“They’re saying it was a fake weapon and that I need to come get her,” said the unidentified Colorado mother of a five-year-old girl who was suspended after bringing a clear, plastic, princess-themed bubble gun to school because she likes bubbles. “I appreciate that they’re trying to keep our kids safe, I really do. But there needs to be some common sense.”
A Brighton, Colorado, School District 27J spokesman refused interview requests, but told an ABC affiliate by email that the kindergartner’s suspension was “consistent with our district policy.”
That policy targets fake ‘guns’ which could be reasonably mistaken for actual weapons — but the district almost inarguably crossed the line into the absurd with a plastic, princess bubble gun.
Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, executive director of the ACLU of Colorado cited by the ABC affiliate, called such incidents a ‘national embarrassment’ — citing another five-year-old’s suspension in 2013 for a ‘Hello Kitty’ gun, another student for shaping his breakfast pastry like a gun, and a third where a student landed a suspension over pointing their finger like a gun.
It would appear overprotection has turned to outright paranoia, if not complete abandonment of reason. Could any reasonable threat be assumed from a plastic gun emblazoned with a princess theme — which shoots only soapy water?
On Tuesday, the school attempted to abate criticism with a statement about the girl’s suspension:
While we hear and understand the parents of this student being concerned about this discipline in light of the student’s age and type of item, this suspension is consistent with our district policy as well as how Southeast has handled similar situations throughout this school year. This has involved similar situations where students have brought items such as Nerf guns to school and also received one-day suspensions. The bringing of weapons, real or facsimile, to our schools by students can not only create a potential safety concern but also cause a distraction for our students in the learning process. Our schools, particularly Southeast because of past instances with students bringing fake weapons to school, make a point of asking parents to be partners in making sure students are not bringing these items to school. this includes asking parents to check backpacks.
Calling a plastic bubble gun even a facsimile of a weapon defies common sense, logic, reason, and the limits of intelligence. Our culture has, perhaps — and in no small part due to the war against the concept of terrorism — has coddled itself right into a laughable preposterousness.
In 1954, Indiana Conservation Officer Rod Rankin reacted to a growing number of children killed in careless firearm accidents by implementing a permission-based gun safety course for school students. The argument he employed still rings true now, particularly in light of such absurd fear of guns — education, in combination with a healthy respect for weapons, will reduce fascination and increase awareness and safety for any child who encounters a gun.
Though his plan certainly garnered critics, many students learned the safe and responsible use and storage of firearms, particularly, “never point a gun at anybody, even in play, and always check immediately to see if the gun is loaded,” as Life Magazine described that year.
But Colorado’s suspension of a kindergartner for an object about which it would take an enormous leap of logic to describe as a fake weapon counters anything to do with safety — or weapons.
Just because the district boasts the student’s suspension is consistent with others for similar incidents — a Nerf gun? — doesn’t make the policy any less a foray into the absurd.
In 2013, Huffington Post listed six highly suspect suspensions for so-called fake weapons brought to school by young children.
A seven-year-old Maryland second-grader was suspended for nibbling a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun. Another in the same state for a bright red cap gun — which, though the suspension was lifted, inexcusably remains on the student’s record. That student’s mother told the Washington Post her child was interrogated for two hours over the incident — which understandably scared him to the point he wet himself.
In Pennsylvania, a five-year-old girl caught a suspension for a bright pink-and-yellow Hello Kitty bubble gun. An eight-year-old in Florida was suspended — for playing cops and robbers. He pointed his finger at another student during the game, saying ‘pow pow.’
Perhaps most dystopically telling of all, two Virginia middle school students were suspended for a full year for playing with airsoft guns — at one of the student’s homes. A supposedly concerned neighbor called the cops — despite the fact she claimed she knew the guns were fake, which she told the dispatcher. What excuse, then, could she possibly have used to call police in that incident?
This is what happens when a cowed culture allows the State to decide what’s best — as if we, as a people, somehow possibly couldn’t parse that out on our own. It’s ludicrous. It’s nonsensical. And it needs to be reined in before a single other kindergarten’s record is permanently tarnished because of cultural paranoia surrounding guns.
Education and rationality, not confiscation and wholly unjustified fear, is key to gun policy — and to generally helping the U.S. get a grip
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Claire Bernish writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.
Zero weapon policy, knew it was not a weapon because the school said fake weapon. First, a firearm is not a weapon unless a projectile from the firearm is used to kill someone. The parents should sue everyone who had anything to do with this BS!!!!
If I had been the teacher, I would have just told her to put the gun away until recess time, and focus her attention on the leftist propaganda on her desk.
Nice. :-))
LOL!!!
IDIOTS!…period…end of story….welcome to to the Thought Police / Police State…be sure to rat out your neighbors at the slightest ‘irregularity’ that you observe from your kitchen window.. You mindless shit-4-brains conspiracy theorists!….also gotta question WHY this NO-mind /IQ of a fence post ‘teacher’ …then the principal …then the police… responded to this TERRORIST in the first place???….talk about dumbed down paranoia from hopelessly entrained sleep waking /trance-state… ‘Hypnozombed’ morons…Unfuknbeeleevable!
