Free Republic

A museum in Lynden, Wash. has decided to return 11 World World II-era rifles to their owners because of a state law passed earlier this month that requires background checks on gun transfers. The Lynden Pioneer Museum will comply with the law, Initiative 594, rather than fight it, The Bellingham Herald reports. The museum’s exhibit, “Over the Beach: The WWII Pacific Theater,” had the 11 rifles on display along with photographs and journals from the era as well as military vehicles and radios. It will continue until May 1, but without the guns. “The museum will be returning these guns...

Da'von Shaw, a Bedford, Ohio high school student, brought apples and craisins to school for a "healthy eating" presentation he was giving to his speech class. He took out a knife to slice an apple, and I'm sure you can all guess what happened next: “When I took out the knife the teacher then told me that I couldn't use it, so I didn't hesitate I just gave it to her,” said Da'von. He continued with his other classes, but late in the day was suspended for five days. The suspension letter charged him with having a weapon at school....

An elementary school in Mobile, Alabama forced a 5-year-old student to sign a "safety contract" promising not to kill herself or anyone else because the girl allegedly pointed a crayon at another student and said, "pew pew." The girl's mother was summoned to E.R. Dickson Elementary school and told that her daughter had drawn something that resembled a gun and pretended to shoot with the crayon. The mother told Local 15 News that while she waited in the lobby and without her consent, the school gave her daughter a questionnaire evaluating her for depression and suicidal thoughts, and finally forced...

Guns and rumors of guns aren’t the only things that will cause schools to go into lockdown mode. Costumes – complete with plastic sword – apparently will do it, too.Four schools in Onslow County, North Carolina were sent into police lockdown when a cafeteria worker panicked when the employee saw someone dressed like a pirate.It was “International Talk Like A Pirate Day” and one school employee apparently decided to take it one step further.A staff member reported seeing a “suspicious person” – the “pirate” – approaching the school and called police.“The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office said that ‘suspicious person’ turned...

Woodruff, S.C. - 7 On Your Side was contacted by several upset parents who say Woodruff High School students were made to take down American flags from their vehicles on September 11. Spartanburg District 4 Superintendent Rallie Liston said four students arrived at the school Thursday morning with U.S. flags propped up on poles in their pickup truck beds. The school's principal, Aaron Fulmer, confiscated the flags because he said it is against district policy to “draw attention” to one's vehicle. The flags were returned to the students at the end of the day. The students were not punished. Fulmer...

Sherwood, who has served in the Army for 24 years, was told by Rochester Adams High School security that if he wanted to get into the school with his daughter he was going to have to go home and change his clothes. Baker's wife Rachel Ferhadson says, "Before he was allowed in, the security guard stopped him and said sorry you're not allowed in the school. Security told him men and women in uniform weren't allowed because it may offend another student."

ROCHESTER, Mich. (WJBK) - Lieutenant colonel Sherwood Baker was just a father trying to help his daughter find her way at her new high school. Sherwood who has served in the Army for 24 years was told by Rochester Adams high school security that if he wanted to get into the high school with his daughter he was going to have to go home and change his clothes. Baker's wife Rachel Ferhadson says, "before he was allowed in, the security guard stopped him and said sorry you're not allowed in the school. Security told him men and women in uniform...

Banning a student from saying “bless you” when another student sneezes and threatening punishment is against the law, warns a constitutional lawyer in a letter to school officials in Dyer County, Tennessee. “It is unlawful for a school official to kick a student out of class for quietly blessing another student after she sneezes,” says the letter to Supt. Dwight Hedge from Jeremiah Dys, senior counsel for the nonprofit legal organization Liberty Institute. Kendra Turner said she was suspended Aug. 18 by her teacher, Eva Kindle, at Dyer County High School, who said that kind of “godly speaking” is only...

North Carolina Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood declared the state’s the Opportunity Scholarship program unconstitutional. The program provided funds for poor children to attend the same private schools attended by their financially better off peers. “Allowing these children to exit the failing public school system undermines the incentive and capability for improving the public schools,” Hobgood ruled. “It would put the good of the few ahead of the collective well-being of the whole. By preventing the few from escaping we maintain the pressure for reform of the system.” Hobgood rejected the argument that allowing students to exit substandard schools would...

Now that summer is over and school is starting up again, it's time for the torrent of ridiculous "zero tolerance" suspensions and arrests to resume. Summerville High School in Summerville, South Carolina, is wasting no time: A 16-year-old student was arrested and suspended for writing a story in which he used a gun to kill a dinosaur. The student, Alex Stone, was assigned by a teacher to write a story about himself. Stone chose to embellish his story with obviously fictional details, like dinosaurs. But the teacher saw the word "gun" and the rest is history, according to NBC-12: Stone...

