Show-and-tell is one of America’s great traditions. When Miller Elementary School’s freshly-minted fourth grader Ramsey McDonald got the call, he decided to demo a NERF gun. His father Scott [later] claimed his son didn’t share that particular piece of intel before heading off to school. On Tuesday, school officials dropped the dime on the diminutive NERF owner. “They told me my son brought a weapon to school and they asked me if I was aware,” McDonald told firstcoastnews.com. When Mr. McDonald protested, school officials relented on young Ramsey’s punishment. They reduced a three-day suspension to a three days in-school suspension. The disconnect between Georgia’s recent restoration of citizens’ gun rights and its educators’ anti-gun culture couldn’t be more apparent. Or reprehensible.
I am thinking a lawsuit is in order here.
Have to push back, as hard as possible (taking into consideration of course the fact that the poor kid may be stuck with these same moonbats for years). They are like roaches. Shine the light on them and they will scurry back under the fridge. Of course, as soon as the spotlight leaves them, they creep forward again. Better than surrender, though.
Here we spray them with Bengal Roach Spray and don’t return for awhile. Maybe a serious pinch in the pocket might get the dimbats’ attention?
Merriam-Webster Dictionary – Weapon: “something (as a club, knife, or gun) used to injure, defeat, or destroy”
If their policy uses the word “weapon” then they wrongly applied the policy. (unless the wording is something like ‘resembling a weapon — even that is a stretch).
One of the more effective things at our disposal for dealing with this sort of thing is ridicule. A photo of the offending administrator and the right tag line can be used to hold the fool up for public exposure, this is even better if yo can get a local or national TV or radio personality to join the pile on. Do any of you remember the Tweety Bird key chain incident here in Atlanta? To refresh your memory: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95594 and http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0009/29/mn.01.html and finally http://edition.cnn.com/2000/US/09/29/wallet.suspension.01/ where our local Cobb School Board Chairman admitted that it “makes us look stupid.”
Ridicule and shame are effective weapons against stupid bureaucrats because they know their elected bosses are going to be very unhappy with them.
Our educational professionals seem to be determined to prove to children that teachers are stupid.
Agreed.
+1
It is actually worse than that, read this article
http://thefederalist.com/2014/08/13/the-brightest-american-kids-are-still-set-to-learn-anti-american-history/
They are happy to simply rewrite history. Zero tolerance policies are in place so they do not have to make decisions and finally, the run schools like they are mini-government agencies with all the bureaucracy inherit in government. The problem is that the “teachers”, many of them, have a degree in “education” and few in the subjects they teach and fewer any experience outside of the bureaucracy of a school system — in short — they live in a reality distortion field.
It doesn’t matter what they teach the kids if they have no credibility with their own students. This kid went home thinking he was in big trouble only to have his father tell him that he did nothing wrong and teachers are just so stupid they can’t tell the difference between a real gun and a nerf gun. For the rest of his education he’s going to remember that lesson and everything they tell him he’ll take with a grain of salt.
Agreed, this is a great eye opening situation for not only the kid but all his buddies and classmates as well. The beginning of the school year, early in life, dad has his back, really a great teaching moment for the parents of the children. This will pay dividends in the course of their lives, assuming the opportunity was seized.
Sadly, when he becomes an adult he’ll have to apply those lessons to politicians and those who enforce their laws.
+1
Aye, these types of situations can be valuable learning experiences. It’s sad, but kids really need to learn that 1) not all fully grown people are adults, 2) not all people who smile warmly and tell you they are your friend actually have your best interests at heart, and 3) the above two points should especially be kept in mind when dealing with anyone who claims any kind of authority over you.
I think they end up teaching kids that once they reach adulthood, they will be utterly incapable of differentiating between a real threat and a toy.
Unions and administrators.
Don’t even get me started on unions.
YGBSM! What has happened to the once-great Peach State? They must be chuggin’ Dumb-A$$ by the case down there.
I know these school administrators are just anti-gun shills who are out of touch with the real world, but sooner or later someone is going to point out to them that this is NOT how to promote their anti-gun agenda.
