MESA, Ariz. — School officials suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching what looked like a gun, saying the action posed a threat to his classmates. The boy's parents said the drawing was a harmless doodle and school officials overreacted. "The school made him feel like he committed a crime. They are doing more damage than good," said the boy's mother, Paula Mosteller. The drawing did not show blood, bullets, injuries or target any human, the parents said. And the East Valley Tribune reported that the boy said he didn't intend for the picture to be a threat. Administrators of Payne Junior High in nearby Chandler suspended the boy on Monday for five days but later reduced it to three days. The boy's father, Ben Mosteller, said that when he went to the school to discuss his son's punishment, school officials mentioned the seriousness of the issue and talked about the massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School, where two teenagers shot and killed 12 students, a teacher and themselves in 1999. Mosteller said he was offended by the reference. Chandler district spokesman Terry Locke said the crude sketch was "absolutely considered a threat," and that threatening words or pictures are punishable.
I guess soon our kids won't be able to even watch the Buggs Bunny Road Runner Show with all the terroristic shit they have on there. this shit has gone waaaaay too far...IMHO
damn....I would have been locked up at age 8....I was a doodler...my dad was a marine...of course I would draw guns.....
Not that it matters, but I wonder what part of town the kid was from,white,blacketc and inner city,subs,or ghetto. I can see them jumping to conclusions.
sounds like an unjustified attempt at racial profiling.... no matter race, place or anything else, a picture with no provocation, or threats made is a bad judgment call on so called school "authorities" this shit is ridiculous i used to draw planes dropping bombs on houses and swat teams raiding houses..... i got A's for them....if it were me i would take the school district to court, not for monetary gains, but for the actions taken against the child for being creative....
ya know, this is almost as bad as the kid who was suspended because he used a chicken finger as a gun while playing cops and robbers.
