Kid expelled for having a bb gun at school

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Indianola, OK (AP) - Some parents in the Indianola School District in Pittsburg County are upset because the sheriff's office wasn't called after a middle school student was caught with a B-B gun on campus.

Indianola Superintendent Jeff Maddox says the gun was found Monday and the student is suspended for the rest of the school year.

But Maddox says no call was made because he doesn't consider a B-B gun to be a real firearm.

The state Department of Education requires schools to report incidents within 14 days and a B-B gun is considered a firearm like a pistol or shotgun according to guidelines on the department's Web site.


http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0407/417529.html
 
There is no one definition of a firearm. Depending on how it is defined, a firearm can be a pellet gun or, as in this case, a B-B gun.
 
I think they should notify the cops cause you need to start a paper trail on these kids. He may be bring a 9mm next. Also, he may need attention, which could in some cases prevent another Columbine type situation. I work in a school and know that kids can move on to bigger things real quick.
 
Oh, dear! So many catch-phrases are just LEAPING to mind!

"You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

"Hiiiii, Joooker!"

What part of "no guns at school" was UNCLEAR to this kid?!? They ought to smack him upside the head just on shear principle! It don't get much dumber than that...

As far as the principal, I myself am not too clear on the legal distinctions between firearms and "non-firearms"... Does it have to work on gunpowder? Does it have to meet a certain projectile velocity? Does it have to have a hook-shaped trigger? Ah! I don't know. I wouldn't come down too hard on the principal over it... But, perhaps some additional training is in order?
 
What about a squirtgun? firearm? How about a plastic pistol that shoots suction cup darts? Cap gun? Realistically, they should have sent him to the principals office, given him some swats on the butt, called his parents to come pick up the bb gun, and that is that. I would be more worried if he brought a sheath knife to school, frankly. I am sure the kid knows the difference between a bb gun and a firearm, but retarded PC adults apparently don't so I suppose he will be on some sort of terrorist watch list if he tries to fly on an airline and have to make up a grade in school. I dare say that pre- highschool students would be less prone to do that sort of thing if they knew they faced 3 feet of pine paddle instead of some sort of vague administrative action or free time away from school to get an extended summer vacation.
 
I kind make any kind of judgment til I know the kid's AGE. Big difference between doing this at 7 yrs vs. 14 yrs.

Oops, "middle school" student.... well I still think it's too harsh, depending upon whether the draconian policy had been clearly COMMUNICATED to the students. The fact that the administrator didn't consider it serious enough to call in the law (as per the policy) tells me that it probably wasn't communicated to the students either, how seriously the district considers possession of a B-B gun. We're talking about a VERY rural area (Wild Bill Bucks from TFL is from down there, and we can all see what a hick he is. :p ). If the administrator doesn't know the policy, what's the chance that the KIDS (and their parents) know the policy? Seems to me a 3 or 5 day suspension would have been more in order, depending on the kid's explanation and the sophistication & power of the B-B gun.
 
This is a hard call. I've been in middle schools that are full of thugs, many larger than your average man. They can be very hot headed and stupid. Some middle schools have panic buttons because teachers get assaulted on a regular basis. I hate it when people who don't know what its like pop off with, "oh, they're just kids." When they are raping and beating people, and often in gangs, you have to take them seriously if you want to survive.

I do think it depends alot on the kind of school and community. I work in an inner city environment. At one building I worked in, in LA, I had a very large mean kid sit on my desk. If anyone messed with me, or my classroom, i'd turn around and write on the board, and he would hurt them. I gave him special privlidges. Nobody gave me a hard time after Otis started watching my back. Some learning even started taking place. The administration was useless and seemingly helpless. We had lots of drug dealers, but the metal detectors and armed guards kept most weapons out of the school. If you went to school 30-40 years ago, or in some nice suburb or small town, don't assume you know what its like.

One thing to consider, though, is that we haven't had the Columbine type killings in city schools, ever to my knowledge. We have the hardest kids and the gangs, but the real killer loner loons seem to be in the burbs or the country. go figure.
 