They look like a bunch of bed-wetting ninnies. There is an ongoing deep dissatisfaction with the public school system and people are looking for other options. The belief that things will just be able to continue like this and that they will never receive any consequences couldn’t be further from the truth. Especially in places like Georgia where they are pushing an agenda at odds with the community they supposedly serve.
Continue to make yourself a laughingstock long enough and people stop taking you seriously. Funny how that works.
The goal here is to turn the kids into bedwetting ninnies, too. This kind of action in Elementary school helps introduce and reinforce the “Danger! So danger! Scary bang! You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!” mindset in children, with the ultimate goal of permanently seeding extremely negative feelings related to weapons. It matters not that it’s a NERF gun. What matters to the educators in this case is making sure that fear was properly instilled in the students.
Your explanation of this is right on key.
+1
I understand the goal perfectly. “I want everyone to be as scared and ashamed as me” is the simplest way to put it. They lack courage and conviction and they feel like the way to treat their insuperiority is to create more like them. I know I’m oversimplifying somewhat, but not greatly.
Problem is, parents who actually care about their kids are not interesting in seeing their kids become a bunch of fearful pricks who can’t function with a little reality. Like I said, there is a growing consensus that thinks this is intolerable. There is a lot of talk about the higher-education bubble right now, but under the surface is a lower-education bubble. We keep throwing more and more money at schools and they are not producing better students. Something that can’t go on forever, won’t.
Then they’re un-taught all of that in Boot Camp and taught to shoot to kill. Then they get out, go home, get PTSD from all the contradictions in their mind, and off themselves.
And everyone is amazed.
The goal is pure compliance through fear and power they have been given.
It will change when parents push back and push back hard! Even in liberal CA parents have help throw out the tenure system. More reform, other than common core, has to happen.
Yes!
A massive nerf gun battle by a bunch of laughing adults on school grounds, right after school gets out.
sounds like its time for all the Chipotle ninjas to have a NERF open carry day at schools in Georgia. These are the people you are entrusting with the education of your children. BWAHAHAHA!
Are you kidding? I would love to see someone organize something where a bunch of men with NERF guns stands just outside school grounds surrounding the place just to see what happens.
I would have these jokers in court so fast it would make their head swim! Let these bureaucrats explain to a judge and jury in what universe a Nerf gun is a weapon!
These rules are made so bureaucrats don’t have to think!
I propose that as many people as possible (meaning all of us, not just the people who live in that school district) purchase inexpensive plastic toy revolvers, squirt guns, or Nerf guns and ship them to the school. Let the school deal with receiving several thousands boxes of “weapons” from the U.S. Post Office, Federal Express, and UPS.
Now that would be a political statement of epic proportions.
Just remember, these are the same people that use the term “common sense gun control.”
Suspension is never a good thing to do, except in the most violent cases, where a child is completely out of control.
For various reasons children do not get enough education. To take a child out of school for any reason, except as explained above, means they might miss something extremely important, that will make a difference someday when they apply for a job.
A more fitting punishment would be to deprive the child of something he cherishes, such as playing video games, or taking away his cell phone if he has one.
Suspension is for removing dangerous or extremely distracting students from the school environment.
Considering it was show and tell, this couldn’t be considered distracting, and because a nerf gun is in no way a weapon, he can’t be considered dangerous.
People joke about brainwashing but it has been going on for the last 20+ years…
Who’s joking about brainwashing? It’s egregious.
Yep, it is purposeful brainwashing at all levels.
The liberal believe they “own” the media and “own” the schools and will use brainwashing similar to what Hitler did with the Hitler Youth to get children to “think” the way they want them to “think” VERSUS teaching them “how to think”
Look at even Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy — in her testimony she literally said “Indoctrinate Public School Kids About Climate Change” and how it is all human created.
There is clearly a culture war and the kids are the pawns. If it is not branding by companies like Coke or Pepsi to turn youth consumers to adult consumers, it is schools purposely rewriting American history or getting them to think in a “collective” like the Borg versus being independent minds who question authority.
