Subscribe
Shop Local
Magazine
Gas Prices
Today's Poll!Third-grader suspended over toy gun on fob
Third-grader Romello Carter was suspended from Pioneer Trails Elementary School for three days for bringing this toy gun on a key chain and showing it to classmates. Photo by Julie Smith.
Friday, February 1, 2013
The mother of a third-grade boy enrolled at Pioneer Trail Elementary is upset her son was suspended from school for three days after bringing a key chain fob in the shape of a handgun to school Tuesday.
Brandy Williams, mother of 9-year-old Romello Carter, said she thought the punishment was “a little extreme,” considering the key chain fob was in no way a weapon, and was purchased as a toy. The item is about 2 inches long.
Williams, who works at a fast-food restaurant on Missouri Boulevard, was at work around 9 a.m. Tuesday when the school’s assistant principal asked her pick up her son. According to Williams, the school official told her the object was not the issue, but the fact Carter was aiming it at another student was a problem.
Williams said she thought the school’s response was “a little outrageous.”
Marry Me
Comments
gettingthere 4 months, 2 weeks ago
What did you expect from a government school? My wish for government schools is that every student has an IEP, that spells out specifically how the child is expected to perform, and lists the expectations and responses the government officials are expected to meet. If an incident similar to this one occurred, and it wasn't specifically listed on the IEP, the student couldn't be expelled.
eileen10 4 months, 2 weeks ago
I feel this is far to extreme a punishment. I don't feel there should even be a punishment. I realize what's been going on with all the shootings but what's happening with people. Mass hysteria? When I was a kid I used a stick as a gun. Will a stich being aimed at another kid with the words " POW! POW!" also be used to expel a child or children?
stop1 4 months, 2 weeks ago
On one hand I think this is pretty extreme I can remember when I was in high school I carried my shotgun in the rear window of my pickup. On the other, with everything going on, and everyone being very aware of the rules it was very poor judgment, at the very least, to let her son take this toy gun to school. I mean come what did she expect?
Paroquet 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Well, she may not have known it as it could have been in his pocket or backpack. Should every parent be expected to give their pre-pubescent kid a pat-down and riffling before they go anywhere? Secondly, if you expect sound judgment from a 9yr-old on the perspectives of adults, then lower the age for when someone is considered an adult--voting, drinking, driving, all of it.
This was a child. It was a toy. Nobody was hurt or injured, no one was in any danger. That makes it child's play. When the child does something wrong (or maybe in this case simply inappropriate) do you automatically go all Sheriff Joe on them? No. You correct and explain, at the worst you admonish. You can punish on a repeat.
Rbreb13 4 months, 2 weeks ago
I agree. Correct and explain it to them. Have a school assembly and explain it to everyone. Use this innocent incident as a learning experience for all! Punishing one child for this is way out there!
Common sense is not so common.” ― Voltaire
John 4 months, 2 weeks ago
"Explain" what exactly? Explain that only certain toys are allowed as playthings? Explain that a childs toys (and by extension, their imaginations) should only be those that do not offend someone's senses or political bent? This is just plain nuts!
Oklahoma suspended a 5 year old because she had a piece of paper her grandfather had torn into the shape of a gun and with which she played "cops & robbers." There are a multitude of these types of occurences in which simple little children suffer because they were playing and not hurting anyone.
They (whoever they are. Maybe should be "we") are not simply redirecting children's thoughts. we are creating a thought police.
Rbreb13 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Perhaps I should have been clearer. Explain the "Schools" position on this type of common child behavior. And yes, I agree with your "thought police" creation. But the simple fact is the schools have the say on policy. Right or wrong, it's the school boards and educators who set these policies. We can voice our opinions until we're blue but it won't do any good.
Sequoia 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Explain to the child that toys are for playtime, and school is not playtime.
John 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Last time I checked, most elementary grades DO have playtime.
spelchek 4 months, 2 weeks ago
...and toys.
stop1 4 months, 2 weeks ago
good point. I agree
1OPINION43 4 months, 2 weeks ago
OK, I believe in the 2nd Amendment! Do I think the punishment is a little extreme, well maybe. Now did anyone notice the little toy is a replica of a WW2 German Luger? How ironic….
listening 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Pointing the fake-gun at another child?!! Of course that kid should be suspended, and his Mother/Father should be teaching him not to point guns, toys, sticks or anything else at other children.
down2earthdeeva 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Are you serious? Kids have been playing cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, and things like that forever. I allow my boys to play with nerf guns but I discuss with them that real guns are not toys and educate them on how guns are supposed to be used.
