2" tiny Lego gun almost causes suspension

[Wall-E1]

Wait-a-minute!!!

Administrators at your kid's school thinks that suction cup darts are a weapon ... and YOU feel stupid?!?

Does that seem a little Kafka-esque to anyone else, here?!?

I really don't think I could express in words how much I HATE HATE HATE "zero-tolerance policies." I just call them "zero-thought policies."

Good point!

 

[LisaNJ25]

All common sense is gone... wonder what would happen is someone brought it a paper cut out of a gun

and the playground threads are nuts.. bring back the days of dodgeball

 

[DawnCt1]

Oh no, not an option here. At our local grade-school one of the stated rules is that the kids WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO RUN ON THE PLAYGROUND. I kid you not...

agnes!

LOL...at my children's former school, at recess the children were supposed to sit on the ground and play. Please keep in mind that they wore uniforms, so the girls were supposed to sit on the ground in their skirts...in the dead of winter...

There was a no running rule in effect also. And no ball playing. I remember one time some boys made a ball out of aluminum foil. They were repremanded because that ball could hurt someone. Really...

And people wonder why kids are overweight!!!

 

[cheermom1]

And people wonder why kids are overweight!!!

I know huh? this whole thing has gotten so out of control!!

 

[RitaZ.]

These stories make me nuts. One year, the last week of school, when a couple of my kids were in elementary school, the principal sent home a letter saying NOT to let your kids read above their grade level (?!?!?!) because they MIGHT read a book that would be read during the following school year and therefore wouldn't show what their true reading ability was next year. I wrote her back saying that I would NEVER prevent my child from reading above his/her grade level, and that I was shocked at the suggestion. She called me and explained herself away. Yeah, OK...whatever. What an insane concept.

That's asinine. Just for fun, I would have told the principal that I planned to forward her letter to Lucy Calkins and ask for her opinion on the matter.

 

[java]

A little update the Principal has called the parents to apologize for her over-reaction according to our local news.

 

[DawnCt1]

A little update the Principal has called the parents to apologize for her over-reaction according to our local news.

Its good to know that she has recovered her senses and realizes how ridiculous she looked.

 

[N.Bailey]

Its good to know that she has recovered her senses and realizes how ridiculous she looked.

I doubt she's changed her position at all. She more than likely has not come to her senses, but I'd imagine everyone is pointing out just how ridiculous they thought she was. So at this point, she's probably just trying to save face.

What really gets me the most is (and I read this yesterday so it may not be a direct quote), she phoned the mother and said your son went from straight A's to the NRA. I found that to be so telling about her train of thought. When your not pushing an ideology, wouldn't it be more likely that you'd just tell the parents how the events unfolded?

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

What really gets me the most is (and I read this yesterday so it may not be a direct quote), she phoned the mother and said your son went from straight A's to the NRA. I found that to be so telling about her train of thought. When your not pushing an ideology, wouldn't it be more likely that you'd just tell the parents how the events unfolded?

Here's what the article said:

Boom! Trouble ensued, with Patrick's mom getting a phone call from Public School 52 Principal Evelyn Mastroianni saying her son had somehow gone from straight A's to the NRA.

Are those really the words the principal used, or is the mother expressing how she felt it came across to her?

 

[N.Bailey]

An Editorial from the same site the OP linked to.


Gun nut: Principal's a Knucklehead for going ballistic over tiny plastic toy

One imagines the day when Evelyn Mastroianni writes her memoirs. Titled "One Tough Principal, or Rules are Meant to be Enforced to the One Millionth Decimal Point, Good Judgment Be Damned," the work opens:

"I remember the day. It was a day that started like all other days, in 200% compliance with the chancellor's regs. But then I stumbled on the kid. Patrick Timoney was his name. I'd had business with this 9-year-old before, and I didn't let him fool me with his big brown eyes.

"Because I saw what Patrick (Pat) Timoney had in his hand. Right there in plain sight in the cafeteria, surrounded by who knows how many other children, he was holding a 2-inch plastic machine gun.

"For an instant, and just for an instant, I saw my career flash in front of my eyes. Because the one thing I knew was that in my position, you couldn't give a micron. You give a pass to a kid with a Lego toy, and the next thing, you'll be starting down a slippery slope to a school full of .45s. Sure as shootin'.

"That's why I hauled the kid to the office. He's lucky I didn't suspend him, and luckier still that I wasn't carrying my 2-inch plastic handcuffs."

Another author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Emerson's 21st century spiritual soulmate elaborated, "A 2-inch plastic toy is not a weapon, idiot." And then he handed Evelyn Mastroianni an engraved New York Knucklehead Award.

It is 2 inches tall, and plastic.


http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/02/05/2010-02-05_gun_nut.html

 

[N.Bailey]

Here's what the article said: Are those really the words the principal used, or is the mother expressing how she felt it came across to her?

Maybe I am wrong, but I read it to mean that this is what the principal said.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

An Editorial from the same site the OP linked to.


Gun nut: Principal's a Knucklehead for going ballistic over tiny plastic toy

One imagines the day when Evelyn Mastroianni writes her memoirs. Titled "One Tough Principal, or Rules are Meant to be Enforced to the One Millionth Decimal Point, Good Judgment Be Damned," the work opens:

"I remember the day. It was a day that started like all other days, in 200% compliance with the chancellor's regs. But then I stumbled on the kid. Patrick Timoney was his name. I'd had business with this 9-year-old before, and I didn't let him fool me with his big brown eyes.

