Zero Tolerance Strikes Again!

And yes, this is in Massachusetts...

Kindergartner suspended for bringing toy gun to class

Christina Krueger Stone said her 5-year-old boy attends Center Elementary School each day with his pockets filled with toys. His teacher became concerned Wednesday when she observed the child showing a toy gun to another student, Krueger Stone said.

“He took it out to show a friend, showed someone else, teacher pulled him out of line and kept him after school,” Stone said.

By now, we're all used to these stories of "zero tolerance" (which, if you're a thinking person, you have already replaced the word "tolerance" with "brains"...). A child makes a gun shape out of a breakfast pastry, or their fingers, or [GASP] brings a 4-inch long toy gun to school and the administrators lose their ever-lovin' minds. You see, it's really easy to punish the doe-eyed five year old for bringing a plastic toy six-gun to class. No guns in school! they'll bleat; regardless of the need for a little distinction and discretion when the "gun" in question is a five year old's vacation souvenir as opposed to, well, a surly teenager stealing dad's Glock because he wants to look tough.

Heaven forbid we use a little common sense and send a note home with the child politely asking that toy guns stay home. Or, even crazier, recognize that a 4" long plastic six gun isn't going to hurt anyone and not forbidding it in the first place. I know, I know, that would involve some sort of tacit admission that guns are normal and that children might have an interest in them, which obviously cannot stand. It would still be nice for schools not to go into a blind screaming panic because a 5 year old has a plastic toy.

And while I'm dreaming, I'd like to be able to buy ammunition again...

That is all.