Yeah… To everyone here with kids in public school, just ask them if they feel any kind of bias. The whole “we don’t even think about guns at school” thing. I would never suggest homeschooling, but simply making your kids aware that people will try to change how they think for political motives is enough for them to be more self reliant.
@Scrubula
Well said…
Scrubula, nothing wrong with home schooling. Biggest problem we have is that if our son ever water back in public school it would be a problem because he’s too far advanced. Plus, I don’t think he would care for the cutback in his socialization.
Taking a child out of a school run by moonbats is nothing but an improvement imo.
Whole country’s education system is garbage.
Lol miss what? How to put this in a calculator? How to look at this sentence in a book? Public education is a joke, I could barely do anything other than basic math without a calculator, but fortunately my dad taught me. Not to mention how bad they f_cked up teacheing the constitution, or the constant glorification of being a victim.
Wow…blue, green,orange too. Looks deadly to me. Expulsion for a Super Soaker? I’m so glad my kids are grown up & my grandkids are home schooled. Yep-sue the s##t outa’ them.
Yup. Civil suit against the officials individually. Nerf is not a weapon. Clearly, they are abusing their position of trust.
This sounds about right. When our educators do little to nothing to prevent bullying by peers it is only a matter of time before they become bullies themselves.
I babysat my three nephews for six years of their life. They damn well knew better than to bring anything gun related to school before… I’d say they were in second grade.
I don’t agree with school suspension over a nerf gun, but most kids these days damn well are brainwashed that schools and guns don’t mix. During my student teaching clinicals, I’ve seen grade school kids disarm other kids from their index and thumb finger pistols because “BILLY, the teacher’s gonna get you in trouble if you do guns at school!”. I kid you not. The kids are being taught to avoid guns to the point of self regulation in activities and even drawings/art/performance.
Accidentally brought a Gerber STL 2.0 on my keys one day while subbing in a pre-K class. The next day, I got a phone call from the teacher letting me know that she doesn’t mind, but that any and all knives are prohibited from the building, and that one of her kids ratted out on me to her. For F**K’s sake, four year olds…
So you’re ok with this illegal mental conditioning of our youth?
Not at all.
Sadly, rules are rules. I don’t agree to needing a permit to CCW, but I still went through with it. (Poor analogy).
The kid is nine years old, he should know that different environments have different rules and structures. Like how you’re allowed to run around in the yard and act like a hooligan, but inside the house, you shouldn’t be running amok and swinging a bat, etc.
The conditioning these kids are going through is wrong on many levels, but they should be aware to follow along *IN THOSE CONFINES.*
Another example, one of my sister’s daughters were asked and egged on by one of their teachers why she doesn’t have a boyfriend or go on dates since she’s in seventh grade. She kept mum about it, and when she got home, she had a discussion with her mother about how their teacher’s value system conflicts with their family’s value system, and how to successfully interact with the teacher without causing conflict.
Once again, while student teaching, I knew not to bring up my love of guns, my disdain for certain political parties, and avoid speaking about how I feel about how the welfare system in this country is being abused.
In the class though, I did express to the fullest extent of my ability the rights given to us by our nation which are not provided to us by the constitution, but were documented as UNALIENABLE rights that cannot be taken away. During the Constitution section of the book, many kids were a bit befuddled that these rights were not permissions granted to us, and I feel I have changed lives and logic gateways in their little brains for the better. Federalist papers helped a good bit with this! 🙂
P.S. I’m genuinely not trying to be a smartass, but what laws are being broken by modern indoctrination methods?
Let’s start with the 1st Amendment. It’s irrelevant where you go from there.
What laws are being broken? The most basic of natural laws.
I wrote a post further down but saying it again never hurts.
Our justice system is based on intent; you are charged differently if you killed someone by mistake than intentionally. Zero tolerance means you a charged the same even if you did something by mistake. Zero justice.
You are allowed to defend yourself from attack; except in school. A child is equally punished for standing up to a bully. Zero justice.
Even in States that have CC, most schools have a GFZ policy in place. So if a school mass murderer attacks a school, the children are by law, defenseless. A child is being shoved naked into a killing zone. Zero justice.
