At a public school Christmas(!) program when I was in the third grade, I played the part of one of Santa's elves. I was the elf responsible for making toy guns, and my rhyming lines recounted the high demand I experienced from all the boys and girls. Really.

I don't expect you'd see that in schools today. I don't know how we got to this level of slobbering idiocy. Yes, I know we don't have the principal's side of the story, and yes, I know it's the Daily Caller. But five-year-old, cap gun, and traumatizing threat aren't phrases that go together, no matter how paranoid you are. We must have somehow asked for this, but I don't know where or when.

I did not know of Old RPM Daddy's history as the lord of war, an arms smuggling merchant of death.

My kind of villainous scum. When I establish the Sith Empire of America, I'll be in touch...

My son got in trouble for drawing a WWII dog-fight between British fighter pilots and Nazis who were going down in flames. I went crazy. Those who know me, know who won. If I were this kid's mom, I'd be suing for emotional abuse. And I'd pull him out of that school so fast.

@ORD: You won't see anything like that in any public school in America, some skip the mid/late-December program altogether to avoid controversy, even in the lily-white ex-urbs where I live.

IMO the "feministing" (LOVE that word!) is throughout our society, masculinity has come to be widely viewed as a defect of character.

KateC, what I don't understand is why your story isn't the norm.

I don't understand the parents that accept these suspensions without raising absolute hell.

And I truly don't understand how we can have lawyers suing for every little thing on earth, but not having any sort of law movement to stop this abuse, especially in an environment where law grads are having trouble finding jobs.

(First thing I would do as recently graduated lawyer with no job is find someone big and juicy to sue.)

At 6th grade camp in Michigan circa 1974, we shot .22 rifles. No permission slip or previous experience required. Unthinkable today.

It's a CAP GUN for Christ's sake! They shoot.... nothing. Hell, the caps don't work half the time. There is NO threat of violence. Period. End of story.

Every time I hear another one of these stories I get absolutely infuriated because with every one person that speaks up, one more defends it with some other blah blah paranoia sheep-minded bullshit about "safety".

I don't even have kids yet but when I do, I'm terrified for what the future holds for them.

If you leave your kid in a school like this because you enjoy the free babysitting, you're a rotten parent and should never have reproduced in the first place. Someone should shoot you (with a gun!) and take your kids away, to be raised by someone who is sufficiently competent for the job.

"I don't even have kids yet but when I do, I'm terrified for what the future holds for them."

Indeed. It makes it difficult for me to understand why you would even have kids. Presumably you care about these hypothetical kids, right? You aren't just having them for your own entertainment?

If you think that by having a kid you can turn the tide of idiocy, just stop that right now. We've already lost.

It's as the Onion says: "By the year 2100 there will be five smart people on Earth, swallowed whole by more than 12 billion mouth-breathers incapable of understanding the binary exponentiation that swamped the Earth with their like." Don't produce offspring just to doom them to that fate.

"First thing I would do as recently graduated lawyer with no job is find someone big and juicy to sue."

I understand the sentiment, jerry, but when you sue a public school, it doesn't put them out of business. It just hits the taxpayers in that school district. Although maybe they deserve it, because it's the numbskulls living in that district who have elected their school board.

But you know what I mean - if your kid was terrorized into wetting his pants by someone who works at McDonald's, and you sued them, Mickey D's would have to cover the legal losses by raising its food prices, so business would suffer, and the bad publicity wouldn't do them any favors either.

But how are these school officials penalized by the outrage of anyone who doesn't live in that school district?

There's an irritating similarity between school bureaucrats and the snots working for the TSA. And they make more money than most of the rest of us, which REALLY pisses me off.

The interesting thing in this is that they didn't call the parents until he pissed his pants.

If LEO had found the same child walking down the street carrying the cap gun or even a real gun, the first thing they would have to do is read him his rights and call the parents (and or lawyer) and get them in the child's area as they interrogated the child.

So effectively the school, as a government entity, violated the child's fifth amendment rights.

"So effectively the school, as a government entity, violated the child's fifth amendment rights."

Ah. A rights challenge.

Children have guardians because they cannot exercise rights. Thise has played out as it has because guardians do not protect themselves or their progeny against grasping power.

Children have guardians because they cannot exercise rights. Thise has played out as it has because guardians do not protect themselves or their progeny against grasping power. -- Radwaste at June 1, 2013 3:40 AM

And that is what I'm pointing out. The administration grilled or otherwise confined him for two hour before contacting his parents or legal guardians.

I think I need to hit the next local school board meeting and get a rule in that the school has to contact the parents before administering any punishment.