I mean you aren't going to stop boys from playing guns...it's natural. My son's daycare wouldn't allow the boys to play guns so they couldn't bring certain toys on show and share days but the boys would assemble legos to be guns, use the girls toy hair dryer as a gun, even their chicken nuggets if they were shaped right. Its just what many boys do...doesn't mean they are going to shoot up a school.
spelchek 4 months, 2 weeks ago
You point your car at other cars and accelerate towards them on a daily basis. Does this not make you a threat to others? Would it be OK to suspend a kid (better yet, your kid) with a toy car that goes around vrooming it around on the floor towards his/her class mates?
JCLifer 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Are you also in favor of public caning for the poor kid? Perhaps 100 lashes too?
Caning the principal would be more appropriate.
wallst 4 months, 2 weeks ago
WOW! I wonder how long his suspension would have been had the key chain fob been a tiny Bible?
down2earthdeeva 4 months, 2 weeks ago
I agree with Paroquet. Kids take toys, phones, candy, and various other things to school without their parents knowing. I don't do a pat down or backpack search each morning to look for things like that and why would anyone else unless it has been a problem in the past already. And I understand the school system wants the kids to know the severity of pointing guns at classmates and such but I think a better way to handle it would be to correct the behavior by taking the toy, maybe giving him a time out because they should know not to play guns at school and then explaining it to the school as a whole and why its important to not do those things. He is 9, not 19, so I seriously doubt he knew what he was doing would cause such an issue. However I agree that suspension for a repeat offense would be acceptable.
mia 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Give me a break. I could tell horror stories about how that school system has overreacted in the past years. One day at work, I got a call from a teacher, screaming that my son was swinging on the top of the bathroom door. So? Deal with it. I could go on and on. If you can't deal with situations like this without making it into a big deal, then you don't belong in the education field. And yet, I heard of knife fights in the high school, with no reports of it. Its amazing what they want to hide and what they want to make known. Is this their stance on gun control?? Laughable.
rollnthndr 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Once again I believe much is missing from this story. Yes as a parent you have the responsibility to know what is in your kid's back pack when they go off to school. If more parents took responsibilty for their children our schools would not be dealing with this type of behavior and we would not need to spend funds on such programs as character plus. It is my understanding that the school explained to kids that these type of objects do not belong at school. At least that's what my first grader told me. Maybe this child was threatening other children. If it had been one of your kids being threatened I have no doubt many of you would be at the school wanting something done to that student. Maybe our schools could actually educate if they parents actually took responsibility for the children they bring into this world.
John 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Actually, if this student had pointed the TOY at my child I would assume they were PLAYING. To report or suspend a student because they "offended" someone's sensibilities is just plain crazy.
I believe in safety, I do NOT believe in hounding a child and telling them what to do with their imaginations.
rock1853 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Way too far over the top for punishment. Have the assembly and explain the rules. If you break the rules you get KP duty for a day.
GoneFishing 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Dear Administrator, use some common sense! Unbelievable!
JCLifer 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Missouri Safe Schools Act pretty muich defines what a weapon is and how violations are to be dealt with.
dese.mo.gov/schoollaw/LegFolder/safeschoolsact.htm
These people freaked for nothing. The kid's parents need to lawyer up.
Gotigers 4 months, 2 weeks ago
My relative teaches at the high school and it is COMMON for a student to tell a teacher to F#@K Off and there is nothing that they will do to the kid in the form of punishment. BUT a 3rd grader gets 3 days suspension for playing with a toy?
Am I living in the twilight zone?
connor 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Telling a teacher to F off is too broad of a violation. Acting on it may mean collateral punishment into groups they do not wish to target.
A toy gun on the other hand....
christopher_redbird 4 months, 2 weeks ago
This suspension, or the precedent it sets does absolutely nothing to make our schools safer. This is ridiculous.
connor 4 months, 2 weeks ago
It's simple Liberal/Feminist overreaction to a form of play or make believe that is almost exclusively done by young male students.