I consider that parents that place their children in most public schools today are mentally and physically abusing their children.
The schools already teach kids to rat on their parents as soon as they start K- school.
In many CT schools they are told how to call DFS on their parents and kids do call even if they are told to go to their rooms for not following the rules. We have schools all over the US that no longer practice the pledge of allegiance and small infraction mean huge punishment.
It is a brain washing to not question what you are told. It is fear for doing what is in the standard doctrine
It is totally messed up, because myself and others on this forum probably remember going to school with BB guns for show and tell. It is messed up because many of the high schools in my state built as late as the mid-70s have rifle ranges in their basements still today.
It is a zero risk, zero tolerance policy because there is ALWAYS that one parent who will say that nerf gun is unsafe. The problem is that one parent will bully all the other parents and nobody pushes back.
Sometime teachers are stuck in the middle, other times, they are the problem.
“We have schools all over the US that no longer practice the pledge of allegiance…” Because reciting the Pledge every morning is totally not brainwashing and indoctrination in any way, right?
Right out of the Fascist playbook. Snitch out those around you…
Was it Stalin or Lenin who said give him 1 generation of children to indoctrinate and he could change the country without a fight? Might of messed up that paraphrase, but its close enough. Zero tolerance is not only illegal, it is an overt program designed to condition the younger generation that only the Government should have guns.
Definition of weapon (n)
Bing Dictionary
weap·on[ wéppən ]
device designed to injure or kill: a device designed to inflict injury or death on an opponent
Now you tell me, in what twisted society does a kid’s toy designed to be fired at other children safely somehow gain the power to injure or kill? The principal needs to be fired. He/she is clearly not mentally capable to be dealing with children.
I’ll venture to guess that Georgia’s academe is a bit pissed off since their state passed the Safe Carry Protections Act. Choosing to use the word “weapon” when contacting the dad is contemptable. The only way a NERF gun could be considered a “weapon” is if you step on one in the middle of the night, barefooted.
If a Nerf gun counts as bringing a weapon to school, does a stuffed animal count as a pet?
Well, how about things that could cause injury or death? Their hands, feet, shoes, metal lunch boxes, thermoses, hard-cover books (ever have somebody slam a hard back book edgwise against your throat)?
Only if it’s a stuffed Pit Bull. Stuffed service animals are good to go.
I’d say if the school policies specifically prohibit “weapons”, and that’s the policy he was suspended under, then his parents should have grounds for a lawsuit since a Nerf gun is categorically not any sort of weapon. It’s a freakin’ toy that shoots safe foam projectiles.
If you really loved your children, you’d pull them out of the youth propaganda camps…um…public schools and home school them.
I’ve grown tired of seeing these stories only to watch parents negotiate a deal or in the more extreme cases move their child to a different district. Public schools are designed to shape the mind of your child to be subservient to the state. Period.
Sue them of course. Bankrupt them if you can. But please do right by your children by teaching them your values and not those dictated by the automatons that occupy the school administrations.
Well said, and its not just the public schools….parochial and private schools have followed suit.
Except “home schooling” usually means a day on how evil the government is and the rest of the time on how to change a transmission in an ’82 Monte Carlo. Most parents want better for their kids.
That’s a load of BS. Nice try to discredit a rapidly increasing segment of Americans whose home schooled children outperform publicly schooled children in every measurable category.
Better do some research lizzrd. Home schoolers consistently outperform public school students across the board in all subjects.
The other thing by HS’ing is that you don’t abuse the child with “zero tolerance” which is zero justice. With GFZ’s which means the child is essentially being shoved naked into a lions den and keeping the child safe from bullies because the child is punished if they defend themselves from being abused by fellow students.
In a sane and truly just universe; as the current school system is today; the parents should be charged with physical and mental abuse if they send their kids to a public school.
‘Zero tolerance=zero justice’. Perfect summation. Not sure I agree with your last statesmen however about parents being that negligent/abusive for sending kids to public schools, keep in mind that most private schools are no different, including parochial schools, and that many parents don’t have the opportunity, ability, or confidence to homeschool.
