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Stupid Rules: Kid Threatened with Suspension Over Two-Inch LEGO Gun

By Alex in Baby & Kids on Feb 5, 2010 at 2:52 pm

Can your kid get into trouble for playing with a two-inch LEGO gun at school? Here’s a story that illustrates why we should have zero tolerance for inane "zero tolerance policies":

Patrick Timoney, a 9-year-old student at PS 52 in Staten Island, N.Y., was in the school cafeteria Tuesday playing with LEGOs when he was taken to the principal’s office and threatened with suspension. One of his toys was a LEGO policeman that holds a 2-inch plastic gun. The school has a no-tolerance policy when it comes to toy guns. [...]

The boy’s mother, Laura Timoney, 44, was fuming over the issue.

“You don’t traumatize a child who loved to go to school, who wanted to be early every day to school, you don’t make him cry, you don’t make him fill out statements,” she told WNBC, holding back tears. “You don’t do it.”

Link

Tags: Gun, Lego, stupid rule, zero tolerance policy

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Geeksaresexy
Feb 5th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
It's insane how regulations in schools are becoming more and more restrictive and ridiculous.

When I was younger, we used to play king of the hill in the schoolyard at lunchtime during winter... kids can't do that anymore...

One of my friend has a nine year old you loved to sit on a swing and twist it as much as possible to create a vortex and make himself dizzy.. he can't do that anymore because he was put in retention after school because of this.

...And that's only a short list of what I've heard from parents who are all equally as discouraged about this as me. My oldest will start school next September.. And I can't help but look at this with apprehension.
MJ Druitt
Feb 5th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
It'll teach 'em a lesson, all right. It teaches them to never trust authority, that authority is heavy handed, and that cops have no brains, and merely act as bullying knuckle draggers. Yep, a valuable lesson.
heather
Feb 5th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
A few years ago some kids in my high school were suspended after they brought a tiny army man gun to school. The general consensus was that the rules were idiotic (but not so nicely said)
wow
Feb 5th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
no weapons in prison! oops i mean school...
Coyote
Feb 5th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
How is it we let these type of people raise our kids? If there is one thing this will accomplish it is retarding the growth and maturity of the next generations.
Skipweasel
Feb 5th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Geeksaresexy - it's not the rules as such, it's the blind application of the rules. There are people out there who think that "Rules are rules" and that any infringement of any rule will lead to anarchy.
I suspect it stems from insecurity and/or having to deal with stroppy parents too often.
Taylor
Feb 5th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
When I was in school my mom thought the Zero Tolerance rules were so ridiculous that she'd just never sign the form. Every year she'd put a note at the bottom of the page saying she refused to sign but that I understood the rules and have a nice day. They'd call me in the office the first day of school, say "Hey, this wasn't signed." I'd say "Yes, I am aware" and they'd send me back to class.
The end.
Norwegian Blue
Feb 5th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Zero tolerance policies are made by people who are to stupid or lazy to use that wonderful human skill of discretion.
larryv
Feb 5th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
This is why we pulled our child out of the public school system. In our area if your child defends themselves in a fight they suffer the same punishment as the attacker. My straw that broke the camels back when he got suspended for saying the work he was assigned was stupid. A child in school no longer has rights as a human? It would seem that ANY disruption in there rules is a capital offense.
B.M.
Feb 5th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Public schools are just a place to put ghetto kids until they are old enough to go to real jail.
ted
Feb 6th, 2010 at 9:06 am
Kids are human?
Courageous Grace
Feb 8th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
larryv -

I know what you mean. When I was in high school (even back then), my tiny school district had a zero-tolerance policy for fighting. Another girl tried to beat me up on the school bus so to protect myself I covered my head with my hands, dropped to the floor, and screamed (knowing that if I did anything else I'd get suspended).

Yet I still got called out of class an hour later, taken to the city police station (gotta love small towns), my mother was called, and I was suspended. After an investigation my suspension eventually got recorded as three excused absences, though. My mother was upset at me at first when she got a call to come down to the police station, but after hearing what REALLY happened (and it's common knowledge that this girl was a bully) and how the chief of police himself felt bad for me, she got soooo pissed off at the vice-principle for insisting that I be taken to the police station too.

The bully got sent to alternative school for 3 years and I got a 3 day mini-vacation. But it still never should have happened in the first place.

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