Censorship is a huge problem in our world today. Sure, we have rights under the Federal government to speak our mind more freely than in many other countries, but on the state and local level, censorship can be a huge problem (and don’t get me started on social media’s censorship of opinions that they disagree with).
Still, even with all the censorship experienced on state and local levels, a recent story out of Maryland may take the cake for this years stupidest anti-gun censorship (hat tip to here for the lead). Lenore Skenazy writes,
A Maryland eighth grader was suspended for three weeks and did not get to graduate with his class in June. This was his punishment for appearing in the background of a friend’s video in which said friend held a disabled airsoft gun. The eighth grader also posed for a photo with the friend, who held him in a headlock with the fake gun pointing at his head. The picture was shared with 13 other friends on Snapchat.
Are you silently giving thanks that social media didn’t exist when you were a middle schooler? Me too. The 14-year-old boy later admitted he was trying to look like a “badass.”
On Monday his dad—David Bernstein, a nonprofit director—wrote a piece about the incident for The Washington Post. He said he had asked the private Silver Spring school to reconsider the punishment. After all, his son did not threaten anyone with a gun. He did not own a gun. He did not say anything about wanting to kill students, or take his own life, or do anything violent. He was, his dad wrote, just being a “knucklehead.”
But the school insisted the incident was “very, very serious” and therefore warranted suspension through the end of the year.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I did some stupid stuff when I was fourteen. Probably everyone did some stupid stuff at that age. But this kid didn’t threaten anyone. He didn’t hurt anyone. And, let’s be frank, his teachers were probably listening to music with lyrics advocating more violence than this silly video supposedly advocated.
Was what the kid did stupid? Absolutely. Did this deserve a suspension? No. Since when does a kid’s off-campus activities become the business of the school?
It doesn’t. But that is the paranoid, childish culture that we currently live in.
It appears that the IDIOT “principal” needs to go back to a CONSTITUTIONAL TEACHING SCHOOL and LEARN what it means to be an American instead of a KNUCKLEHEAD!!!!!
The father should sue the school on his son’t behalf. This is a clear violation of privacy (the incident happened outside of school) and freedom of speech (punishment for what the boy showed — rather than said). There’s nothing like a juicy, noisy lawsuit to make pious censors pull in their horns.
I agree, sue the school and those involved in suspending the kid!
Leslie,
I totally agree. Apprentlly the school has never read the US Constitution, especially the Principal.
I would definitely sue the Principle separate from the school board but i would also sue the school board. The have broken several consitutional laws as well as elevated this into an absurd level that the media coverage alone may sprark some young influential kid to propagage a real incident. Every time you let the NEWS media get hold of a “Jusie” story the will run it into the ground. The principle should also be dismissed with prejudice noting privacy, neglect to allow the school board vote on such a heinous punishment that will ruin this childs life FOREVER. We don’t even want to get into the hundreds of hours of mental therapy this child will need given the severity of the punishment, the lose of pay for the rest of his life and this ptinciple may have done this with other children or like punishment that she is not trained to evaluate, breaks so many amendments and is sitting at her desk chuckling about her actions with a ruler in hand (the sudo item of athourity in school systems) just wzing for the next kid. I would also investigate the principle and other teachers for possible other violations of these childrens rights. Just let me know and i will come out an do the unbiased situation. If someone pays my air fare because this is exactly what I do for a living.
Yes! A very good course in our constitution is available through Hillsdale College in Michigan (and perhaps others as well) .
The course can be taken on line.
I “Double-dog dare” the principal (and others) to grow up and take the course!
I think those in Congress should take that course as a prerequisite to them taking their seat …
Not take but PASS that course.
Democrats = Hysterics. They are so afraid of decent, honest citizens!
Apparently the school is being run by some sissified twits. They are as weak as water!
Zero Tolerance equals Zero Intelligence. The school administration certainly showed that they have zero intelligence – in spades.
No kidding. Next, the school will expel anyone getting their picture taken with a gun store off in the distance along with twenty- five other stores. When I was in sixth grade a kid brought a hand grenade to school. The teacher set it aside until after class and then gave it back to the kid. That was in 1959 and even though the grenade was all there I don’t think it was a working model. My my how times have changed.
It is a sad commentary on degradation of this country a lot of which comes from immagration these people and I use the word with reluctance. We do not say the pledge of allegiance anymore. Maybe this is the reason for this degradation. We have been letting these (people) into the country and they are gere only for the free stuff lets stop the free stuff and give them the work stuff. Look at history folks wise up.
As a retired junior-high principal, I find this action appalling! We educators get blamed for a lot of “crap” by so many that think they know so much about how to teach, but THIS is a prime example of why the “know-it-alls” know-it-all. The “educators” involved here are an embarrassment to my profession. As a kid, I carried my rifle on the school-bus, stored it in my own locker and rode home with my friends on their bus to go hunting. As principal I sponsored my own archery and b.b.gun clubs after school with never a problem. Common sense was more common back then. Good-Luck World!!!!