Somebody has given you a port description of homeschooling. My to year old is writing at a Jr. High level, read the Iliad this summer, can both type and write cursive. He’s a 6th grade level in the sciences. The subject he’s furthest “behind” in is math, where he’s only one year ahead. He’s also an outstanding athlete and a scary accurate marksman.
“My to year old….”
Do you mean, “two”? He is 2 years of age?
Arg!!!
Ten not to.
That’s what happens typing a long message withy thumb on an iPhone. 🙁
LMAO Whew! I was thinking maybe you locked him in the basement. But, still, at ten? He’s awesome! He must be a real hoot. Amazing. Congratulations to you the both of you.
My niece is a 2-year old drop out, but she’s a hard worker and she shows lots of potential. She’s also very skilled at getting her own way. That’s gotta’ count for something. ha ha
He’s a handful with which to keep up, but a good kid and a real joy.
Yeah, that is a load of BS. We homeschool and I can definitively say…you are an idiot spouting off about something you know nothing about.
A nerf gun? And the teacher (who allegedly possesses a college education) believes it is a weapon? I dunno, do nerf projectiles kill unicorns? destroy rainbows? do they cause global warming, or injure dolphins or cause some other bad thing I’m just not understanding?
My one child shoots with me, so she is my hope for carrying the 2a agenda.
My other child, still in grade school, is terrified to try shooting with me. Wonder where he learned that from? Won’t even play with nerfguns. Water guns – only if enough peer pressure is exerted…
Home schooling… I need to look into that. And quick.
Yes. Please do. ASAP.
Not only does it remove them from that toxic environment, but home schooling is incredibly rewarding to boot.
Do it. Don’t wait. If you give your children to the state, you might as well give them everything else.
Our local public school principal this summer paid for his teachers and staff to attend the state mandated gun safety course required for a concealed carry permit. He then offered the hope that his staff and teachers would conceal carry this school year. Word is now out in the community. I seriously doubt the gangs which fired shots at and around the school will do much of that this year.
And all that without any trigger warnings? For shame.
Well, it will come down to how the school defines weapon. But I would refer to merriam-webster:
– weap·on noun \ˈwe-pən\ : something (such as a gun, knife, club, or bomb) that is used for fighting or attacking someone or for defending yourself when someone is attacking you
The NERF toy doesn’t qualify. I would still take my kid to the school each day of the suspension.
I’m sure that taking this child out of classes will teach him… uh…
…not to show and tell?
Hopefully it will teach him to doubt his teachers and question their motives over anything with political overtones. As well as understanding that the average teacher possesses only average intelligence, with half of them therefore being below average in intelligence.
It’s time to start sueing the pants off these schools that do this to these kids and only settle the case when the the settlement includes the offending teacher/administrator getting either suspended without pay and written up for it or straight up fired.
Homeschooling is a great option. Werked for me. All joking aside, over half of the folks in our engineering department were home schooled. Are we socially adjusted? Idk. All are happily married and thankful for the investment in time that their parents made in their home education.
There you go. There’s a reason the children in public schools are doing so poorly in the harder sciences; math, engineering etc.
The public schools are teaching to the lowest common denominator. It’s more important to support their “self-esteem”, “group think” and being politically correct than to challenge them with real individual accomplishment. Which is what real self-esteem is based upon.
i brought a toy gun to school back in the 3rd grade (this was 1990) and all they did was take it away and say not to do it again. and this was in the Peoples Taxpublic of NJ!
oh how the times have changed
We used to play with toy guns in grade school (in Queens) during lunch break in the school yard. We used to run around the neighborhood with realistic-looking toy guns and didn’t even have ESU show up. When I moved to AZ, I brought my guns to school… for our school rifle team. Now nerf guns and pop tarts warrant expulsion and suspension… But that’s not child abuse apparently.
This is absolute absurdity. 3 days of anything for a Nerf Gun is so above and beyond stupid it’s hard for me to fathom how any educator can go home at night and actually feel like they’re doing their jobs after punishing a child for this. When I was 1st and 2nd grade, Transformers were at their peak and Megatron spent practically everyday in my desk, in a much more convincing gun form than anything Nerf offers. THese people are idiots. Another check on my list of reasons I will home school my kids.
