Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Friday, March 3, 2006
BB gun at school — sanity check time?
Rules are rules. But some situations call for leaders to exercise their judgment, too.
So here’s the question — is Xenia school board going overboard if it expels a 12-year-old boy for bringing a BB gun on school grounds?
Here’s what happened. The boy left the middle school he attends after the last bell, went home, got the BB gun and went to meet his buddies for some target shooting into the water of a nearby creek. Unfortunately, he met the other guys on the grounds of an elementary school and he was carrying the BB gun in his hand. A school official spotted him and that’s what initially led to a 10-day suspension.
But the district’s “no tolerance” procedure in a weapons case is to automatically move for expulsion. So administrators are asking the school board to toss him. Superintendent Jeff Lewis says in Ameila Robinson’s story that the kid had no malicious intent, did not realize he was doing anything wrong and the police said he did nothing threating or illegal.
Expulsion is a sensible punishment for bringing a weapon to school, even a BB gun. Every kid, this boy included, should know that under no circumstances is it permissible to bring a gun — real, BB, even a toy gun — onto the grounds of a school in the post-Columbine world.
But is a 10-day suspension enough? Or should the board approve his expulsion?
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