It’s been at least a week since someone had a blind panic over something vaguely resembling a gun, so here we go again. A school bus driver in Auburn, Maine, stopped his vehicle and immediately called police after over hearing a student on board say the word rifle .
The driver, from Sherwood Heights Elementary School, opted to call in the cops rather than question the child himself.
When the Auburn police arrived, they discovered a toy Power Rangers gun inside the backpack of one of the students, according to Superintendent Katy Grondin, who added that the boy was not removed from the bus as he was getting off at the next stop anyway.
Police spoke to the boy and said he can’t bring that to school, Grondin said. The cops didn’t confiscate the toy, but the boy will face a meeting with teachers and his parents where his punishment will be debated.
Referring to the school’s policy on weapons, the Superintendent stated that it prohibits anything that could be perceived as real. We tell students, To you it’s a toy, but it’s not appropriate. Grondin said, adding that “Parents need to be mindful to review what might be going in backpacks before school.
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One parent interviewed by reporters covering the incident stated I don’t think toy guns should be anywhere… Parents should be checking the backs. I know we do.
This incident is the latest in a long line of overreactions in schools to anything remotely considered gun like.
Other similar idiotic cases include the infamous Hello Kitty bubble gun terroristic incident, the miniature lego gun school bus massacre, the plastic toy soldier, holding a gun on a cup cake catastophe, and the perilous pencil pointing pow powers of Virginia.
Even food bitten into the shape of a gun has been cracked down upon with suspensions.
In many of the cases, children as young as four or five years old were interrogated, or even arrested with potentially permanent criminal record reprecussions.
The list of previous incidents of this nature is now so long that it has prompted lawmakers to take action.
The latest to do so are Florida representatives who have introduced legislation that says simulating a firearm is not grounds for disciplinary action. The bill lists brandishing a partially consumed pastry or other food item as something that should not land students in hot water.
It also protects kids playing with small toy guns, simulating guns with a finger or a pencil, drawing a picture of a gun, or wearing clothes that depict guns.
Maryland State Sen. J. B. Jennings also recently introduced a bill to stop such idiotic over reactions being played out over and over again in schools. The Senator told CNN last March, My constituents have called me. They’re upset about this Their children, their students, are getting in trouble for these minor infractions and getting suspended. And they want it addressed.
Oklahoma State representative Sally Kern also hopes that her bill HB 2351, dubbed as the Common Sense Zero Tolerance Act will prevent such incidents from taking place in her State.
Rights group The Rutherford Foundation, has represented several families who have been caught up in such zero tolerance lunacy. John W. Whitehead, President of the group recently stated We all want to keep the schools safe, but I’d far prefer to see something credible done about actual threats, rather than this ongoing, senseless targeting of imaginary horseplay.
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Comedians Make Weird, Horrifying Stay in School PSA, Media Thinks It’s the Real Deal
The newest viral video to make the rounds was a Stay in School PSA from Australia that depicts well, the seriously violent consequences of skipping school. The ad was created by comedy duo Henry & Aaron, but a number of news sites ended up running with the story as if it was an actual PSA released with a serious purpose. Ah, internet, what wouldn’t we believe without you?
The video itself was posted on the official Henry & Aaron YouTube account, which also features videos from their comedy Christmas special and one video of a man in a wedding dress, not to mention their first-ever mass viral video: a similarly violent PSA for the Central Institute of Technology.
Sites like BuzzFeed, Mashable, and The Daily Caller picked up on the PSA as completely legitimate, while a couple of sites did end up updating their original posts to note the lack of authenticity.
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