March 19, 2024
Annapolis, US 35 F

AACPS Suspends 2nd Grader For Pop Tart Gun

A 7-year old boy attending Park Elementary in Brooklyn Park is suspended for using food to make “inappropriate gestures” which disturbed a class.  It seems the 2nd grader was eating a pop-tart and at one point, the uneaten part resembled a gun.  A teacher saw this, sent the boy to the Principal who suspended him for 2 days.

Not the actual weapon used in incident.
Not the actual weapon used in incident.

The school sent home a letter advising that the school counselor would be available for anyone that was “troubled” by the incident.  While it is admirable that the school has a zero tolerance policy on weapons and threats, I am not so sure that eating a pop-tart escalates to the level of a threat; much less warrants a suspension. The “perpetrator” was a 7 year old boy. It seems the only tragedy averted was some cherry filling that may have been spilled on his shirt.

But, the Anne Arundel County Schools have already set a precedent for this type of suspension. In May of 1999, a 4th grader at Windsor Farms Elementary in Arnold was suspended for drawing a gun on a piece of paper.

According to a recent report on Fox 45, the schools have now said that the boy was suspended for disrupting the class, which seems to contradict the wording in their letter to parents–“no physical threats were made and no one was harmed, the student had to be removed from the classroom.”

Has political correctness run amok in Anne Arundel County Public Schools or was this an appropriate punishment.  Or are they just overly cautious because the day before, the school sent home a letter advising parents of a man approaching students at the bus stop and at their homes offering them candy? (Note: the letter is dated 2012, however, it was put online 2/28/13 and the URL confirms the date)

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