Wednesday, September 22, 2010

"Broward School District affirms gun policy for toys"

We discussed one such incident the other day. The Sun Sentinel tells us another child has run afoul of the Broward County School Board over a toy gun.

They say their hands are tied because of stat law, but here's the thing:
[T]he district's policy distinguishes between a Class A weapon, including "Firearms — any kind of gun," tear gas and explosives — and Class B weapons, including toys, knives, chains or razor blades. She said the toy gun was a Class B weapon and not a firearm, which state law describes as weapons that "expel a projectile by the action of an explosive."

The penalty for Class A weapons: a one-year expulsion; for Class B: a 10-day suspension.
Well that's very different. And the official reaction?
"The way to avoid all of this is, don't bring what you think is a toy and we think is a projectile."
Why do "officials" get away with such arrogance?

Because they can.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The way to avoid all of this is to homeschool your kids. And its crap like this that is driving the homeschool movement from the fringes a few years ago to mainstream now.

Defender said...

In the current vernacular, "epic fail."
The school system FAILED to EDUCATE the boy that even gun-shaped inert objects are weapons and forbidden at school. How long has the no-guns-at-school campaign been going on?
Except, it's really not failure at all, is it? Wrong thinking will be punished. Right thinking means you get left alone -- for now. It's on his permanent record now that he had a "Class B weapon" at school.
Making examples.
What did the boy learn? That authority can be unreasonable and arbitrary, can be in the hands of the ill-meaning and incompetent, and is not to be trusted?
Maybe the most important lesson of his life.

Sean said...

The school govt.(district is a misnomer, they govern) here tried to pass an INCREASE in taxes, right after they built TWO new HS football stadiums(state of the art) and cried poor mouth because of a 12 million dollar "shortfall"(people losing jobs and homes and leaving the tax rolls.) Got shot down, 70-30, but only 4% of the electorate showed up to vote. I actually saw "Vote Against the Tax Increase signs around town before the election. Like any of the myriad govts. we have to deal with, all they do is eat, and then eat more.

Ed said...

Projectiles? How do they classify a spitball or a paper clip and rubber band?

Better yet, what word would you use to describe this baseball intentionally thrown at a batter, not the strike zone?

Defender said...

Formerly Great Britain: "Teachers are being forced to report children as young as three to the authorities for using alleged ‘racist’ language, it was claimed last night.
Munira Mirza, a senior advisor to London Mayor Boris Johnson, said schools were being made to spy on nursery age youngsters by the Race Relations Act 2000.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1314438/The-year-olds-labelled-bigots-teachers.html#ixzz10JcTSRu3