Combining the Feminist dominated education system with the over dramatic reactionary feelings of Liberals and you get an institution where boys are never allowed to be boys.
eileen10 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Was it a man or woman that suspended the boy. Or was it a herd of over the edge hysterical dumb heads.
JCLifer 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Connor nailed it! Both the principal and assistant principal are FEMALE..
jcps.k12.mo.us/domain/392
Wonder how female students are punished when they are playing and get too catty?
eileen10 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Yikes. They need an attitude adjustment and I wonder if they have kids and if so ....Holy smokes. Poor kids.
connor 4 months, 2 weeks ago
One actual incident I know of that shows the end result of a scenario you ask about Lifer is one where a young kindergartner boy was actually arrested and taken to the sheriff's office. He was arrested for pushing a female student. When asked why he pushed her the boy said the girls were kissing all the boys and he did not want to be kissed.
The parent of the child then asked where the little girl was being held and was told the girl was at school.
Why were the girls not arrested for sexual assault yet the boy got to ride in a cop car for physical assault just for defending himself?
Typical Feminist view over what is proper behavior played out to it's most extreme. We need to lock our schools up from more than just lunatics with guns.
JCLifer 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Unbelievable... That was clearly sexual harrassment on the part of the girls. Another lawsuit to file. Maybe the US Office of Civil Rights would like to hear about that one. I feel so sorry for that little boy. No doubt he will be scarred for life.
The lunatics are already inside. They even have master keys.
Paroquet 4 months, 2 weeks ago
There's a reason you don't begin seeing many male teachers until "middle school"--simple primate family dynamics. It's as ingrained in your DNA as is a vast majority of people's fears of snakes and spiders.
Consider who a kid most likely cries for first when they're hurt or sick? Ah. Now you understand.
It's not a Lib/Fem agenda.
JCLifer 4 months, 2 weeks ago
There is nothing sensible about issuing a 3-day suspension for a young child for just playing. How about just taking the toy away until after school, with maybe a note to the parent asking that the kid not bring it to school? That would have made so much more sense.
This principal is obviously incapable of making rational decisions, and is incapable of performing her duties "in loco parentis". If she has a history of favortism toward females and discrimination against males, she needs immediate termination.
What a bully.
Paroquet 4 months, 2 weeks ago
No, there wasn't. I said as much waaay-way up in the top of this comment chain.
Does she have a history of practicing gender discrimination? I don't know. The only thing I've seen espoused along those lines was by J Clay/connor with no source cited, only an example given.
connor 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Source? Only in a Liberal dream does someone have to call attention to an act that takes place in almost every school across the nation on an actual article of it happening and need a source.
Amazing really.
connor 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Funny though the libs sure will use terms like white privilege and patriarchy without a source and call it fact.
MO4LIFE 4 months, 2 weeks ago
This principal banned me from coming to the school because i was late picking up my son for a dr appointment. He was in the office and it was close to dismissal time. She would not release my son until all other parents that were in the walker lines to pick up there kids left. I went off on the principal due to my son missing his appointment and the principal told my wife the next day that if i came to the school again I would be arrested on sight. Principal has a problem across the board!!!!!!!
Dave 4 months, 2 weeks ago
I take back everything I've posted about how the district isn't focused on guaranteed learning for all. I feel like we all just learned a lot from the district.
This would be the sort of administrative decision based on professional expertise that we should all just defer to--you know, like when JCPS insists that an "Academy"-based H.S. will be better without showing how, or anyplace it's impacted achievement in the state anywhere before, or that it will give teachers more one-on-one time with students, all without ever providing a single stitch of data to show how any of that could be true. We should accept the apparent administrative belief that students are best taught to think better by keeping them at home. You know--just like they've taught us that H.S. students are better prepared for college and life by teaching them about whatever career interests them most as a teenager, instead of teaching them how to think. None of us should criticize this Principal's decision, as his work and employment represent the leadership priorities and superior and clear thinking of the Superintendent who hired him and the School Board that pays him, just as we understand the same Superintendent and School Board are demonstrating those leadership priorities and superior and clear thinking by forcing the too-cheap sale of completely functional buildings, the self-justified site selection for the high school we'll have for the next fifty years or so, and the adoption of an operational education plan that has no data-driven evidence of effectiveness.
