Florida boy accused of assault with rubber band

Drudge ^ | 2/23/05 | WKMG Local 6

[pageonetoo]

A 13-year-old student in Orange County, Fla., was suspended for 10 days and could be banned from school over an alleged assault with a rubber band, according to a Local 6 News report.

Robert Gomez, a seventh-grader at Liberty Middle School, said he picked up a rubber band at school and slipped it on his wrist.

Gomez said when his science teacher demanded the rubber band, the student said he tossed it on her desk.

After the incident, Gomez received a 10-day suspension for threatening his teacher with what administrators say was a weapon, Local 6 News reported.

[pageonetoo]

Idiots...

[Calpernia]

Ow, this gave me a headache.

[nuconvert]

Could have shot her eye out...........

[glock rocks]

Too bad the science "teacher" didn't demand his science book... or are kids still allowed books?

[Zeppelin]

I've always thought rubber was a form of protection, not a weapon. Huh.

[Professional Engineer]

Cripes, my classmates and I would've received life without possibility of parole for the stuff we did.

[Skooz]

If the schools reacted like this in the 1960s-1970s, every male in my school would have been expelled.

[Kramster]

Just when ya' think you heard it all.

Sheesh.

[pageonetoo]

Yeah, and you can grow warts from some things...

[SalukiLawyer]

I doubt this is the full story. I bet he actually LOOPED ONE END OVER HIS THUMB and PULLED IT BACK with the other hand while POINTING IT IN HER DIRECTION. Or, since he had it, he could have easily done that, which is almost as bad.

[LongElegantLegs]

Hmm, now how does the song go...

Rubber Band man,

Wild as the Taliban,

Nine in my right,

.45 In my other hand...

Maybe she mistook the rubber band for a forty-five?

[mlmr]

Unfortunatly, this is normal 7th grade behavior. What is wrong with the teachers and administrations in this country?

[green pastures]

"Rojas said she was shocked to learn that her son was being punished for a Level 4 offense -- the highest Level at the school. Other violations that also receive level 4 punishment include arson, assault and battery, bomb threats and explosives, according to the Code of Student Conduct."

Gosh, what level of offense would it be if a kid says, "I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you..."?

Sigh.

[Cowman]

Assault with a stretchy weapon?

[Servant of the 9]

And teachers wonder why they get no respect.

So9

[TotusTuus]

I once made a rubber band powered car for a science contest ...

[Willie Green]

I'm going to side with the teacher on this one, simply because the kid is at that age where they think they can get away with anything.
Heck, 7^th Grade???
I bet he actually shot the rubber band and stung her butt.
Now the little weasel is lying to get momma to protect her little "angel".

Nope, seen this TOO many times before.
Gotta nip it in the bud.

[not_apathetic_anymore]

Cripes, my classmates and I would've received life without possibility of parole for the stuff we did.

Yep. We probably woule have been arrested for arson given the tricks we did with bunsen burners and homecooked gunpowder in the chem lab.

I'd kind of like to teach as a second career...but after the stuff I did, I'd never be able to be around a bunch of ~17 year olds in a chem lab without being sedated :)

[jigsaw]

The source of this story is: ZeroIntelligence: Fighting School Board Inanity Since 2004

This www.zerointelligence website looks wonderful!

[Republican Wildcat]

Gomez said when his science teacher demanded the rubber band, the student said he tossed it on her desk.

Shot it at her more likely. Ten days suspension seems most appropriate if that is the case.

[Teacher317]

You nailed it! The rubber band must have looked like an evil gun. As we all know, in California, it isn't the weapon so much as the appearance of the weapon that is important!

[carolinablonde]

When I was in the 7th grade, my best friend and I would shoot the rubber bands off our braces and hit our English teacher in the forehead. He would do the Homer Simpson slap on the head and look around to try and figure out where it had come from.

He never did.

I guess today we would have been arrested.

[mouse_35]

Well, if rubber bands are weapons, and weapons are not allowed on school property, the teacher needs to be fired for having a weapon in the classroom.

[PilloryHillary]

Geez! The kid should be disciplined, but expulsion is too harsh! How about a one day suspension or school detention for a day? Has this boy been in trouble before? Has the kid acted violent towards others in the past? Talk about overkill. Sheesh!

[Dan from Michigan]

WTF?

I used to shoot "hornets" with rubber bands. Worst I got was them being taken away.

