By C.D. Michel
California – -(Ammoland.com)- It’s bad enough when so-called “zero tolerance” firearm policies resulted in a second-grader getting suspended for eating a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun.
Now some schools are taking it upon themselves to punish the mere “thought” of firearms, and just for liking or commenting on certain images posted on social media, even outside of school hours.
Earlier this month, the NRA-ILA published an article illustrating the continuing dangers of “zero-tolerance” school firearm policies and cited to a local news report about an Ohio middle school student who was recently given a 10-day suspension just for “liking” a picture of a gun on Instagram. The morning after his malevolent mouse click, the student was taken out of class and brought to the principal’s office where he was patted down and checked for weapons.
The student was then given a notice of suspension, with the stated reason as “Liking a post on social media that indicated potential school violence.”
Say WHAT? Then it turned out that the “gun” pictured was really just an airsoft gun. Still, only after the student’s parents took the story to the media did the school come to its senses and rescind the suspension.
Most recently, Albany High School in the San Francisco Bay area (next to Berkeley) is facing criticism and a lawsuit for its mis-handling of a similar issue, this time involving students liking or commenting on racist images. It is not clear why the students, who did not post the abhorrent images themselves, “Liked” them. But the school’s response is shocking, even in these division-is-the-new-normal times.
The lawsuit alleges that before suspending the students the school forced the students to march in front of other students:
“On the morning of March 30, 2017, the Plaintiffs, excluding Chen, and the other suspended students were forced to march through the high school and were lined up in full view of all or most of the student body. School administrators allowed the student body to hurl obscenities, scream profanities, and jeer at the Plaintiffs and the other suspended students, who were all not allowed to leave what the school considered an act of “atonement” but was rather a thinly veiled form of public shaming. Plaintiffs and the other suspended students were forced to endure this berating and emotional abuse until one of their parents, who was present, finally objected vehemently to school official”
Maybe the school administrators are taking discipline lessons from watching Game of Thrones?
The lawsuit has been filed by the students alleging the school violated their First Amendment rights and endangered their safety, and the Court has issued an emergency TRO (https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Albany.pdf ) stopping the school from taking further action – for now.
Ah, the marvels of a 21st century public education.
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