12-year old RI student suspended for small keychain “gun”
“Weapon” was barely the size of a Quarter.
It never stops, does it?
We know the “zero-tolerance” insanity has gone overboard at schools, The zero-tolerance war on kindergarteners, including disciplining young students for a gun-shaped breakfast pastry, a pencil pointed like a gun, and a Quarter-size Lego piece. And even in student’s home front yards.
Now my formerly home State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations has joined the “zero tolerance” lunacy club via the Coventry, RI school system.
Thanks to Tony from RI-based Redneck Republic for the tip on this.
From NBC 10 in Providence:
News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England
A 12-year-old boy was suspended from a Coventry middle school after his parents said he brought a small gun keychain to school.
Joseph Lyssikatos said the keychain was in his backpack at Alan Shawn Feinstein Middle School on Thursday when it fell out. A classmate picked it up and started showing it to other students.
A teacher confiscated it and before Joseph knew it, he was suspended.
“This boy was the one waving it or showing it to other kids. Not Joseph. Joseph wasn’t doing that so why weren’t both of them reprimanded,” said Bonnie Bonanno, Joseph’s mother.
The keychain in question is slightly larger than a quarter. Joseph told NBC 10 he bought it for 25 tickets at an arcade.
School officials released a statement that said, “Because this is a student discipline issue, we cannot comment on any specifics.”
The school’s zero tolerance policy states that suspensions are determined by the principal.
However, Joseph and his parents said he was told of the suspension by the school’s behavioral specialist, and the principal and superintendent won’t return their calls.
The school also informed Joseph’s family that he would not be allowed to attend a class field trip to Salem at the end of the month.
“That’s disgraceful because, OK, being suspended for three days, and this big punishment is enough for him mentally,” Bonanno said.
Said Joseph: “I’m missing the NECAP testing and I’m in advanced math so I’m going to have to re-do all the homework I’m going to miss for advanced math.”
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Does this mean that a picture of a gun in a book could have the same result?
I mean, at what point does sanity take over and the witch hunt stop.
Oh, that is what the school trip to Salem is supposed to teach, witch hunts are evil, school is good.
Zane Grey banned?
Do these School Districts hire their Principals and administrators from “Lawsuits R US”?
The Teacher, and everyone else involved could be slapped with a civil suit which cites the 5th Amendment, i.e. Property shall not be confiscated without due process of law.
Actual 5th Amendment reads:
“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
However, “due process” is any official process that the Supreme Court hasn’t outlawed yet.
It seems to me that a couple of successful lawsuits with large judgments would do a lot to dampen this sort of thing. Is there any basis for such an action?
Zero tolerance policies are, in fact, zero brains policies.
All they do is give cover to idiots and hysterics…which seem to abound in public education.
Isn’t this just one of the many foreseeable consequences of electing Democrats?
Along with abortion-on-demand.
Or complete disregard for limitations of any sort starting with the Constitution and its limits (that document is first and last a document of limitation of the created government, not an invitation for total government), and a whole host of other the-sky-is-the-limit ideas so loved by Democrats (so long as someone else pays).
ab absurdo
WTF? IDK.
But… ““This boy was the one waving it or showing it to other kids. Not Joseph. Joseph wasn’t doing that so why weren’t both of them reprimanded,” said Bonnie Bonanno, Joseph’s mother.”
So Joe’s Mom wants Joe and the other kid reprimanded? Like I said, “WTF? IDK.
No Driveby, She just wants “Equal Justice under the law”
But she got it bass-ackward. She should have said, “No one deserves any punishment for a non-crime.”
I do not feel that Joseph should have been suspended for three days and prohibited from the upcoming field trip over a trinket. If he is a great student I would think that the school would [at most] have a conversation with him and his parents and that would be the end of it. But the mother’s comments trouble me somewhat, it comes across as putting blame on someone else, or Joseph was wrong but so was the other guy so punish them both. IDK…
The Pop Tart Bandit, as he is affectionately known by some, is interesting. Again, the parent went to the media to try to influence the school, and again it was fruitless. Before anyone gets upset, I can tell you that I do not agree with suspending the 7 year old boy based on what the parent says happened.
