Father Jailed Because Daughter Drew a Picture of a Gun

A Canadian man was arrested at his children's school, hauled down to the station and strip-searched ... all because his 4-year-old daughter drew a picture of a gun at school:

“I’m picking up my kids and then, next thing you know, I’m locked up,” Jessie Sansone, 26, said Thursday.

“I was in shock. This is completely insane. My daughter drew a gun on a piece of paper at school.”

The school principal, police and child welfare officials, however, all stand by their actions. They said they had to investigate to determine whether there was a gun in Sansone’s house that children had access to.

“From a public safety point of view, any child drawing a picture of guns and saying there’s guns in a home would warrant some further conversation with the parents and child,” said Alison Scott, executive director of Family and Children’s Services.

Dianne Wood of The Record has the story: Link (Photo: Peter Lee/The Record)

What do you think: Over-reaction or sensible precaution?


Sweet stupidity.
A large percentage of toys sold over christmas are of guns of all kinds, and action fugures with guns.
Kids hace weapons of all classes and sizes to get inspiration from.
A talk with the parents? Sure, why not.
Handcuffs? Get ready to be sued.
The whole thing going viral? Ka-ching ka-ching! Millions coming my way.
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I sure hope there is much more to this story.
Even if the father had no right to own a gun they had no right to arrest him because his kid happened to draw a picture of a gun. Does the kid drawing the picture even give probable cause for them to get a search warrant. I would hope not. My kid has an arsenal of guns he plays with. They are made by Nerf & Super Soaker. Does that give the cops probable cause to arrest me?
Why didn't the school officials just ask the parent to come to the office for a talk. If they were worried about her picture. This complete lack of common sense by school officials these days is ridiculous. I'm surprised my kid hasn't been suspended yet for mentioning we went to the shooting range over the week end at school and one of the teachers happens to be anti-gun.
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Maybe hold him, to avoid a potential mass-murder, but the handling of it was ridiculous. They could have held him and explained why. They could have maybe held off on the strip search and just put him in an isolated cell. I don't think you should treat people this crappy to get the same job done. You could still find out if there's a safety issue without treating him that way.
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Normal Reaction: Talk to kid's parents after school.

Canadian Reaction: invite father into the school, then spring TRAP, arresting an obvious failure of a father.

Yes, yes I know not all canadian's are like that....but come on! American's have George freakin Bush!
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Also, it's the same community where two weeks ago, a 38-yr-old mom killed herself and her 7-yr-old child. Cops might be taking things a little more seriously a the moment.
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I think there's a little more to the story than is being reported.
Maybe though, it has something to do with the 2nd or 3rd grade boy that accidentally shot a girl in Washington state last week when he brought a loaded gun to school.
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Reporter: So this family was slaughtered over the weekend in yet another case of mass murder/suicide. As the teacher of one of the children did you see any signs?

Teacher: Well, the girl drew pictures of her father with guns shooting bad guys.

Reporter: Was he a cop?

Teacher: No, we just thought she had a vivid imagination and left it at that.

Reporter: But if you'd checked in with social services they could have talked to police and seen that the father had a criminal record of assault and burglary, and no record of a hand gun registered in the home. Maybe a spot check could have been done to make sure this wasn't all a mistake.

Teacher: I guess, but this is a small town and the cops might have over-reacted and done something dumb like hold him overnight for nothing.

Reporter: Yeah, there is that.

Yeah, over-reaction, could have been handled better, but c'mon, they obviously were just concerned about the kid. Apologize and maybe offer some compensation.
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I don't think this is even up for consideration for the Americans reading. First of all, locking someone up because he MIGHT be three degrees of separation away from a crime? Ridiculous! Second, the father might have had a legal gun. Third, how the hell many guns do we see daily in media? Come on people. The gestapo approach never got anyone anywhere, especially toward a safer society.

I own guns, and plan not only to show them to my children later in life, but to teach them how to use, store and care for them properly, when to use them, and why we have the right to own them. These are important lessons in both safety and morality, and should keep children from developing a fascination with the forbidden when it comes to weapons.
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Yet another example of over-reaction by the authorities. Never was there ANY indication that there was any problems. Heck i still have a plate i made in 1st grade with a vampire standing in a sea of blood. Nothing ever happened to me, but today, if a child where to draw the same thing they would be taken away from their parents and most likely the parents would be jailed for abuse.

People need to learn that just because you CAN do something does not mean that you always SHOULD do something. In this case the little girl drew a picture of her father fighting monsters. All of a sudden this over zealous teacher just ASSUMES that he IS a monster.
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Hmm, on my first week or month or whatever at school we had a task of writing some letters or words if we knew how to do that already. So, I happened to be thinking about my relative that day, who is a soldier... I wrote a bunch of words like 'war', 'tank', 'gun', etc. My mother was a bit weirded out that I chose to write that, but nothing else happened.

I guess I can kind-of see a point of monitoring the child more closely, if they are constantly drawing pictures of mummy shooting daddy, but this is so over the top O_o
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Guns are one of the first things I learn how to draw. It has nothing to do with violence. The only gun I have ever shot was a BB gun. Guns just have a nice easy pattern to draw. Easier than drawing Starry Night at least. And thanks Canada for getting this one.
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Ridiculous. Kids see guns on TV, the movies, etc. And if I had a gun I would show the kid and be sure they knew what it was, not to play with it, and then I would put it in my locked case.

So the kid draws one at school and I go to jail? Moronic.

And I am a believer in gun control and restrictions.
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My kids grew up with lots of guns, but the nearest Canadian border is about 75 miles away. I'm sure they watch some American T.V. in Canada, it wouldn't surprise me if the kid saw a gun or two (thousand) there.
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“I’m picking up my kids and then, next thing you know, I’m locked up,” Jessie Sansone, 26, said Thursday.

“I was in shock. This is completely insane. My daughter drew a dragon on a piece of paper at school.”

The school principal, police and child welfare officials, however, all stand by their actions. They said they had to investigate to determine whether there was a dragon in Sansone’s house that children had access to.

“From a public safety point of view, any child drawing a picture of dragons and saying there’s a dragon in a home would warrant some further conversation with the parents and child,” said Alison Scott, executive director of Family and Children’s Services.
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