Kindergartner Suspended Over Bubble Gun Threat

[kshillbillys]

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/kindergartner-suspended-over-bubble-gun-threat-174618051--abc-news-topstories.html

A 5-year-old girl was suspended from school earlier this week after she made what the school called a "terrorist threat."

Her weapon of choice? A small, Hello Kitty automatic bubble blower.

The kindergartner, who attends Mount Carmel Area Elementary School in Pennsylvania, caught administrators' attention after suggesting she and a classmate should shoot each other with bubbles.

"I think people know how harmless a bubble is. It doesn't hurt," said Robin Ficker, an attorney for the girl's family. According to Ficker, the girl, whose identity has not been released, didn't even have the bubble gun toy with her at school.


The kindergartner was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation during her 10-day suspension, which was later reduced to two days. The evaluation deemed the girl normal and not a threat to others, Ficker said.

A bubble gun..Are they freakin kidding me? How stupid is this? How paranoid is this country? This is ridiculous. I'm not one for suing people, but I say to the parents, go to town on this school district! She didn't even have the TOY with her at school! MORONS! Let kids be kids and stop making them grow up so damned fast!--Jennifer

[Jo McDonald]

Doesn't this kind of stupidity just blow your mind???  Good grief, that action was waaaaaaaay over the top...I think.

[Ross]

I agree, very stupid.
I read the story on a different site where they said the five year old was declared a terrorist.
How dumb is that.

[Diane Amberg]

I know it's silly, but in some districts the ability to make an informed decision about how to handle such situations has been taken from the teachers. What a shame.

[The Raven]

That is absolutely ridiculous! A child being suspended for nothing! Such ignorance.

[Wilma]

Maybe it isn't ignorance as much as it is fear.  However, the siituation could have been handled with much more empathy and a lot less publicity.  Less publicity because it is the publicity that entices others to try the same thing.  The little girls had no idea that they were doing anything but playing.

[Diane Amberg]

I want to know how this story went public. It should have been handled very quietly at the school office and settled quietly. I don't know what the history in that school was, but I wonder how such a silly directive ever was allowed in the first place.  A five year old can't be charged in most states any way..not until age 7 are they supposed to have a real grip on right and wrong.
Unfortunately, little kids do take guns to school. Of course they don't understand the danger. We never allowed squirt guns in school either... just because they were a nuisance.We sent them back home at the end of the day and certainly never called the police. Totally silly.

[Wilma]

This is totally unrelated, but Diane's remark about squirt guns being confiscated brought it to mind.  A very, very long time ago when a certain business man of Severy was a little boy, his teacher confiscated his marbles as well as the marbles of the other little boys who were playing "marbles".  This was told to me by the teacher who did the confiscating.  She also said that she still had the marbles since the little boy's parents backed her up on it.  You see, they were playing "for keeps" and some of the little boys were always losing theirs.  Playing "for keeps" was not allowed on the school premises.