THIS IS CHILD ABUSE, AND WHY WE NEED TO BRING BACK THE CUSTOM OF TARRING AND FEATHERING: Alabama school suspends 1st-grader for making finger gun while playing cops and robbers, says outraged parent.
According to the attorney and school staff, on September 1, J.B. and another student were playing “cops and robbers” during recess. During the game, the children made pretend guns with their fingers and said “Bang, bang” at each other.
“As reported by shool staff, their play did not threaten any other students, did not disrupt any class activities, and did not interfere with school functions in any way,” the letter stated.
“Nevertheless, J.B.’s ‘gun fingers’ were reported to the school administration, whereupon Donna Page, Assistant Principal at Bagley Elementary School, who apparently lacked the insight and judgment to see the ordinary children’s play for what it was, immediately began a disciplinary process against J.B.,” Martz wrote.
“Candidly, I thought the story may be a hoax until I reviewed the paperwork generated by the school,” the attorney continued.
The suspension notice states that J.B. committed a “3.22 Threat” infraction. According to the Student and Parent Handbook for Bagley Elementary, Article 3.22 is “THREAT / INTIMIDATION (OF STUDENT).” Potential violations include “A threat to do serious bodily harm or violence to another student by word or act, cyber bullying, or intimidation that may induce fear into another.” Examples given are “a threat to kill, maim, or inflict serious harm; a threat to inflict harm involving the use of any weapon, explosive, firearm, knife, prohibited object, or other object which may be perceived by the individual being threatened as capable of inflicting bodily harm.”
Belcher’s attorney said, “No reasonable argument can be made that J.B.’s conduct fits with this prohibition,” noting that J.B. had been playing a make-believe game. . . .
“In other words, the school charged a six year old boy with an infraction equivalent to a felony crime,” Martz wrote. “The irony is not lost on J.B.’s parents that ‘[i]ntentionally hitting, pushing, kicking, or otherwise being physically aggressive with another student’ is only a Class II Infraction. In other words, J.B. would be subject to a lesser maximum penalty had he punched the other student in the face!”
Why is Donna Page allowed around children?
Related: Finger Gun Felons and Zero Tolerance Absurdity. “What is striking about that rule is that it clearly does not fit a finger gun used in a game of cops and robbers. Yet, the school hammered this six-year-old because administrators prefer to suspend a child than exercise logical judgment.”
They should be afraid to show their faces in that town.