It is unfortunate [putting it mildly] that this is still on the boy’s school record. The family does have an attorney, but so far his appeals have been refused. It seems very unreasonable to keep it on the kid’s record, especially since this attorney has been successful in Maryland of having similar infractions expunged. And then I read this:
“At the time of an earlier appeal, Ficker said school officials disputed the case was “a singular incident, having to do only with a breakfast pastry,” instead referring to other behavior attributed to the child.”
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-13/local/42025625_1_hearing-examiner-pastry-school-officials
And now you know [part of] the rest of the story…
Put him before a firing squad of his peers … armed with pop-tart guns.
Ummm … any chance some of this zeal for zero-tolerance could be redirected towards Iran?
Call me crazy and insensitive, but I’m a little more worried about being nuked by mullahs than getting sprinkled with crumbs from kids with pop-tart guns.
The pop Tart gun firing squad and kazoo marching band. Coming to a school district near you!
Not to forget the dredded killer “chicken nugget”
I’m starting to think that suspension from these schools is a kindness, since the kid at least gets a break from the mindless stupidity for a while.
One of my prized possessions is the pair of cufflinks that my father wore to my wedding–little guns quite similar to the alleged Rhode Island contraband. They shoot little caps, too. After all, what’s a wedding without a shotgun. I keep them in the safe because I don’t want to lose them. However, I think I need to keep them in the safe because they are obviously a serious public safety and health issue. Actually, I probably need to separate the ammunition from the weapons to be extra safe. I don’t even have an FOID card. If Dad wore them and his jacket covered his sleeves, would that be concealed carry?
It is all about the lawsuits. Schools think that if they say no to everything across the board, they’ll avoid lawsuits. Around here we get parents who show up to the guidance counselor with their attorney in order to change a kid’s schedule.
Unfortunately for this boy, this will go on his permanent record on the federal common core database. Forget advanced math; he may end up in the behavior disorder classes in the special ed department.
Homeschool, baby.
The school has a behavioral specialist???? That’s the problem right there! A loopy leftie loon made that decision. So much for Little Rhody having the statue of the independent man on the state house. They have gone to the dark side. If those parents were smart, they would withdraw from that school and find an alternative ed program for their child. Anti-gun whack jobs will ruin education with their zero tolerance.
Is someone going up against this shite? These people need to be hit with a massive lawsuit. This is beyond stupid and into total tyrannical abuse of power and Constitutional rights.
They are deliberately undermining America and the Constitution in public schools with this zero tolerance nonsense. The constitutional rights of children do not stop at the schoolhouse door. They are not given by government, so they cannot be taken away by petty bureaucrats who penalize play and play objects they don’t like. Having a keychain like that is a free speech issue. It’s a child’s statement of what he likes. The Communists are trying to decide for children what they should like and what they should do.
The parents of this child need their heads examined. How could they accept a suspension for their child having a keychain gun object? Fight against these Communists who are looking to program children into ignorance of their rights. Fight. Sue them, by school district and by individual name, for depriving the children if their rights, for miseducation on that matter, and for causing them anguish of feeling they have done something wrong when they have not. Give these morons hell!
Unbeknownst to these who call themselves educators, that which is forbidden is most desirable to the eyes and for use.
My mother was a high school teacher and an elementary school counselor. She said every school has one or two people on the staff who really like telling people what to do and kids are an easy target, so that’s why they are there. I remember this every time I read about these kind of cases.
This will continue until parents and citizens start responding violently to this child abuse.
forcefully. That’s because force is not necessarily violent, but it does mean business.
Force not backed by violence is not force. This abuse of students in schools is backed by the ability of the State to use violence. Yes, there is a legal process that supposedly can be used to address this child abuse. And, no, this process is only meant for stifling the righteous anger of parents and adults. Not for punishment of the real miscreants–the school officials–because the miscreants are part of the government itself.