A few years ago, my stepson accidentally brought a live .22LR cartridge to his high school (it was before the Great Ammunition Extinction of 2012). He got the cartridge from his grandfather, not from me.
He was taking stuff out of his pocket when out popped the twenty-two, right in front of his (male) teacher. And the teacher shook his head and told the young man to put it away and not bring it back to school. The end.
Teachers aren’t all idiots, it’s just that the idiots are in charge.
I wish more people would realize this
It isn’t the average teacher, or even average school principal. It is the politicians and school boards that have implemented these rules. However, usually they implemented these rules for fear of lawsuits if someone accused them of punishing type x of person more than type y over somewhat similar infractions. Zero tolerance policies give them a liability shield.
It also protects them from the countless “Why didn’t the school do something” accusations on the 1 out of a million chance that the student ends up doing something violent afterwards. It is safer from a political perspective to punish the 999,999 people who aren’t going to commit crazy acts, then to risk the fallout of not punishing the 1.
I brought two real swords to my elementary school back in the 70’s. To illustrate a display I’d made on the history of medieval weapons.
No fuss whatsoever.
ANY trigger released, expanding gas accelerated projectile, through a tube = weapon
I thought a weapon was that designed to injure or harm.
Per earlier TTAG research
Nerf foam projectile at 54 fps 0.12 ft lb energy, specifically seemingly designed not to injure.
Someone has a problem with definitions.
Arm launched Football/baseball projectiles don’t count.
Wasn’t a thrown rock the first weapon.
Now pick up a rock and you’re truly are locked and loaded.
“Nerf foam projectile at 54 fps 0.12 ft lb energy”
Can be surprising snappy when they hit you square in the breadbasket, though. 😉
Building principles implement policy set by school district administrators. If their policies are irrational, your local school board has the power and authority to correct them. Board members are elected and need to be held accountable.
Georgian here. Depends on the school/surrounding community. Believe it or not, but my 3rd grader actually “bought” a toy gun brought to his school by another kid. And my kindergartner brought a toy tank in for show and tell–to illustrate the letter “T”. Nobody batted an eye in either case. And it’s a metro-Atlanta school.
The 3rd graders were buying and selling handmade, homemade or brought from home items — using tokens — in conjunction with a project aimed at teaching them about economics.
Common sense SOMETIMES prevails.
QP
There was a stalker girl who really liked me in high school in 2002-2003.
Christmas time, 2002, she brought me a Spyder Competition paintball gun with tank, hopper, waist rig with paintball pods, mask, etc to school and gave it to me in a gift bag.
I flipped shit thinking I would get in trouble. She had a bit of gift wrap crumpled up above it, and no one ever found out.
Scariest 45 minutes of my life sitting in that classroom, waiting to run to my locker…
Hmm… Time to look up her name on Facebook, haven’t heard from her in 10 yr.
So – he brought a harmless toy to school and got suspended. Got it. BAN SHOW AND TELL!
I used to draw all sorts of tanks and airplanes locked in combat on my school papers. Teacher loved my WWI air combat drawings. I wonder what would happen to me now?
Thank Feinstein for all the sensationalism about assault rifles and guns. Now even show and tell are affected.
HOW THE HECK IS A NERF GUN A “WEAPON?” A weapon is something you can use to actually inflict harm on someone. A Nerf gun is a toy. Not all projectile devices are weapons. Now if he had brought in a baseball bat, he’d have been fine, even though you actually can use those to harm someone.
THIS Is what makes me Cry at night, Possession of a “Weapon” When Realy its a Little Airgun,
That shoots the darts 10 Feet, If it were like this For EVERYTHING I Cant even begin to Explain,
I Would Loove to give These Guy’s (Or Girl’s) Heads a Shake,
I Brought 6 Throwing Knives for Display in History Fair For school,
The teachers Were fine with it, As long as They were Up Were
The Little ones could Touch
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