"Because I saw what Patrick (Pat) Timoney had in his hand. Right there in plain sight in the cafeteria, surrounded by who knows how many other children, he was holding a 2-inch plastic machine gun.

"For an instant, and just for an instant, I saw my career flash in front of my eyes. Because the one thing I knew was that in my position, you couldn't give a micron. You give a pass to a kid with a Lego toy, and the next thing, you'll be starting down a slippery slope to a school full of .45s. Sure as shootin'.

"That's why I hauled the kid to the office. He's lucky I didn't suspend him, and luckier still that I wasn't carrying my 2-inch plastic handcuffs."

Another author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Emerson's 21st century spiritual soulmate elaborated, "A 2-inch plastic toy is not a weapon, idiot." And then he handed Evelyn Mastroianni an engraved New York Knucklehead Award.

It is 2 inches tall, and plastic.


http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/02/05/2010-02-05_gun_nut.html

That is HILARIOUS!!

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Maybe I am wrong, but I read it to mean that this is what the principal said.

Maybe it was. That's not how I read it. It sounded to me like an interpretation by the mother of how the general tone of the conversation came across. I can't imagine a principal calling and saying "Your kid went from straight A's to the NRA." But then again, the whole thing is pretty ridiculous.

 

[LisaR]

Maybe it was. That's not how I read it. It sounded to me like an interpretation by the mother of how the general tone of the conversation came across. I can't imagine a principal calling and saying "Your kid went from straight A's to the NRA." But then again, the whole thing is pretty ridiculous.

I read it like you read it too, MaryAnnDVC. This is what made me initially lose my faith in the mom. Did the principal grossly overreact? Yes. But did she really make the NRA comment or did the mom say it? As usual, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

 

[N.Bailey]

Here is an update to the apology from the same site. Sincere? Not IMO!

School principal Evelyn Mastroianni apologizes to Patrick Timoney's mom for tiny toy gun bust
Apologies came too late for the still-angry mother of a Staten Island fourth-grade student who was yanked from lunch for bringing a tiny toy gun to school.

"The principal called me and said, 'I'm sorry, I never meant for it to go this far,'" said Laura Timoney, who also received a call from the superintendent.

"She sounded upset," said Timoney, unmoved by the call from Public School 52 Principal Evelyn Mastroianni. "I think she is sorry that this is happening. I wish she was sorry for Patrick."

The apologies came after the widespread attention accompanying Tuesday's near-suspension of Timoney's 9-year-old son, Patrick.

The fourth-grader and a classmate were playing with their Lego figures and miniature toy guns in the school cafeteria Tuesday.

Then Patrick was taken to the principal's office and told to fill out paperwork admitting an "A-4 infraction."

"She told me to write that I had a gun," Patrick said. "She said, 'A gun is a gun.'"

Only his gun was a teeny-tiny plastic machine gun, about as deadly as a crayon.

"The principal made an error in judgment by overreacting when the toy was found," acknowledged Education Department spokesman Matthew Mittenthal.

While Mittenthal said the principal apologized to Patrick, the Timoneys insisted that never happened.

"The principal hasn't spoken to me at all," the boy said.

Mastroianni remained silent on the issue, with a school security officer chasing off a Daily News reporter.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...principal_i_blew_toy_gun_flap.html?r=ny_local

 

[N.Bailey]

Maybe it was. That's not how I read it. It sounded to me like an interpretation by the mother of how the general tone of the conversation came across. I can't imagine a principal calling and saying "Your kid went from straight A's to the NRA." But then again, the whole thing is pretty ridiculous.

I read it like you read it too, MaryAnnDVC. This is what made me initially lose my faith in the mom. Did the principal grossly overreact? Yes. But did she really make the NRA comment or did the mom say it? As usual, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

You both might be right, but the writers clearly put """" marks around all the comments made by the mother and son. It doesn't appear to be a direct quote from mom?

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

You both might be right, but the writers clearly put """" marks around all the comments made by the mother and son. It doesn't appear to be a direct quote from mom?

I looked...there are no quotes about going from straight A to NRA.

 

[Liberty Belle]

You're not going to believe this, but I swear it's true.

I was walking through our school library today (I'm a para educator at an elementary school), look down and see something black on the carpet. I picked it up and it was a tiny Lego gun!

How bizarre is that?!

 

[luvmy3]

I doubt she's changed her position at all. She more than likely has not come to her senses, but I'd imagine everyone is pointing out just how ridiculous they thought she was. So at this point, she's probably just trying to save face.

What really gets me the most is (and I read this yesterday so it may not be a direct quote), she phoned the mother and said your son went from straight A's to the NRA. I found that to be so telling about her train of thought. When your not pushing an ideology, wouldn't it be more likely that you'd just tell the parents how the events unfolded?

Thats what bothered me too, and I took what it said in the article the same as you.

You're not going to believe this, but I swear it's true.

I was walking through our school library today (I'm a para educator at an elementary school), look down and see something black on the carpet. I picked it up and it was a tiny Lego gun!

How bizarre is that?!

Whoever had it probably ditched it after hearing about this story, no sense in risking getting caught with it and getting suspension

 

[Mermaid02]

I doubt she's changed her position at all. She more than likely has not come to her senses, but I'd imagine everyone is pointing out just how ridiculous they thought she was. So at this point, she's probably just trying to save face.

What really gets me the most is (and I read this yesterday so it may not be a direct quote), she phoned the mother and said your son went from straight A's to the NRA. I found that to be so telling about her train of thought. When your not pushing an ideology, wouldn't it be more likely that you'd just tell the parents how the events unfolded?

I agree- she's just trying to save face.