The terror these fascist leftist teachers spread must come back to them in the form of firing them from their jobs.
What goes around, must come around.
Fanatics. Extremists. Terrorists. Morons (i.e. impaired judgment). It’s no wonder that our civilization is tearing at the seems. Liberty is neither suitable nor possible for morons. Especially for morons with a lust for power.
So, the next time the Prezz-O-Bama points at us with his index finger, shouldn’t that be construed as promoting gun violence? As evidence, I offer the rampant gun violence in the Cesspool on Lake Michigan known as Chicago, where Obama pointed his index finger at the South-side Folks for years.
Laws have been passed on flimsier evidence.
The thing that bothers me about this story is that it is in the media, the local news did an interview with the mother and the boy. How, why? This is a private matter, the school did not tell anyone, that leaves the parent(s). I just cannot understand why anyone would want this to be public knowledge. I would think that the parent(s) would work it out to the best possible outcome with the school officials.
I hope that nothing comes out regarding any prior issues with Joseph, like it has in the story of the AirSoft-Gun kid from a few days ago. His parent(s) also attempted to manipulate the system using the media:
“Khalid has been disciplined six times in less than 18 months for “increasingly aggressive behavior” including harassment, bullying and fighting that has caused injuries”
“It is important to note that the students in question were witnessed taking aim at other students, not just from private property but in the streets of their neighborhood as well — all while awaiting the arrival of their school bus.”
“One actually said he dropped his book bag and ran and still got hit,” Cox said. “They were suspended and recommended for expulsion.”
Most all LI commentators will approve of these words – “there will be consequences”:
“As the principal of Larkspur Middle School, I am responsible for the safety of students and will take all appropriate actions to ensure that the students using the pellet guns are appropriately disciplined and held responsible for their conduct. It is my sincere hope that they will learn important life lessons; the most important being that there will be consequences when they do things that can result in harm to another person,” he said in a statement.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/25/20691948-virginia-middle-schoolers-suspended-for-the-year-after-toy-pellet-gun-incident?lite
I’m with you, DriveBy. The Grand Airsoft Folly has been an excellent lesson in how quickly people embrace (and refuse to relinquish) a false narrative that supports their world view. It doesn’t need to be supported by facts, it just needs to conform to one’s personal bias. Heaven forbid we actually expect our children to follow the rules and allow them to be disciplined when they don’t.
People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. In the context of the air soft issue if the punishment fits the crime don’t try to change the narrative and push it in the media. Of course people have witnessed how effective those tactics can be when viewing the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case. Trayvon’s parents were awarded a windfall by pushing a false narrative. Why not try your luck with the media when you are out of options. Of course they could try to be parents instead but that takes work on their part.
The goal is to build a society of men who wet themselves at the sight of a real gun.
This is psychological conditioning.
“What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we’ve changed our attitudes about cigarettes….”
Eric Holder
All Holder did was talk about the indoctrination.
Joseph told NBC 10 he bought it for 25 tickets at an arcade.
Maybe this will finally shed some light on the blatant arcade loophole!
He probably didn’t have to submit to a background check, either.
Yes, this “Zero Tolerance” thing is horrible, and abusive, damaging, blah blah blah-
But, for me, I’ve been keyed in on something I consider far more sinister.
Two lines from the article:
School officials released a statement that said, “Because this is a student discipline issue, we cannot comment on any specifics.”
However, Joseph and his parents said he was told of the suspension by the school’s behavioral specialist, and the principal and superintendent won’t return their calls.
While we were sleeping, the government has erected an iron curtain. From the President and his cabinet to the local school board to the dog catcher–
Not only will they not respond to inquiries, they won’t even acknowledge that the facts exist that provoked the inquiries.
THEN, they tell us not only are they not legally obligated to tell us anything, but tell us they legally MANDATED not to tell us anything.
