brings ANY weapon to school without a reason. If it were my kids school I would be up there demanding a very strong position be taken.

I have four teenage boys, and let me tell you one thing - thinking things all the way through before taking action IS NOT one of their strong points!

Respectfully,
Dan

This is the same school that another kid brought a loaded 44 magnum in one day because some girls were picking on him and he wanted to let them know that he was getting sick of it.

What to do.

"it was just a pellet gun"

Geezs that sounds awful close too
"the gun wasn't loaded after it discharged and shot Johnny"

A typical pellet weapon has the same power as a .22cal short and that's the pump type action and not the Co2 version.

The young man was fully aware there was a zero tolerance rule to weapons at school. There wasn't a school firearms class nor did he have premission to have such weapon at school.

So please explain to me what then was his "good" intention for having the weapon at at school? Answer: There is not a good excuse or a reason that can be justified so one has to believe his intention was to do harm to some one but got caught before he could carry that out.

He's lucky that 180days is all he got as I would have not let him back in, period.

And no, I'm not anti-gun, I'm just the opposite, but to intentionaly bring a firearm to a known loction with zero tolerance, shows this person does not ever need to process another weapon. He HAS problems that needs to be addressed with professional help.

T_Bone

Would you feel as strong about someone drinking and driving as the boy in this instance? Shouldn't someone in that instance have their license revoked forever?

Wow, you ask hard questions!

I had already had to address this original thread question at my home this past Christmas, so my response was based off that experience.

My Grandchildern had broken into our home and stole cash and a gun. I feel partialy responsible for the cash as I made a huge mistake. I let the Kids be present when I opened the locked cash box. Not being careful enough about the combination, one of them spotted the numbers. I got the firearm back but no cash.

Now the firearm is a awhole different ball game. When I took the kids out to teach them about firearm safety, I've been shooting with them for 8yrs or so, I told them that they could make mistakes and learn from them while target shooting around me but if they took it upon themselfs to handle a firearm without adult supervision and made a mistake then they were never to target pratice or hunt with me again.

I now have to stick to that decision I made long ago as my Grandkids need serious professional help as it goes well beyond petty theft and B&E. I Now just have to convience the parents they need help but you know how that go's as "there" kids would never do anything wrong!

My son & daughter was also advised when the got there driver license that if they used illegal drugs or was caught DUI, either by me or by the law, that I alone would suspend there driving privilages until they left home and longer if I was asked if they should get them back.

However I told both of them if they ever needed a ride home there would be a no questions asked ride home but we would have to discuss the issue with no penaltys asscessed. My point being, I did not want them ever to drive under the influence nor ride with someone DUI.

After they both left home I always stated I would be more than happy to pay for a cab ride to there home, again no questions asked.

So from that if either one of my kids was to get a DUI, I would surley hope they could never drive again and that is what I would expect from a total stranger that received a DUI.

The city of Phoenix has adopted a simular plan with good results, no questions asked and "free" ride home. To bad we still have over 1200? DUI's each year on a holiday.

If someone is gonna drink, use drugs, etc; there's just no excuse to DUI.

T_Bone

I don't agree with zero tolerance policies, but the schools have them anyway. Didn't he know that? A junior in high school should have known better than to pull a STUPID stunt like that. In this day and age, no court in the country will rule against the school in a case like this, no matter if no harm was intended or not.

Now he will learn about a thing called "consequences for his actions". It's a shame that he didn't think a little before hand.

As the story went, he had a rubberband around his wrist, and the teacher told him to bring it up to his/her desk. Kid must've been popping it or something, I'd guess. The next part is in debate. The kid said he tossed it up to the teacher. The teacher said he shot it up/at him/her, which could've put his/her eye out, resulting in a "Class 4 Suspension" for using a weapon, in that school system, the same as if had used a gun or a knife. In my opinion, if he did shoot it up at the teacher, the teacher could've and should've belted him out of the chair, but my opinion isn't the law.

Then there was the little kindergarten kid a few months back that was suspended for "drawing" a gun on a piece of paper, then pointing it at other kids.

I'm kind've thinking that neither of those were based upon any federal laws or statutes. This kid here? Brought a pellet gun to school? Not a very smart thing to do. Is going to pay the price for that one, regardless. More parents should home school anyway, if they can get by with it.

Mark

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We can, in part, blame the kid who failed to follow a black-and-white rule.

Of course, we can also blame a society that's allowing such nonsense to begin with.

The reaction to incidents like Columbine become an almost fanatical overreaction to the other degree. School boards & administrators who are much more comfortable living in a world of black and white, "This is the rule, you broke it, goodbye" then a world of grays, situations, and good (gulp) judgement.

Then we wonder it seems fewer and fewer people can exercise good judgement when at every turn we try to make rules, regulations, and laws blacker and whitier and stricter...maybe if you have never had to exercise judgement in a situation, you never learn to use judgement.

It's a pretty useful tool and despite being bullied almost my entire time at school I never even thought about cutting someone with it.

And hay, don"cha be to quik ta put tha home schoolin kid down,ever stop ta think he may have an outstanding vocabulary and spellin ability??? One reason I took early retirement was having to write for Graduate,licensed Engineers who were not capable of doing so.