13-year-old kid suspended from school... FOR SKETCHING A LASER GUN.

[Giranan]

WHAT. THE. HECK.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/c...etch22-on.html

What is WRONG with people?? Are we really so paranoid?! I used to sketch sticky-death stuff in my notebooks, replete with badly-drawn guns and gunshots, but I wasn't about to whip out a gun in the middle of class!

[MystyGlyttyr]

Man. When I was a kid, we'd have those poster contests to promote certain issues. I had to do seatbelt safety, so I drew a picture of a fiery car crash with a dead, beheaded body hanging through the windshield, blood everywhere, a little kid sitting on the ground bleeding and crying for his dead mommy, etc., so forth. I was SEVEN. People were "impressed with the realism".

When I was eight and we were drawing pictures of tornadoes, mine was destroying houses, sucking people up off the ground, and flinging cars into the air. It was "cute".

By the time I was 15, I was writing elaborate stories filled with blood, guts, swearing, sex, violence, and other assorted deviancy, and I was hailed as being "a terrific authoress in the making."

That was just ten years ago!

[Soulstealer]

Earlier this month, Principal Karen Martin sent a letter home to parents about an unrelated incident involving a student having a gun, which police investigated and found to be false.

"I am also writing to ask you to continue discussions with your children about the seriousness of actions and words that others might consider a threat," Martin wrote.

I'm guessing he doesn't see the irony in that statement.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Once again I'm going to share the story of my German class valentine.

As a class project to show off our newly learned vocabulary or some such thing, we had to make valentines. Everybody in the class was drawing hearts, cupids, arrows, and festooning their valentines with lace and other assorted Valentines Day stuff.

Meanwhile I drew a guy ripping the heart of the chest of another guy lying dead in a pool of his own blood. I captioned it "Du hast mein herz gestohlen (You've stolen my heart)"

Then our valentines were put on the class bulletin board for the other classes to ogle and vote for their favorites. I won second place.

Now back on topic....zero tolerance don'tcha know. Ignoring some kid's drawing of a ray gun is just begging for another Columbine.

[Bright_Star]

Did they think that he was gonna put his sketch in one of those Star Trek materializors & POOF! you have a real live laser gun? Are they that stupid?

[Ringtail Z28]

You gotta be kidding me. I used to (badly) draw stuff that I'd see in gory horror and action movies. All I got for that was getting yelled at for goofing off.

[MoonChild2007]

I know the kid meant no harm but come on guys, have you noticed that the people who don't get questioned or even suspended for drawing questionable things or "pretending" to do something that can bodily harm are the ones who are most likely to kill their classmates?

I don't blame them. After all the school shootings, don't you think that kids talking about guns, drawing guns are more likely to do it? Do we know if this kid has problems with his students? I can't blame them. The kid should know better than to draw a gun in SCHOOL.

[GingerBiscuit]

Those more like;y to do it are those who are being severly bullied and have been taught by their parents that violence is an acceptable response to stress. Not some Kid who is going through their fascination phase with guns.

I sketched knives, and guns, and violence all over the place, and I never shot, or stabbed anyone.

[Hon'ya-chan]

This story reminds me of something....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sd_helmeppo.jpg

[Gravekeeper]

I use to draw hulking robotic death machines all the time back in school. By high school I also began adding detailed schematics for said death machines. By grade 10 science I finally reached my calling as our final project was to propose an invention that would be useful for mankind.

I of course proposed an elaborate suit of powered armour suitable for Mars exploration and construction. Including detailed schematics not only of the suit but of how to control it and even put it on. As an added bonus I included a sonic imaging system I came up with the last time he asked us to do a project like this. ;p

The whole thing was some odd 25 pages long.

I got an A. ^^

[Broomjockey]

I know the kid meant no harm but come on guys, have you noticed that the people who don't get questioned or even suspended for drawing questionable things or "pretending" to do something that can bodily harm are the ones who are most likely to kill their classmates?

I don't blame them. After all the school shootings, don't you think that kids talking about guns, drawing guns are more likely to do it? Do we know if this kid has problems with his students? I can't blame them. The kid should know better than to draw a gun in SCHOOL.

It's a LASER gun. For all we know, he's a Star Wars nerd, and was sketching Han Solo's pistol. And you know what, no, I don't think those "talking about guns, drawing guns" are more likely to do it, as those likely to do it usually have no one to talk to, which is part of why they do it. I know rights don't always apply to school kids for one reason or another, but to say they can't draw an object? Now, maybe if he was drawing himself using the gun to kill some other kid in class, I could get behind a suspension.

And the reason "those who are never questioned or even suspended" are more likely to do it? They get ignored by everyone but the bullies. And do you really think an incident like that is going to make the kid MORE socially adjusted, or send him further into a shell, thus making reaching him even harder?

The idea that a single random drawing should be enough for a 5 day suspension shows just how paranoid people have become without being any SMARTER about it. You don't go after the kid drawing a gun, you send him to a councilor to talk to them, and only if you're really worried. This story makes me sick, and even more worried about the future. Potential kids aren't being helped, they're being further persecuted. That's exactly the wrong thing to do.

[Greenday]

This zero-tolerance load of crap started when I was going through middle school. It is, without a doubt, the biggest waste of time ever. This kid's record is tarnished for the rest of his school career all because he likes to draw. Just another example of those with power in the school system having nothing better to do so they abuse what power they have.