| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17933 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
 Posted: 28-09-2013 14:22 Post subject: |
 |
|
|
| Quote: | Pennsylvania school sued for suspending student over his toy pen
Published time: September 27, 2013 18:17 Get short URL
http://rt.com/usa/school-sued-buzzing-pen-452/
A Pennsylvania elementary school is being sued by the parents of a 7-year-old student who was suspended for bringing a novelty pen to class earlier this year.
The child, identified only in court documents as G.B., was barred from attending Hershey Elementary School in Pennsylvania for four days earlier this year after a bus driver confiscated the pen, a writing implement that emits a small buzz when triggered.
Later, the school's principal said the toy was in violation of the school's weapon policy and issued the suspension.
Principal Joy MacKenzie, the eight members of the Derry Township School Board and the acting superintendent of schools are all being sued by attorney's representing the student's family.
According to the parents, educators arbitrarily deprived their child “of his state-created property interest in public schooling without due process of law on the basis of nothing but hysterical and overly-zealous application of a constitutionally-deficient school policy.”
The pen, attorneys for the parents claim, is "similar to a 'clown' type buzzer that one would hold in the palm of one's hand to emit a small buzz when shaking hands.”
MacKenzie said the pen was in violation of the school's weapons policy, however, which bans “any poison gas, knife, cutting instrument, cutting tools, nunchaku stick, firearm, shotgun, rifle, and any other tool, instrument or implement capable of inflicting bodily injury or property damage” from being brought to class.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the school went too far by using the rule to remove the child from class.
“For G's simple act of taking this pen with him on the bus to school, G was disciplined with a four-day suspension and G has now been permanently classified by the school district as a violator of the district's weapons policy. G's permanent disciplinary record has been marred, and he has been regulated to the same category as violent criminals who bring knives, guns and explosives onto school property for the purpose of assault, murder and even terrorism,” they write.
The policy, attorneys add, is unconstitutional because “it fails to define with specificity the kind of activity that is proscribed so that a student can conform his or her conduct to the Policy's requirements.”
“Pennsylvania criminal law requires that any potential bodily harm from an item alleged to be a weapon be 'serious' as an appropriate limiting condition,” they attorneys write, adding that the buzzing pen shouldn't be considered an implement that fits that criteria.
The parents are asking the court to place a permanent injunction against enforcement of the school's weapons policy and to expunge “the incomprehensibly absurd 'weapons violator' status G now bears."
A spokesman for the school district told Courthouse News Service that "out of respect for confidentiality we would never discuss the discipline of an individual minor student, and for that matter we don't comment on active litigation either. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
| OneWingedBird Great Old One Joined: 19 Nov 2012 Total posts: 542 Location: Attice of blinkey lights Age: 44 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 28-09-2013 16:05 Post subject: |
|
|
|
| Quote: | | and any other tool, instrument or implement capable of inflicting bodily injury or property damage |
So pretty much anything then. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Fluttermoth Mrs Treguard
Great Old One Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Total posts: 398 Location: Cornwall, GB Age: 43 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 04-10-2013 17:49 Post subject: |
|
|
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-24402722
| Quote: | Grandfather takes wrong child out of school after mix-up
Rehman Christi MP said the incident could have happened at any school
A school handed over the wrong child to a grandfather who came to collect her for a doctor's appointment.
An investigation has been launched at the Napier Community Primary School, in Gillingham, after the six-year-old girl was taken to the doctor and prescribed liquid paracetamol.
It is understood the grandfather did not realise he had the wrong child. |
Blimey 
I think I'm more shocked at the grandfather than the school, tbh! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| EnolaGaia Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Total posts: 1305 Location: USA Gender: Male |
| Posted: 04-10-2013 17:59 Post subject: |
|
|
|
| Did both little girls have similar names? Didn't anyone address the 'wrong' girl by name at any time during this incident? If so, didn't she dispute it? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Monstrosa Joined: 07 Feb 2007 Total posts: 506 |
| Posted: 04-10-2013 18:50 Post subject: |
|
|
|
| If you can be bothered to read the short article, it says the girls have the same first name and are in the same class. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| EnolaGaia Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Total posts: 1305 Location: USA Gender: Male |
| Posted: 04-10-2013 18:58 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Thanks ... I went to the article, but missed that bit at the end ...