[pageonetoo]

These are different times...

[green pastures]

Yeah, probably. But the teacher did ask for it (the rubberband, that is).

And yeah, he could of poked her eye out. But the same level of offense that includes arson, bomb threats and explosives?

Seems like there could be more levels of distinction. I'd much rather have a student pull a rubberband on me than a knife or a gun.

[ladylib]

Go to zerointelligence.net to read about some of the asinine crap that goes on in today's public schools. Public school officials are beginning to look like flaming you-know-what's.

My favorite incident this month is the first grader who was suspended for "drugs."

[DTogo]

If this were a female gym teacher in Tennessee, the 13 year-old student might have been asked to tie her up with it. ;)

[F16Fighter]

I guess spitballs are out as well?

[Dan from Michigan]

I have to wonder if they found that hole in the wall. When the teacher left the room, I launched a thick pencil at some joker irking me, missed, and put a hole in the wall.

Statue of limitations is up now(that was 13 years ago), so I can say that.

[evets]

[Mears]

You got that right- I have 3 sons that would have been fined,jailed,or worse! LOL

A rubber band,for God's sake. Will that be the next thing banned?

[Cowman]

I once made a rubber band powered car for a science contest


Did it look like this?

[politicalwit]

Try asking...here's the principals email address:

gonzale3@ocps.net

Elisha Gonzales-Bonnewitz

[Dead Corpse]

How the heck did we fall this far this fast? School administrators like this make me wish that stupidity was actually painful.

[PISANO]

NEA = Not Exactly Adults.

[wingman1]

"Cripes, my classmates and I would've received life without possibility of parole for the stuff we did."

Me too.

We had a music teacher who, while singing, would walk up and down the aisles. I threw a straight pin at her that miraculously stuck in her hind end. To the amazement of my fellow pupils, I crept up behind her and pulled the pin back out of her dress without her noticing.

[taxcontrol]

I disagree - drop the guy for 20 push ups in front of the class. Embarrassment is the worst thing you can do to a male student.

[pageonetoo]

Shot it at her more likely. Ten days suspension seems most appropriate if that is the case.

Ten days? For shooting a rubber band? What should he get for looking up a little girls skirt on the stairs?

[Teacher317]

You know, even then I think 10 days suspension is a bit much. I had a high schooler throw pennies at me (didn't catch him until the third one... I was slow that day), and I just gave him 3 days of after-school detention.

Now, if he had hit someone (especially another student), I might think about going beyond that... but only if they were actually injured or really peeved off about it.

[snarks_when_bored]

We're now at the 'zero-tolerance for aggression' stage of our little political correctness social experiment.

In the land of the non-aggressive, the mildly pissed off are kings queens monarchs.

[Blue Jays]

Hi All-

"...Nope, seen this TOO many times before. Gotta nip it in the bud..."

---

Willie, did you forget the [/sarcasm] tags? This so-called "crime" with a rubber band doesn't deserve a ten-day suspension from school.

Nip it in the bud you say? Sure, the teacher could walk over to the little puke and snatch it out of his hand. If he gives the teacher any lip, he can cool his heels in after-school suspension for a week. That is the penalty you use to crimp a kid's style...while all his friends are out for the day, the little punk has to sit quietly in the auditorium until 3:30 p.m.

Don't be part of that silly, emasculating, zero-tolerance crap.

~ Blue Jays ~

[Dan from Michigan]

Oh. Let's put this in perspecting. I got 3 days for saying "F#$k This" in response to a weak detention I got. It was dumb and I fully admit that I deserved that one.

Telling a teacher to F'off is 10 years. This rubber band BS is the same level at that.

[TotusTuus]

"Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on - two years ago on
Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the restaurant, ...

Somebody send this kid over to the Group W bench!

[green pastures]

So that was you!






[/just kidding]

[WestTexasWend]

Pulling rubber bands ~ BAD!

Pulling feeding tubes ~ OKAY!

[Larry Lucido]

Good thing it wasn't a spitball. They would have had the biohazard team out to cordon off the area.

[armyman]

WTF!!??
A rubber band a weapon? This is insane. Are pens and pencils next on the list of weapons? what about books? what about notebooks? Heck ANYTHING can be considered a wepon by the schools these days.
I don't think I could make it in the modern school system. My key chain was a full sized climbing carbiner, would that be a weapon these days?