Unfortunately, common sense is a gift from God. You certainly don’t get it with your college diploma.
Looks like a bunch of teachers need detention over the summer.
I have lived way too long! I am a 78 year old Vietnam Veteran who is wondering where the parents and children today are getting the drugs that are turning them into the raving, stupid lunatics I’m hearing,and reading about.. KNOCK IT OFF AMERICA and take a good look at yourself. Stop listening to the Democrats. You aren’t doing anything to be proud of and you are making America the laughing stock of the planet!
Yeah and at the same time glorifying hollyweird’s constant use of guns.
Stupid teachers stupid principles YOU CANT TEACH STUPID the whinnie liberal idiots the school admin.
When the shit goes down teachers and libs are the first to go. Hell ill even help
nothing new in half/wit nation.
Do these people at this school or any school for that matter, realize what they have actually done to this child? Was what the kid doing dumb, yes. But it is the concern of the school what a child does at home or at a friends house? No. Now this poor kid will likely have to repeat the year which is a very sever blow for a young man. The teachers or principle are try to ruin this boy’s life. The boy will now likely endure and great deal of harassment for several years for getting put back. It can be a huge psychological blow to a young boy.
I was put back a year in my second grade and I was harassed by other kids because I “flunked.” Enduring the harassment was bad enough but the worse thing of all was the loss of my friends during school. I never saw them again, they just disappeared. I never recovered from that and hated school with a passion.
I thought the story was about that perfect wife pictured at the top of the story.
Seriously, Progressives need to demonize guns no matter how silly they appear. What do you think this (and other classmates) will do next time someone pulls out an innocent paint gun, bb gun or even a cap gun. they are being conditioned to recoil like it is a snake. Best thing to do for all your kids and grand kids is to delete all the social media accounts that are tracking their every move anyway. IMHO
Since these kids made the pictures in a private home. Not in a school building, not on school grounds. The school really had no legal authority to punish the boy for conduct not under their control. The father should be suing the school, the principal, and any staff that was involved in the punishment. For violation of the kids constitutional rights! Get thee to a lawyer!
Apparently it’s a good thing that none of us have ever appeared in the background of anything going on in this world.
I do not think the boy will be held back a year. That rarely happens anymore, but it will make his grades all Ds.
This kid isn’t the first, and most likely won’t be the last.
Until these idiots get a good dressing down, it will continue.
As mentioned above, these people need detention for the summer. WITHOUT PAY!
Instead of a dressing down they need a raise——————————————————–Raise them 15-20 feet off the ground by applying a size 13 steel toed boot to their ass. Multiple times
As a former school principal, I can say that this guy is a disgrace to the profession. I had a live fire range out behind my Agriculture department. If the kids were good during the week, they got to bring their guns to school on Friday, and I would teach gun safety and proper gun handling techniques. They brought anything they wanted to shoot and I locked it up until class time. Then we had a ball for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I was there for four years. We never had an accident or a safety violation. This was 7-12 grades. It was also small town Texas. This guy doesn’t know a gun from his backside. What an idiot.
I believe that all these kids want, is to understand. And be told what they can do and what they can not do by someone they know as an authority figure and trust. And by allowing them and instructing them how to handle something of such power, you are transferring a little bit of that authority in you, to them. This can be such an awesome feeling.
I strongly believe that these school shootings are by boys that are so twisted up in the head that if they dare ask for help they know they won’t be believed or understood, so they can’t ever ask. So, by shooting up a classroom in horrible terror, they are saying, this is exactly what’s going on in my head, “why didn’t you help me!” WHY!! This is the only way they can show society their pain. And the older they get the further down they push the pain until it can not be gotten to at all. And then some day, just like a volcano, he/it erupts. 26 of the 27 worse school shootings were by boys from a single mother household. Now, what’s that tell you?
Where’s the father? Oh he’s out in society somewhere, nobody knows where. Well that’s strange as all get out! Why is the one authority figure missing from these boys lives?
The first time this story ran, the word “disabled” was left off when describing the gun. I commented on that, simply because “airsoft, bb, pellet, rimfire, centerfire” it doesn’t matter, you “NEVER POINT A GUN AT ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY!” That’s a Cardinal rule of Gun Safety, No matter what mechanism of propulsion is. Now they added disabled, but I still maintain that it doesn’t matter. Bad habits are bad habits, and should be discouraged. If the school wants to suspend him for violating a Gun Safety Rule, then I’m all for that. For posting a picture to social media when not on school time or property, the school has no jurisdiction over what a pupil does when they’re not in school or on school property. Period End of Subject. If their student manual says otherwise, then sue ’em for violsting the kid’s 1st Amendment Rights.
Let me get this straight, it’s okay with you that the school suspends the boy(s) for pointing a non-functioning airgun at each other off school property. A non-functioning airgun is the same as a cap gun. To your way of thinking, if I pointed my finger with my thumb as the hammer at anyone that would be breaking the cardinal rule of gun safety and would be grounds for suspension from school. Even if it were in the boys own home and a picture was taken of the playhouse. YOUR AS BAD AS THE CRAZY SCHOOL PEOPLE. YOU SOUND JUST LIKE AN ABUSIVE, CONTROL FREAKING COP!