"As far as the principal, I myself am not too clear on the legal distinctions between firearms and "non-firearms"... Does it have to work on gunpowder? Does it have to meet a certain projectile velocity? Does it have to have a hook-shaped trigger? Ah! I don't know."

Look to your state, county, city, town, etc. law.
Many jurisdictions define BB and pellet guns as firearms to prevent sale to anyone under 18.
In Virginia different parts of the code even define 'firearm' in different ways.
Like NFA that defines a 'firearm' as a fully automatic weapon for the purposes of that section of the law.

It is pretty unlikely the kid did not know the BB gun was against the rules.
Suspended for the rest of the year does not sound out of line (they will have to provide teaching services for him).
The principal is supposed to know his departments rules.
 
What happened to common sense?

Nowdays schools, libs, and dingbats all hit the panic button and make a big case out of what could be handled intelligently, like a call to parents, a paddling, whatever.

Yesterday the news was full of a kid bringing a dummy grenade to school, you'd have thought it was an atomic bomb. Anybody that knows anything can see if the pin is in place, (The pin is what John Wayne and the movie heroes pull with their super strong teeth) and the big hole in the bottom indicating its being a dummy. Again a call to parents, perhaps another butt paddling.

Mountains out of molehills. Better to be safe than sorry? Take a two second look before going ballistic and calling out the gamut of law enforcement.
 
As an intermediate school principal, I feel I need to make a contribution to the discussion. Many school districts have policies approved by the school boards which deal with weapons in the following manner:

A student who uses, possesses, controls, or transfers a weapon, or any object that can reasonably be considered, or looks like, a weapon, shall be expelled for at least one calendar year, but no more than two calendar years. The Superintendent may modify the expulsion period and the Board may modify the Superintendent's determination, on a case-by-case basis.

A "weapon" means possession, use, control, or transfer of: (1) any gun, rifle, shotgun, a weapon as defined by Section 921 of Title 18, United States Code, firearm as defined in Section 1.1 of the Firearm Owners Identification Act (IL) or use of a weapon as defined in Section 24-1 of the Criminal Code;(2) any other object if used or attempted to be used to casue bodily harm, including but not limited to knives, brass knuckles, billy clubs; or (3) "look-alikes" of any weapon defined above. Any item, such as a baseball bat, pipe, bottle, lock, stick, pencil, and pen, is considered to be a weapon if used or attempted to be used to cause bodily harm.

The point of this is sometimes a principal has to make a decision based on what the Board expects him to do in accordance with approved policy. Whether or not he agrees with it is irrelevent. During a hearing, he can make his case, but not often is it heard. The Board, elected by the people of the community, make the final decision. The Superintendent and Principal are only able to make recommendations.
The times we live in dictate our response. Am I happy about it? Not always, but my first duty is to the sfety and well-being of my students in my school.
 
Ok, whatever, policies, due diligence, and etc. Whatever they feel is needed. I am just glad I am not a kid nowadays. No wonder they only feel safe staying inside with the doors all locked, in the dark and playing video games all the time. :(
 
Nowdays schools, libs, and dingbats all hit the panic button and make a big case out of what could be handled intelligently, like a call to parents, a paddling, whatever.
Click to expand...
I love when people say this...then if their child was shot at school by another kid that had been in trouble for bring a gun to school before they would be all over the news crying about why the school didn't do more to protect their child.
 
A middle school kid in my town was expelled for bringing to school a piece of a broken bb gun which he found while walking to school. The principal got real shrill and said zero tolerance means ZERO tolerance. Which means no leeway remains for intelligence.

When I was in high school in Montana in the '80s, on several occasions I stored a deer rifle in my locker because my car locks didn't work (hunting season). I wasn't the only one, lots of kids did this. It might have been illegal, I don't know, because nobody seemed to care. A kid would be crucified for trying that now.
 
True there is a difference in intentions between bringing a bb gun to school andbringing a 9mm to school, maybe he was bringint it so he could go to a firends after school, who knows? Reguardless a weapon in school is a weapon in school and this kid got what he deserves.
 
I wonder how zero tolerance helped at virginia tech. No Jonnie, leave your .38 at home, here we only allow begging for your life.
 
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