Yeah, you can take out a sharp Nr 2 pencil and stab someone with it, just as long as it doesn’t resemble a gun.
Hahaha….I think they may be doing away with pencils though….seems everyone is using computers in classrooms these days.
I really don’t like coming here accept to see the imbecile comments from people that really don’t know that the AP is being used to enrage the opposition to the global government that has risen. It plays well into their plans.
Nice cover picture Claire. Kudos on a job well done.
that would be ‘except’ unless you’re an imbecile (lol)
Yes, thank you for the English correction. Ever since I first discovered AP. I have seen you trolling through just about every article I have ever skimmed here. You are still commenting on a lot of articles here on AP. I’m thinking either you are one of the (dis)information agents that are a part of the problem here or just some troll that is addicted to the Activist Post’s hyper/sensationalism. Probably the latter, right? 😉 Getting your doomgasm?
hahahaha!….so you took my advice & changed the spelling of ‘accept’ -to->’except’….along with predictable inane arrogant over-compensatory mud-slinging……from someone who just had his pants pulled down after displaying pathetic ‘top-dog’ know-it-all arrogance…point your finger & there’s 3 more pointing backatcha…get a life pea brain.
Yep, I called it correctly. Thanx for confirming my observation.
you’re welcome …you have my vote as being mentally..in the shallow end of the gene pool.. or simply a paid troll via your ‘anal-ysis’ of AP…methinks thou protests too much.
You crack you up. At least one person is laughing at your incoherence. You described yourself with every venomous word
gfys
Information is essential, but each individual decides what to do/not with said information. Getting enraged like a prison planet (A.J.) devotee is counter productive, but nobody is inciting violence based upon an article describing robot reaction to nothing (bubble gun). Take your own advice and use that energy to be productive, not attempt to correct everyone’s behavior to align with your ideals.
Are you attempting to correct me so that I align with your ideals? JW
Are you old enough to remember Archie Bunker…you could be related
No, to each his/her own.
Did you notice the image that was chosen for the article? Photo-shopped militarized police forces pointing a firearm at, and moving in on, a little girl holding a bubble gun. If you think that that is not intentional, misleading propaganda being used to enrage people…… read through the comments. It does not call people to arms, but it does keep the angry fires burning.
There is going to be mass chaos in this country and the vast majority of people that feed from everything that comes from AJ’s PP,, AP, PINAC, Rudkowskiites, beforeitsnews, DASHBOO777, Newsbud, etc… will be the ones that will go “patriotic” and resist the tyranny with violence. That is what they want, because the vast majority of people will beg the government for order out of the chaos.
The Bundy incident…that was propaganda. The domestic terrorist image that they are promoting is truly men that are patriotic and declare freedom and constitutional governance.
I can see beyond the hypersensationalism that is being used in the controlled opposition news sites (like this one) and I am very aware of what is taking place. These things were written of thousands of years ago by the prophets of the Lord God.
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword, must be killed with the sword.
Patience and faith.
This sounds like speculation. Do you have anything to back this up? Does all alternative media fall into the same category? Seems to me that the corporate owned MSM that serves to divide the country ‘plays well into their hands”.
Should not the AP do so? Is it not a good idea to “enrage the opposition to the global government that has risen.”? We do want to fight that, no? What is your angle in what you posted, then?
The only goal of public schools is to train the population to submit to authority.
Well done, Colorado. Raising a nice fat crop of sheeple.
We have a major customer located there. Sadly, it is somewhat dysfunctional. Another service provider there is completely dysfunctional. Not looking forward to my return to Brighton, Colorado (Denver suburb).
Time for useless eater government parasites to go.
This is so goddamn INSANE.!!!! especially since our Military has essentially INVADED, BOMBED, KILLED & OCCUPIED the Middle-east… with OUR TAX DOLLARS.!!! The hypocritical saying, “Do as I say not as I do”. These kids aren’t even teenagers, they’re PRESCHOOLERS.!! My God, what has this country come to…
The Mom should stage a protest at the school and ask everyone who comes to bring a loaded Bubble Gun and other Bubble making toys, proceed to fire them off for about 30 minutes. Make sure the media is present just to demonstrate how dangerous Bubble weaponry is.
Remove the fools that showed no common sense this case, before they cause a bigger indecent because of their lack of critical thinking skills.
Funnny adults! Can’t tell a toy from not a toy.
This incident highlights one of two reasons the Second Amendment is doomed, See blog article “the Second Amendment is Doomed.” Click on my picture, then our website. Go to our blog and search on title.
Sadly, our sick CIC has denied weapons to our own military in areas where they should have them, but the sick school “authorities” will go after tots for having bubblegum containers, bread or hands that they think look like guns. I believe the Colorado atmosphere, water, ground and food supply has been poisoned as has D.C. and the rest of the country. Everybody’s brains are being genetically modified!
…should of said she was a transgender..bi-bolar homosexual and needed it.
Do these people know how ridiculous they look ? As a foreign observer I can say that these people have made themselves into an international laughing stock.