Whatever reasoning the Principal uses to justify suspending a little boy for brandishing a keychain should just be accepted--if the kid gets suspended not for having a toy gun, but for pointing, we should just accept that--just like we should accept the non-data-driven assertion made by the School Board's multi-thousand dollar-retained private club patsy friends, MSBA, that the plans for the new high school are "sound". Yup, no problems here. Just move along. Keep quiet. Don't protest. If you think this is just the latest in an ongoing string of pretty dumb mistakes made by unfortunately empowered people, then you just don't understand how brilliant your School Board, Superintendent, and district administrators are.
Or, maybe you really do.
gettingthere 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Well said...I am a true believer that all school age children living within the JCPS district should report for duty on Monday. We, the parents, should demand adequate instruction, nutrition and exercise for the children the government allowed us to bring into this world. It's obvious to me that the home & private school children are a burden upon society, they challenge everything, and do not submit when threatened. Non-JCPS parents should be ashamed for introducing their children to such a radical alternative.
God bless you non-JCPS parents and students!!!.
RobHunterJohnson 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Well said Dave on all points! I just want to say I always carried a loaded index finger in 2nd, or 3rd grade. If i had a little money Charlies Highway store had a 6th finger as well,and that did alot more than shoot a dart! Rob
unowho 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Yes he should be suspended. What will he bring next time? Toys should stay home.
JCB 4 months, 2 weeks ago
A
JCPS_Parent 4 months, 2 weeks ago
I understand the complex issue here. However, we don't know all the information surrounding this decision. Like all of us that make decisions at our job, within our families and if we have kids those discipline decisions... those decisions are made with the best intentions knowing all the facts. It's a bit presumptive and possibly rude for someone else to chastise an entire district and educational professionals without knowing the history here... what was said, how it was said, any previous incidents or other. I don't know either and as a parent of 2 in the JCPS system that have had great experiences I'm saddened by this angry debate. Discuss issues, advocate positions and offer solutions so we can all get better. Practice the golden rule, apply manners and demonstrate high character then watch how the world and in this case our school district gets better for all kids.
John 4 months, 2 weeks ago
How is it that you consider it a "complex issue?"
A third grader took a toy to school, and a very small toy at that. He pointed it at a classmate and the teacher and administrrators went berserk.
Children all over this country take toys to grade school. . . .
We now want to police their imaginations and tell them imagination is only right if it is within certain parameters.
How is that a complex issue?
Crump 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Once again, all are missing the point. Lazy and scared parents are the problem. Get off your butt, raise your kids and don't expect the schools to take over your responsibilities, and this won't be an issue.
hudson 4 months, 2 weeks ago
I read some where a few weeks ago two kids were suspended for wispering , the teacher thought they were praying .
TJ 4 months, 2 weeks ago
My kindergarten age child was told by another kindergarten child that he was going to "cut his **** off and stick it down his throat"... Punishment for the child after taking it as far as the superintendent? He had to 'apologize' to my son...
MO4LIFE 4 months, 2 weeks ago
@TJ is your kid and the kid that threatened him white or black? Black kids in this district get the zero tolerance policy and white kids get the second chance policy!!!!!
JCLifer 4 months, 2 weeks ago
That is horrible. What is wrong with these people?
connor 4 months, 2 weeks ago
I would say the opposite is true.
TJ 4 months, 2 weeks ago
White... though NO MOTHER should have to hear such a horrible detail of a child's school day. And to be fair, this did not happen in the JC school district, but a smaller local 'rural' school district.
earlsmusic 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Why is pointing toy guns at each other considered to be normal child's play? What does this say about us?
John 4 months, 2 weeks ago
It says NOTHING about us. It says the child was using imagination. Good grief, do you really believe there is something deep and psychological about every single move or thought in a child's life? Tell me, what does it "say about us" that so many children will stick something into an electric receptacle? What does it "say about us" when a 16 year old new driver speeds? What does it "say about us" when someone is overawed by the capability of an F-16 fighter-jet? (After all, it is a weapon of war.) What does it "say about us" when a child dislikes strained peas as their baby food but grows to love peas by the tmie they are 2 or 3? Let's just analyze the heck out of everything and then make judgements based upon nothing just to make us feel superior. Good Grief.
Please review our Policies and Procedures before registering or commenting
Or login with:
OpenID