Posted on 08/22/2007 12:48:50 PM PDT by redstates4ever
Chandler school officials have suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching a picture that resembled a gun, saying it posed a threat to classmates.
But parents of the Payne Junior High School student said the drawing was a harmless doodle of a fake laser, and school officials overreacted.
"I just can't believe that there wasn't another way to resolve this," said Paula Mosteller, the boy's mother. "He's so upset. The school made him feel like he committed a crime. They are doing more damage than good."
The Mostellers said the drawing did not show blood, bullets, injuries, or target any human. They said it was just a drawing that resembled a gun.
But Payne Junior High administrators thought the sketch was enough of a threat and gave the boy a five-day suspension, later reduced to three days.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I remember a particularly epic picture of mine being confiscated by a junior high teacher. It was inspired by the Battle of Midway, featuring strafing Zeroes, hip-fired machine guns and much decapitation. The teacher was unmoved by the content, but merely threw it away because I was wasting time in class. I quietly liberated my masterpiece from the wastebasket after the bell.
I didn’t have to defend myself, since all of us boys were the same way, except perhaps the “funny” ones. We were expected to be bloodthirsty little savages. I suppose I could have claimed it was a Spielbergian ode to the horrors of war, but since “Jaws” hadn’t even come out yet, no one would have gotten it.
One of my specialties was Abomb mushroom clouds. I turned in a well drawn sketch of a person looking out a door in horror at a mushroom cloud in the distance.
I called it “A-bomb calling” which was a play on words for “Avon calling”.
I think I got an A for it. Long time ago, obviously. They would probably chain me to the pipes in the boiler room now a days.
The world is being run by a bunch of pansies. And at 45 I ain’t that old.
We’re studying physics for science and the civil war for history. I found an online book about weapons in war. I think my children should sketch a gun now.
I had all kinds of toy guns when I was a kid. I didn’t like them because they didn’t ‘look’ exactly like the ‘real’ ones I’d see in the Westerns. (I’ve always been a realist).
So I grew up loving the history of the Civil War and the American West. And I now have an 1886 Winchester and a Colt 1861 Army Model on my walls. Now they look right. :)
I can’t imagine many kids today going out into the woods and playing much of anything today, let alone with guns and playing war. Some, perhaps, but not many. Yet I recall bringing my cap guns to school when I was little. Other kids did also. No big deal. And no one would ever even think of suspension for such an innocent thing. That’s ridiculous.
“That looks like a drawing of a skool building to me. He’s already damaged beyond repair. /s”
It looks like a school bus with a grip, or maybe a Desert Eagle.
Oh for cryin’ out loud.
The kid should have just draw a picture of two men french-kissing each other - the”school officals” would have praised THAT.
When I went to middle school, I would have had to almost literally beat the crap out of a classmate to get a five-day.
Well, that would be automatic extra credit, don’tcha know...
Sad, but true. The good news, in my neck of the woods, is that I have a large area to myself for target practice. ;-)
I drew highways and road maps a lot in high school. Would that get me punished for “paving over America” these days?
My son was very good at sketching drawings of the real thing..big military weapons.. while in Jr High and High School..
Thank goodness teachers did not considered it a threat back then but an activity worthy of admiration...
He now is married with children and not planning an deadly insurrection any time soon....
I expect the BATF mave move HARD and FAST against this child.
Could these morons do something about what really poses a threat to classmates, big kids who like to beat the crap out of smaller kids? It happens a lot in junior high school, and smaller kids usually get in the same trouble for "fighting" as the ones who beat them up.
OMG! I would have had to beat someone half to death with a baseball bat to get two weeks back in my day.
Hang the administrator he/she is a public menace
I’m a year younger than you, and I can’t understand this stupidity, either.
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