Kindergartner gets detention...for bringing Lego to school

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**Some_Call_Me_Tim?**

Yep. This doesn't make an ounce of sense.

> http://news.yahoo.com/kindergartener-gets-detention-forced-apologize-lego-gun-size-121817459.html

~Tim?

Edit: Fixed title typo.

**Dreadclaw69**

Yet another student has landed in a heap of trouble for having something that represents a gun, but isn’t actually anything like a real gun.
This time, the perpetrator was a six-year-old boy. The menacing weapon in question was a plastic Lego G.I. Joe gun roughly the size of a quarter, reports WGGB-TV.
The incident unfolded Friday morning on a school bus headed to Old Mill Pond Elementary School in Palmer, Mass. Another student on the bus spotted the Lego piece and promptly shouted to the driver.
Mieke Crane, the mother of the unnamed kindergartener who made the mistake of bringing the miniature weapon on the bus, is not happy.
“I think they overreacted, totally. I totally do,” Crane told WGGB.
“I could see if it was you know, an Airsoft gun or some sort of pistol or live bullets or something, but this is just a toy,” she added. “At six-years-old, I don’t really think he understood the zero-tolerance policy and related it to this as the same.”
School officials, who declined to speak to the ABC affiliate, promptly sent a letter home to all parents explaining the incident. The letter assured parents that there was no real gun, only a small molded piece of plastic from a Danish toy conglomerate.
According to Crane, her son was forced to apologize to the bus driver in a letter. He has to serve detention on Tuesday. Also, he may face a temporary suspension from riding the bus.
Bizarrely, the student who tattled on the boy also had to apologize to the bus driver, WGGB says.
This incident is the latest incident of anti-gun hysteria to erupt in a school setting. There have been many others just this academic year.
An eighth-grader in West Virginia was suspended and, astonishingly, arrested after he refused to remove a t-shirt supporting the National Rifle Association returned to school on Monday. The courageous 14-year-old then returned to school wearing exactly the same shirt, which depicts a hunting rifle with the statement “protect your right.” (RELATED: Eighth-grader arrested over NRA shirt returns to school in same shirt)
Officials at an elementary school in small-town Michigan impounded a third-grader boy’s batch of 30 homemade birthday cupcakes because they were adorned with green plastic figurines representing World War Two soldiers. The school principal branded the military-themed cupcakes “insensitive” in light of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. (RELATED: School confiscates third-grader’s cupcakes topped with toy soldiers)
At Genoa-Kingston Middle School in northeast Illinois, a teacher threatened an eighth-grader with suspension if he did not remove his t-shirt emblazoned with the interlocking rifles insignia of the United States Marines. (RELATED: Junior high teacher tells kid to remove Marines t-shirt or get suspended)
At Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland, a student was suspended for two days because his teacher thought he shaped a strawberry, pre-baked toaster pastry into something resembling a gun. (RELATED: Second-grader suspended for having breakfast pastry shaped like a gun)
At Poston Butte High School in Arizona, a high school freshman was suspended for setting a picture of a gun as the desktop background on his school-issued computer. (RELATED: Freshman suspended for picture of gun)
At D. Newlin Fell School in Philadelphia, school officials reportedly yelled at a student and then searched her in front of her class after she was found with a paper gun her grandfather had made for her. (RELATED: Paper gun causes panic)
In rural Pennsylvania, a kindergarten girl was suspended after she told another girl that she planned to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty toy gun that bombards targets with soapy bubbles. (RELATED: Kindergartener suspended for making ‘terroristic threat’ with Hello Kitty bubble gun)
At Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Maryland, a six-year-old boy was suspended for making the universal kid sign for a gun, pointing at another student and saying “pow.” That boy’s suspension was later lifted and his name cleared.

The more I read that story, and the others at the bottom the more I

**hotsauceman1**

HAve you ever even stepped on a lego? Those things are deadly.

**Frazzled**

Wait, why did he have to apologize? Was the bus driver i GI Joe Vietnam and having Lego flashbacks?

**Dreadclaw69**

Frazzled wrote:
Wait, why did he have to apologize? Was the bus driver i GI Joe Vietnam and having Lego flashbacks?

Clearly he is a veteran of the Lilliput campaign and the sight of such a small toy gun caused his PTSD to trigger

**hotsauceman1**

Did we just find gulliver?

**Mr. Burning**

Seems a logical step to take.

An armed citizenry would have stopped this before the threat made it to school.

**Desubot**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
HAve you ever even stepped on a lego? Those things are deadly.

Oh god noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

I remember rolling off the bed during an earth quake onto my lego city that was on the floor. >< was not fun picking the blocks off my back.

anyway this zero tolerance stuff is getting silly.

Edit: also "Bizarrely, the student who tattled on the boy also had to apologize to the bus driver, WGGB says. "

damn tattletales

**Frazzled**

Zero tolerance is a cover only.

