8/22/2007

School suspends boy for drawing "doodles" of gun

MESA, Ariz. - School officials suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching what looked like a gun, saying the action posed a threat to his classmates.

The boy's parents said the drawing was a harmless doodle and school officials overreacted.

"The school made him feel like he committed a crime. They are doing more damage than good," said the boy's mother, Paula Mosteller.

The drawing did not show blood, bullets, injuries or target any human, the parents said. And the East Valley Tribune reported that the boy said he didn't intend for the picture to be a threat.

Administrators of Payne Junior High in nearby Chandler suspended the boy on Monday for five days but later reduced it to three days.

The boy's father, Ben Mosteller, said that when he went to the school to discuss his son's punishment, school officials mentioned the seriousness of the issue and talked about the massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School, where two teenagers shot and killed 12 students, a teacher and themselves in 1999. Mosteller said he was offended by the reference.

Chandler district spokesman Terry Locke said the crude sketch was "absolutely considered a threat," and that threatening words or pictures are punishable. . . .

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Keith said...

Assuming that the boy's parents are not crimminals, how about a local gunsmith offering the Boy's parents the chance to bring him round for a couple of hours, to see that there is enjoyable, respectable and (sometimes) paying work with guns. Or, perhaps a local shop or range could invite him round?

It would give the boy a chance to see that thinking gun does not get you punished every time,

it would make all of his classmates jealous as hell

and best of all, his school would be a lot less keen about repeating the suspension.

Keith

8/23/2007 7:18 AM  

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