We used to pity the millions of oppressed in the Soviet Bloc. Now who’s living behind the iron curtain?
I agree that the zero tolerance thing is out of whack with that trinket; it is a toy trinket not a replica of a firearm, and IMHO should be exempt from the policy. But the school obviously sees it differently and they could have issued a much harsher suspension, according to the father.
Why do you wholeheartedly believe what one person, the father, says? I find it hard to believe that the principal refuses to meet with the parent(s) and refuses to return their calls, because that is part of his/her job and it is school policy – see page 15 for “Due Process:”
http://asfms.net/PDFs/ASFMSStudentHandbookCurrent.pdf
Unless the parent(s) release the school from its privacy requirements, the school has to sit there and be quiet while the parent(s) can run around saying whatever they like, which is what they are doing on TV, radio, and YouTube.
http://www.stationcaster.com/stations/wpro/media/mp3/Keith_Bonanno_-1380325340.mp3
The mother and father complaining publicly does nothing to change any of this. They need to follow policy and appeal the decision to the school administrator, they are required to do that within 48 hours.
“The mother and father complaining publicly does nothing to change any of this. They need to follow policy and appeal the decision to the school administrator, they are required to do that within 48 hours.”
Excuse me, Driveby, but CALLING the Principal’s office is an attempt by the parents to APPEAL the decision.
Not answering the phone does not mitigate the fact that an appeal WAS made, but just ignored by the school administration.
In many cases, this is called willful negligence.
I think that one of my problems with this is that it is so obviously an attempt at programming the students not to want to have guns around. To be uncomfortable around guns. They get the kids at 5, and want to get them much younger, and then keep them until 18 or 22 or so. During their state indoctrination time, all that they hear is that guns are evil, evil, evil. And, as maybe also a useful adjunct to that, police, and anyone armed by the government, are granted special defference and respect because the state has seen fit to arm them.
On TV, and in the movies, guns are carried by good guys (police, military, etc) and bad guys, but rarely anyone else. You don’t see guns as a normal adjunct to life on sit-coms, even when one of the main characters is a police officer.
This might work, except for the problem that it backfires in underclass, and esp. the minority underclass. They see guns as power, and since the white establishment uses their guns to subordinate the rest of society, they need them to respond. Think of Trayvon Martin posing with his illegal gun, and how much important guns are to the gangsta, etc. portion of society. Because so many underclass Blacks reject much of public schooling as “White”, any message that the educational establishment tries to send them, as they try with guns, is going to backfire. And, making it even worse, with the public education system having programmed so many young middle class people to fear guns in the hands of anyone, these underclass minorites have discovered that carrying and brandishing (and maybe even faking the brandishing, as was maybe the case of TM) is sufficient to intimidate a lot of the middle class. Which, of course, is recursive.
So, by essentially trying to program our youth to fear and defer to those who are armed, in order to further deference and subservience to the state, the public school system has essentially increased the danger and appearance of danger of the underclasses to the middle clase. Now, if the state could adeqately defend the middle class from the underclasses and their illegal guns, then fine. But, of course, it often can’t.
We are living in 1984 meets A Clockwork Orange with a healthy dose of Soylent Green thrown in.
This has nothing to do with Zero Tolerance idiocy, nor with hysteria after the Sandy Hook shootings. It is not idiocy. It is deliberate. It is a tactic. Idiocy is just the smoke screen. This is a program to condition, to terrorize, to brainwash our children into fearing and hating guns, patriotism, and Americanism. If the Liberal scum can ruin our children, they have won.
More zero tolerance idiocy pointed at a 3-year-old:
Grand Island Preschooler Asked to Change the Sign for His Name in School
http://www.1011now.com/home/headlines/Grand-Island-Preschooler-Forbidden-Sign-Language-for-His-Own-Name-167394325.html
School District Says Deaf Student Not Required to Change Name
http://www.1011now.com/home/headlines/School-District-Says-Deaf-Student-Not-Required-to-Change-Name-167784235.html?device=phone