A Great Reason Why We Need To Think Before We Pass Laws

[rhinefire]

A 5-year-old girl was suspended from a Pennsylvania kindergarten after telling another girl that she was going to shoot her. The weapon she was going to use was a pink toy gun that blows soapy bubbles.

Mount Carmel Area School District officials questioned the student without her parents present, deemed the girl a "terrorist threat" and suspended her for 10 days, according to attorney Robin Ficker, who was hired by the family to fight the suspension.

The incident happened on January 10 as the preschoolers were waiting in line for a schoolbus, Ficker told news website PennLive.com.

The girl, who has not been identified, said something like "I'm going to shoot you and I will shoot myself," referring to the toy. She did not have the bubble gun on her person at the time.

School officials learned of the conversation and questioned the girl for over 30 minutes the next day, Ficker said. After the talk, she was suspended for 10 days, branded a threat and required to be evaluated by a psychologist, he added.

"This little girl is the least terroristic person in Pennsylvania," he said.

The punishment has since been reduced to two-day suspension, the attorney said. He also argued that the girl's permanent record should be expunged, and that she should be offered an apology.

Ficker said he was hired because the girl's mother read that he had handled a similar case in Maryland. In that case, he represented a 6-year-old boy who was suspended by an elementary school for pointing at another student with his fingers folded like a gun and saying "pow."

School authorities called it a "serious incident," and said the boy "threatened to shoot" the other student.

Gun-related violence at schools is a painful issue in the US after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The shooting claimed 26 lives, including 20 children, shocking the nation and triggering a heated debate over tighter gun control.

 

[Guy Incognito]

Why exactly are lawyers getting involved in an issue of school discipline?

 

[Republic Now!]

A 5 year old huh?

Jeez I'm glad I'm not growing up in this era. When I was 5, we played pretend about all kinds of silly things. I would surely have been in prison by the time I hit elementary school.

 

[blaxshep]

This just goes to expose the absolute stupidity and desperation of the gun-haters. They know they will never control real guns so they go after the 6 year olds and thier little pink soap bubble guns.

 

[MaggieD]

A Great Reason Why We Need To Think Before We Pass Laws

What law did she break? A 5-year-old doesn't have the mental capacity to break a law. This doesn't have anything to do with laws...this has to do with idiots who interpret them.

 

[jimbo]

Why exactly are lawyers getting involved in an issue of school discipline?

Because schools are getting involved in suspending 5 year olds for pointing fingers and going Pow.

 

[Guy Incognito]

Because schools are getting involved in suspending 5 year olds for pointing fingers and going Pow.

That's the job of schools, disciplining students for misbehavior. Unless you think children threatening to kill other children is not something worthy of discipline?

The title of this thread should be "A Great Reason Why We Need To Think Before We Get Overly Litigious."

 

[Guy Incognito]

What law did she break? A 5-year-old doesn't have the mental capacity to break a law. This doesn't have anything to do with laws...this has to do with idiots who interpret them.

No, it's about the idiots who hire lawyers when their five year old gets in trouble for misbehavior.

 

[Dezaad]

No, it's about the idiots who hire lawyers when their five year old gets in trouble for misbehavior.

No, it is about adults deeming things as misbehaviors which are not actually misbehaviors. Is there any behavior, any behavior at all, that you would consider not a misbehavior that other adults considered to be one?

 

[Guy Incognito]

No, it is about adults deeming things as misbehaviors which are not actually misbehaviors. Is there any behavior, any behavior at all, that you would consider not a misbehavior that other adults considered to be one?

Nonsense. You ask what I consider misbehavior, but what anybody else considers misbehavior is not the issue. It's easy for
Dezaad or some other moron online to be an armchair school administrator. But you're sitting here second guessing a school disciplinary action you have NO FACTS about. That is absurdly presumptuous. Shame on you.

 

[MaggieD]

No, it's about the idiots who hire lawyers when their five year old gets in trouble for misbehavior.

I don't have a litigious bone in my body. Howsomever! If my 5-year-old were suspended from school for ten days for "terrorist threats," I believe I'd get me one.

 

[rhinefire]

That's the job of schools, disciplining students for misbehavior. Unless you think children threatening to kill other children is not something worthy of discipline?

The title of this thread should be "A Great Reason Why We Need To Think Before We Get Overly Litigious."

"Childred threatening to kill other children"!!!??? FIVE YEARS OLD!!! You should apply for a position at that school, you would fit right in. Perhaps you could push for an infant prison cell to be built.

 

[Guy Incognito]

I don't have a litigious bone in my body. Howsomever! If my 5-year-old were suspended from school for ten days for "terrorist threats," I believe I'd get me one.

You weren't there. All you have is third hand information. Yet you think you're in a better position to judge this than the teachers and administrators on the ground?

The presumption is mind boggling.

 

[Guy Incognito]

"Childred threatening to kill other children"!!!??? FIVE YEARS OLD!!! You should apply for a position at that school, you would fit right in. Perhaps you could push for an infant prison cell to be built.

