Student faces expulsion for fake drill team guns
Posted by Richard on February 9, 2009
I saw this story broadcast on 9News the other night, shook my head in disgust, and went on about my business. Yet another good kid victimized by idiotic "zero tolerance" laws — this sort of thing seems to happen every other day, doesn't it? I'm sorry to say I'm so inured to this stuff that I barely notice these petty outrages anymore.
But Jed (who still isn't back up and running) thinks the blogosphere ought to take note, so I'm happy to oblige:
Marie Morrow, a 17-year-old senior at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, is serving a 10-day suspension. Her punishment could be extended at an expulsion hearing later this month.
Morrow is a student leader in the Douglas County Young Marines, a group dedicated to teaching leadership and life skills.
Cherry Creek Schools suspended Morrow after other students reported seeing guns inside her SUV, which was parked outside school while she was in class.
The school also called police, who seized the three drill team guns made of wood, plastic and duct tape. Police told Morrow to claim them in time for her after-school drill practice off-campus.
School administrators, however, were less understanding. The guns were declared "authentic representations of genuine weapons," triggering a mandatory expulsion statute in state law.
…"The law doesn't make any distinction between a genuine weapon and a facsimile," said Cherry Creek Schools spokeswoman Tustin Amole.
Amole says federal and state laws mandate expulsion, and that school districts only have discretion to determine the length of that expulsion.
Asked who had the discretion to deem the props "dangerous weapons," Amole said school administrators and police made the decision based on state law that defines a "dangerous weapon" as "a firearm, whether loaded or unloaded, or a firearm facsimile that could reasonably be mistaken for an actual firearm."
Reasonably mistaken for an actual firearm by someone brainwashed with anti-gun propaganda. Or an idiot. Or a school administrator. But I repeat myself.
UPDATE: Check out Zombyboy's story from his misspent youth, which shows just how far we've regressed in the last twenty-odd years.
Libercontrarian said
I think it’s important to keep guns off of school grounds. In fact, I think it’s vitally important to keep duct-tape and plastic guns off of school grounds. Additionally, I think students should have to go to counseling if the happen to see a photograph of a gun, and perhaps speaking the word or even having the image flash across your thoughts ought to be grounds for expulsion.
But I’d be willing to make that trade-off only if the same standard was applied to the introduction of socialist ideas in the classroom. 😉