Zero tolerance would apply to weapons or fake weapons. A doll accessory does not apply. Thats the problem with all these cases, idiots walk among us and have power.

**Ahtman**

**Frazzled**

Thats awesome.
EDIT: I've stepped on more than a few of the Kid's Legos. Its an experience in pain most definitely, especially when it sends you careening into the wall or a table....

**Grimtuff**

A story like this deserves a very special kind of facepalm.

School would gak a brick if any of us brought in any of our models.

**Quintinus**

Mr. Burning wrote:
Seems a logical step to take.

An armed citizenry would have stopped this before the threat made it to school.

Whatever you say, britbong

**Azenine**

Vladsimpaler wrote:
Mr. Burning wrote:
Seems a logical step to take.

An armed citizenry would have stopped this before the threat made it to school.

Whatever you say, britbong

I believe he was being sarcastic (?).

**Mr. Burning**

Azenine wrote:
Vladsimpaler wrote:
Mr. Burning wrote:
Seems a logical step to take.

An armed citizenry would have stopped this before the threat made it to school.

Whatever you say, britbong

I believe he was being sarcastic (?).

Yup, kinda.

The whole kneejerk reaction to a kid bringing his legos to school is totally ridiculous.

**kronk**

Ahtman wrote:

This needs a column for stepping on a d4.

**Frazzled**

Yep, and completely unnecessary.

Why did the bus driver even report it? Seriously?

**Quintinus**

kronk wrote:
Ahtman wrote:

This needs a column for stepping on a d4.

I would not wish for even my worst enemy to step on one of these....

**Vulcan**

The whole point of zero tolerance is to avoid using any sort of thought or judgment in dealing with potential violations.

Which makes me wonder how that works in an institution that is supposed to be teaching KIDS how to think and make judgments...

**daedalus**

Vulcan wrote:
The whole point of zero tolerance is to avoid using any sort of thought or judgment in dealing with potential violations.

Which makes me wonder how that works in an institution that is supposed to be teaching KIDS how to think and make judgments...

I thought the point of modern (American, at least) schools was to teach obedience, order, and respect to power.

I remember back in school having rubber band guns, drawing pictures of people shooting (and stabbing, and immolating) other people.

That was the whole point of that red pen they made you buy. All the blood.

Everyone's always bitching about the kids, but I think things are gonna get reeeeaaaaal crazy weird here in the states in about 30 years.

**Frazzled**

Vulcan wrote:
The whole point of zero tolerance is to avoid using any sort of thought or judgment in dealing with potential violations.

Which makes me wonder how that works in an institution that is supposed to be teaching KIDS how to think and make judgments...

Who told you schools were about teaching kids to think?

**Andrew1975**

This is very stupid, what's next? Does the art teacher get taken away in handcuffs because he used a GlueGUN. Secretary sent to prison over staple gun scandal, Janitor gets the chair for using chalkgun?

Don't mention the track coach's starting gun.

People are idiots!

**Grey Templar**

Hey, Stapleguns are no joke.

**Andrew1975**

Grey Templar wrote:
Hey, Stapleguns are no joke.

Oh I worked construction with some fun guys during college, let me tell you the joys of staple and tack guns.

**Satan's Little Helper**

Maybe they should be more strict on young kids playing games like Call of Duty instead of them playing with Lego.

**hotsauceman1**

daedalus wrote:
Vulcan wrote:
The whole point of zero tolerance is to avoid using any sort of thought or judgment in dealing with potential violations.

Which makes me wonder how that works in an institution that is supposed to be teaching KIDS how to think and make judgments...

I thought the point of modern (American, at least) schools was to teach obedience, order, and respect to power.

I remember back in school having rubber band guns, drawing pictures of people shooting (and stabbing, and immolating) other people.

That was the whole point of that red pen they made you buy. All the blood.

Everyone's always bitching about the kids, but I think things are gonna get reeeeaaaaal crazy weird here in the states in about 30 years.

Even red pens are banned, Might hurt a kid fragile psyche

**daedalus**

hotsauceman1 wrote:

Even red pens are banned, Might hurt a kid fragile psyche

You're kidding, right?

**Grimtuff**

daedalus wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:

Even red pens are banned, Might hurt a kid fragile psyche

You're kidding, right?

No.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=red+pen+ban

**daedalus**

This is one of those moments were I think to myself, "This is real. This is not some twisted Terry Gilliam inspired nightmare. This is real. How does everyone know how insane this is, yet it continues to happen?"

Sometimes the only thing I can think is that maybe this IS a Terry Gilliam inspired nightmare after all.

**Azenine**

This whole situation is just plain stupid. And the saddest thing about it, is it's all true and not some weird nightmare, like daedalus has said above me.

Oh, and I second Satan's Little Helper's comment about parents controlling what computer games their child plays.