Kids need to know that threats are not acceptable behavior. There is nothing in the tiny bit of information about this incident that indicates that it is an incorrect action on its face. It could be an innocent kid playing with a bubble gun or there could be more to the story than you know. Were you there to hear the context of the threat? If not then shut the **** up about it.

 

[MaggieD]

You weren't there. All you have is third hand information. Yet you think you're in a better position to judge this than the teachers and administrators on the ground?

The presumption is mind boggling.

A five-year-old has no concept of "laws" -- it is ridiculous to categorize anything she would say as a terrorist threat.

Edit:

Kids need to know that threats are not acceptable behavior. There is nothing in the tiny bit of information about this incident that indicates that it is an incorrect action on its face. It could be an innocent kid playing with a bubble gun or there could be more to the story than you know. Were you there to hear the context of the threat? If not then shut the **** up about it.

Yes, they do need to learn that. And school admin, along with parents, can teach that lesson without suspending a kid for 10 days and categorizing what she said as a terrorist threat. Jesus.

And, further, if the standard of opining on this board is set at "Were you there? Then our board would be silent.

 

[Guy Incognito]

A five-year-old has no concept of "laws" -- it is ridiculous to categorize anything she would say as a terrorist threat.

A five-year-old doesn't need to have a high level of understanding of law to be subject to proper disciplinary actions when she makes threats against her classmates. I just don't buy into this hippie **** that students shouldn't be disciplined for their misbehavior. If a five year old threatens to kill a classmate, that is fair game for punishment. Don't muddy this up making this a goddamn constitutional issue. This is the problem with this country, too many lawyers turning every correctly-disciplined child into litigation.

 

[Arbo]

That anyone can support the schools bad decision should be mind boggling.. but sadly it isn't. There were a couple other cases of young kids suspended for pointing their fingers like they were guns playing cops and robbers during recess.. insanity.

It takes a real disconnect from reality to support the school in all of this.

 

[MaggieD]

This is the problem with this country, too many lawyers turning every correctly-disciplined child into litigation.

No, "the problem with this country" in this case is over-reaction. A 10-day suspension and labeling her words as a terrorist threat is over the top.

 

[blaxshep]

You weren't there. All you have is third hand information. Yet you think you're in a better position to judge this than the teachers and administrators on the ground?

The presumption is mind boggling.

No one with half a brain cell needs to have been there, a 5 year old "threatening" to kill someone with a pink soap bubble gun is hillarious not serious.

 

[blaxshep]

That anyone can support the schools bad decision should be mind boggling.. but sadly it isn't. There were a couple other cases of young kids suspended for pointing their fingers like they were guns playing cops and robbers during recess.. insanity.

It takes a real disconnect from reality to support the school in all of this.

Welcome to the mind of a liberal moron.

 

[Guy Incognito]

No, "the problem with this country" in this case is over-reaction. A 10-day suspension and labeling her words as a terrorist threat is over the top.

You think so, huh? So I guess you were there and can explain what happened, in detail. Did the classmate feel threatened or were they both laughing? Did the five year old hit her classmate with the gun or was it just harmless fun? Is there any more to this story than in the three ****ing sentences in the op? Probably, but you have no ****ing clue because you weren't there, were you?

Let school administrators do their job. If you have a problem with it, go to a PTA meeting, don't hire Dewey, Cheatem & Howe to sue the pants off the schoo district. This is just common sense.

 

[blaxshep]

You think so, huh? So I guess you were there and can explain what happened, in detail. Did the classmate feel threatened or were they both laughing? Did the five year old hit her classmate with the gun or was it just harmless fun? Is there any more to this story than in the three ****ing sentences in the op? Probably, but you have no ****ing clue because you weren't there, were you?

Let school administrators do their job. If you have a problem with it, go to a PTA meeting, don't hire Dewey, Cheatem & Howe to sue the pants off the schoo district. This is just common sense.

Don't need to be there, thretend with a pink soap bubble gun, hillarious!

 

[Lutherf]

Like I said in the other thread on this....what we need is more drone strikes on kindergartens and preschools. Somebody needs to teach these little bastards what threats are REALLY all about!

 

[Guy Incognito]

No one with half a brain cell needs to have been there, a 5 year old "threatening" to kill someone with a pink soap bubble gun is hillarious not serious.

Oh yes, I forgot that the article mentioned that blaxsheep witnessed the entire incident and is therefore in a position to second guess the judgement of the trained school administrators who were in charge at the time :roll:

Shut the **** up, you have no idea what happened or if the punishment is appropriate. And based on the information available, there is no reason not to give the administrators the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Guy Incognito]

Don't need to be there, thretend with a pink soap bubble gun, hillarious!

Yeah, you obviously have no clue what five year old children are like, since you think that nothing a little girl could ever do with a pink toy gun could EVER warrant disciplinary action from her teacher. Jesus, you're so ****ing clueless. Give it a rest already, you just want to get outraged about something, go find something else. You are utterly ignorant of the facts, and you are making a fool of yourself.