Did the school do right?

Question

Today my 9 year old 4th grader comes home to tell me a student was suspended  for having a plastic knife. At first I was was annoyed that that her elementary school jump to the extreme. But than she tells me he was acting like he was killing other students. To me that's violence at school and with all the shootings the school was in the right. I have nephews so I know how Boys can get to playing, but this is a little beyond  just playing. What do you think? Did the school go over board or did they do  the right thing?

Answer

The school did the right thing. Extreme? Maybe so. But it's nice to hear when a school actually follows thru on any and ALL red flags for the safety of others. No matter how big or small.

Answer

I'm actually a 4th grade teacher..  Depending on the state you are in..  There are actual standards the principal must follow to determine suspension. Where I live, if they use anything as a weapon with intent to harm another student, it is an automatic 5 day suspension. There is a little leeway depending on the students background (first timer vs repeated offense)..  So they might get 3 days.. but they don't take it lightly. They need protect their students and keep them safe.

Answer

Majority of schools have a no tolerance policy, including toy weapons. Even fake ones can look real and intimidating.

Answer

Most schools have a zero tolerance policy. He's doesn't sound like too much of a threat,  but the school has to  treat his behavior as one.

Answer

They did go a little overboard. They could have called his parents and had a conference explaining why you can't pretend to kill people and that it's not okay to play with any kind of knife at all. But I also understand and this was (hopefully) a good way to nip that kind of behavior in the bud.

Answer

While it's likely that the student was just playing around, I think the schools is still being appropriately cautious. Given the violence that can show up in schools they probably need to take every threat seriously. I feel like too often when something bad happens we hear, "oh he made threats, but we thought he was just joking around." 
It's also possible that the student has past disciplinary issues that lead to a more serious punishment this time around. Hopefully they look into it and take further action to make sure everything with this boy is okay.

Answer

A few weeks ago I might have thought they went overboard. But recently my child had his life threatened at school by another student (cornered in the bathroom while the kid showed him the chain necklace and pill he was going to use to kill him). The school's solution was to put the other kid in ISS (in school suspension for a few days).

This kid started out just talking trash to other students. The principal literally said to me, as if it was comforting, 'He runs his mouth a lot but he's never hurt anyone.' So if he started by running his mouth and progressed to cornering younger kids and threatening to kill them ('weapons' in hand) what's next? And could this not have been avoided if someone had actually taken his behavior seriously from the beginning?

So now I am left wondering if we are taking instances like these seriously enough. And I definitely lean more toward strict no tolerance policies.

Answer

What happens when they play something like cops and robbers?

Did the school do right?

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