I agree you DO NOT point a gun in the direction of anyone unless you are willing to shoot them. I used to play cops & robbers with my friends when I was young and now, I am “extremely careful” with any real gun and do not point anything that even resembles a real gun at anyone. But a cap gun, no. I’m sorry but that’s the freedom we have in this country.
The school principal is a disgrace to the education system. He is a total idiot.{Oh, allow me to raise it to the next level} He is a “fidiot”. A fidiot is someone too stupid to be just an idiot.
I sincerely hope the parents sue the school district, the principal, and anyone/everyone else who didn’t speak up for the boy. I know that the taxpayers will end up footing the bill if the parents win, but maybe that’ll wake them up and vote out the idiot school board(s) who back these unconstitutional folks.
I don’t have any kids in school anymore. The modern schools are obviously run by hysterical ding bats!
READ OUR 2ND AMENDMENT OF OUR CONSTITUTION! Permits, fees, registrations, are ALL INFRINGEMENTS to my freedom to protect myself and family. It’s none of the governments business what I have to protect myself. READ THE 2ND AMENDMENT! “…Without infringements”. WE DO NOT NEED ANY GOVERNMENT’S INTRUSION INTO OUR PRIVACY OR THEIR PERMISSION! *** Do you think the men who signed the Declaration of Independence got any kind of ‘permit’ from the British? WE MUST FIGHT ANY ‘LAWS’ THAT ARE CONTRARY TO OUR CONSTITUTION! This ‘law’ puts the government in control, not the ‘will of the people’. …And it does NOTHING to ‘outlaws’. ‘Laws and Regulations’ do not = ‘freedom’. Little bit by little bit they are chipping away at our freedoms….THE MEN WHO SIGNED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WERE IN FACT ‘OUT-LAWS’. We need to NOT submit to Un-Constitutional Laws.
since when does a school tell anyone what they can do with their private life? The school may not like it but they have NO control over a student once the student is off school property or away from school events. Sue the school and make the school provide a tutor to get your son back on track with the other students. It is high time educational facilities learn THEY ARE NOT IN CONTROL.
With the ignorance and intolerance of the school administration I have to ask if the children there can possibly be getting anything that might be considered education. Then one must ask why anyone would want their child to attend such an institution. And, yes. Sue the school for every last penny and asset they might have.
All the kids when i grew up were playing combat a TV show in the Allie
on 44East Hudson street with plastic guns or wooden ones.
boy shit has really changed.
The school shootings can be laid right at the feet of the feminist movement! 26 of the 27 worse school shootings in the U.S. are from boys with a single mother household.
Women and men should be equal in rights, but the radical feminist (3rdWave type) want to have men be docile and controllable such as soyboys. By coming up with Planed Parenthood and having men sell their sperm women started a movement that destroyed the family. By doing so, those would-be aggressive boys that have no father input, but that WANT and NEED that input in order to “calm down” inside and relax. Only a father or father figure can do this.
Notice how things became more & more out of control in this country as the feminists progressed through the years. They are attempting to take control of society by starting first with their very young children’s indoctrination. If their boy is of a passive kind then he’ll turn out a soyboy. If her son is of the aggressive design he’ll end up in jail or shooting up a school or . . . . . This is a simplified view of why things are today but all you have to do is check the back ground.
When someone shoots up some place or school and kills & injures bystanders and then a person on the sidelines says “Why don’t we do something OR Why aren’t the politicians doing anything.” Tell them, GO SEE THE RADICAL FEMINIST WOMEN AND THE MEN THAT GAVE THEM THEIR KEY.
Stupid ! Stupider ! STUPIDEST ! That’s the trouble when people no longer look at the Bible as their guide to good life and good living. On gun issues all they have to do is read The Gospel of Jesus according to St. Luke. During his time, the sword was the equivalent of a gun in modern times for self-defense. But what’s the use of arguing when the social media are biased from top to bottom. The press, radio, TV and movie all are controlled by the influential people who know that money talks and money easily buys any information outlet. So we can’t do much except to just wait for God’s Last Judgment to come and punish the culprits. God bless all of us: the good, the bad and the ugly. —- Skull.
I agree with you, that was a very clear explanation of what’s going on right now. And a very clear explanation of what’s coming. God bless you.
Hmmmmmm, are stupid unreasonable knee-jerk reactions by school officials like this a possible trigger that might motivate young impressionable kids to feel they have no other recourse but to strike back, like maybe, return to school with a real loaded gun and let school officials know exactly how they feel? Do stupid knee-jerk reactions beget stupid knee-jerk reactions? Is it possible that frustrated misguided youth are a product of imbecilic public educators? Could it be that these liberal public educators are the root of their own school violence problems? Sorry, all I did was present a lot of questions, no help at all, I sure.
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