So ... Don't those explanatory similarities make this more a case of 'coincidence' than outright 'WTF'? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Pietro_Mercurios Heuristically Challenged
Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 04-10-2013 20:25 Post subject: |
|
|
|
| Perhaps, Grandad needs to get his hearing aid and glasses checked? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Mythopoeika Boring petty conservative
Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Total posts: 9109 Location: Not far from Bedford Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 04-10-2013 21:00 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Did the child not say at any time 'who are you, old man?'  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Fluttermoth Mrs Treguard
Great Old One Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Total posts: 398 Location: Cornwall, GB Age: 43 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 04-10-2013 21:43 Post subject: |
|
|
|
| EnolaGaia wrote: | Thanks ... I went to the article, but missed that bit at the end ...
So ... Don't those explanatory similarities make this more a case of 'coincidence' than outright 'WTF'? |
Well, the fact that the grandfather did not notice, at any point, that this six year old was not his granddaughter made me, at least, go WTF  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Ronson8 Things can only get better.
Great Old One Joined: 31 Jul 2001 Total posts: 6061 Location: MK Gender: Male |
| Posted: 04-10-2013 22:19 Post subject: |
|
|
|
| Mythopoeika wrote: | | Did the child not say at any time 'who are you, old man?' |
Yes, exactly.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| OneWingedBird Great Old One Joined: 19 Nov 2012 Total posts: 542 Location: Attice of blinkey lights Age: 44 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 05-10-2013 11:16 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Perhaps she came from a really strict family background where it was seriously not ok to question an adult?
Or a background where what little judgement a child has is so regularly undermined she assumed it must be her misperception and everything was ok really?
Or she was just too scared to say anything? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Cochise Great Old One Joined: 17 Jun 2011 Total posts: 1104 Location: Gwynedd, Wales Age: 58 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 06-10-2013 10:47 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Maybe she'd been taught never to speak to strangers  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| dreeness Teen Titans Forum TGNMemory
Great Old One Joined: 08 Dec 2004 Total posts: 1045 Location: Teen Titans Message Board TGNMemory Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 06-10-2013 14:40 Post subject: |
|
|
|
| OneWingedBird wrote: | | Quote: | | and any other tool, instrument or implement capable of inflicting bodily injury or property damage |
So pretty much anything then. |
It's probably been mentioned already, but there was an American kid in similar legal trouble for pointing his index finger as if it was a pistol. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| liveinabin1 Great Old One Joined: 19 Oct 2001 Total posts: 2140 Location: insert witty comment here Gender: Female |
| Posted: 07-10-2013 22:59 Post subject: |
|
|
|
| Ronson8 wrote: | | Mythopoeika wrote: | | Did the child not say at any time 'who are you, old man?' |
Yes, exactly. |
I have some children in my class that wouldn't question this. Not that they are daft, but they do what they are told.
Imagine the situation, school secretary comes into the class 'hello I've collect Amy for her appointment'. Child gets up and trots off with the secretary, who she is most likely scared of. The child doesn't think to question if she has an appointment, and adult told her she did. She is then handed over to random old man who take her off to the doctor. If the granddad isn't very chatty, and there is a chance he isn't, then she wouldn't dare say that she didn't know him. Some children just do not question what an adult asks them to do.
For example, on Friday my TA asked one of the boys in my class to come and work with her. The children in my class are told that if an adult asks you to come and work with them then you go. This boy is an intelligent boy who will happily talk to adults, he also does as he is asked. Because he knew that if you are asked to come and work with an adult then you do it he didn't like to say that he needed the loo. When he sat down with the TA he wet himself. Not because he was frightened but because he didn't like to question an adult.
I think the granddad is more of a worry than the school here. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| OneWingedBird Great Old One Joined: 19 Nov 2012 Total posts: 542 Location: Attice of blinkey lights Age: 44 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 09-10-2013 17:32 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Can anyone please tell me what is so mind numbingly totally f*cking hilarious about almost running over a pedestrian at a junction after failing to indicate?
I'm still trying to get my head around this one, not just that the driver and passenger of the car found it funny, but so did the driver and passenger of a car waiting to go straight across the junction, who made a great point of looking at me and laughing.
Sometimes I don't know what is wrong with people.
I know there does seem to be a certain malicious glee over anything that f*cks off or even harms cyclists but ffs I wasn't even mounted at the time. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