<p>I received a call from my sons’ school in March telling me that my oldest needed to be picked up early. He had been given a one-day suspension because he had thrown a chair. He did not hit anyone, but he could have, the school officials told me.</p>

There was a time in America when the first priority of our schools was educating our children. That's no longer the case. Today, schools are primarily job programs for the unions and indoctrination centers for the Left. The great teachers in our schools are now used as cover for the mediocrities, the overpaid administrators, and the blatant attempts to force feed liberalism to children before they become experienced enough to recognize all the problems associated with it. Since the Left has been losing the public battle to curtail the 2nd Amendment, liberals started fighting it in a place where they...

An investigation has found that an elementary school principal in Baltimore who suspended a seven-year-old boy for chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun acted properly in her decision. However the boy's family has lawyered up, and are threatening to take the case further. Josh Welch, a second-grader at Park Elementary School, said he was trying to nibble his strawberry breakfast snack into a mountain in March 2013. But when it started to take shape he reportedly told his classmates: 'Look, I made a gun.' Principal Sandra Blondell then removed Josh from school for two days. Andrew...

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- An assistant superintendent for the Dysart Unified School District defends calling a kindergartner's actions "sexual misconduct." Five-year-old Eric Lopez pulled his pants down on the playground at Ashton Ranch Elementary School last Spring and received a punishment of detention for what the school has deemed sexual misconduct. Eric now has a note that will remain in his permanent file for the duration he attends Dysart schools. His mother was not notified of the incident or the note her son signed in the assistant principal's office until after the fact. District policy states that a parent does not...

The “zero-tolerance” policy has become pretty insane in recent years, with school officials drastically over-reacting to kids being, well, normal kids. In one incident last year, a little boy in Maryland chewed his Pop-tart into the shape of a gun, and the adults in his school went ballistic. Legislators in Florida are pushing back against the madness by passing a “Pop-tart bill.”

WEBSTER, Texas -- A Webster man says his apartment complex manager told him his American flag was a “threat to the Muslim community,” and that he has to take it down. But he’s not giving up without a fight. Stepping onto Duy Tran's balcony in Webster, one thing is clear: "It means a lot to me," he said. He's talking about his American flag that he proudly put up when he moved in just a few days ago. But then an apartment manager at the Lodge on El Dorado told him he had to take it down. "What really stunned...

Another little boy has gotten in trouble at school for having something that represents a gun but isn’t actually anything like a real gun. This time, eight-year-old Asher Palmer rolled up a piece of paper, called it a gun and pointed it at other kids, reports the New York Post. Officials at the special-needs school in New York City which Palmer attended then expelled him. The school is the Lang School, a ritzy private bastion which specializes in educating students with language difficulties. Annual tuition is $51,500. “Asher is exactly the type of student Lang is supposed to be serving,”...

( headline Dad Refuses to Take His Son for Psych Evaluation After Harmless School Incident. Then He Received a Letter That Left Him in Disbelief ) A New Jersey father defended his son, Ethan, after a simple pencil-swirling incident nearly resulted in the boy’s suspension earlier this year because a classmate claimed he was spinning it like a “gun.” Following intense media scrutiny, school officials reportedly backed off and it looked like the situation would just blow over. Then Michael Chaplin says he received a stunning letter from New Jersey’s Department of Child Protection and Permanency and Department of Children...

A San Antonio mother is furious because officials at her 10-year-old daughter’s elementary school banned sunscreen during a recent school field trip. Guess what happened. Of course, the poor kid came home crispily sunburned, reports local ABC affiliate KSAT. To make matters worse, mad mom Christy Riggs said skin cancer runs in her family — and her father who had it passed away recently. At issue is a district policy which prohibits kids from bringing sunscreen anywhere on school grounds. Riggs strongly disagrees with it. North East Independent School District spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor defended the policy because, she said, the...

A little boy is in trouble for a picture he drew as part of a school assignment. Second grader Kody Smith was assigned to go outside, look at the clouds, and then use his imagination to draw what he saw. "Draw a picture of what you see in the clouds from your imagination and that picture is a gun,” explained 8-year-old Kody. Because it was a gun, the teacher at Talbott Elementary in Widefield called him into the office, and then filed a behavior report. His parents say that's too much. “It hurts. It hurts that he was so scared...