Well, the BCPSS rules say that a weapons violation is an automatic 45-day expulsion. I don't know how much good it does when you're talking about a six (or eight, in the case of Grove Park) year old child. They're not necessarily able to draw a straight line between the incident and the expulsion.

These are usually isolated incidents, at least at the elementary level. Would a detector have caught them? Sure. But I don't know that it's worth the time and expense to install that equipment for something that doesn't happen very often.

In the original article by Steve Irwin, there is NO mention of WHERE HE GOT THE GUNS!!! How crazy is that?
A 6 year old gets loaded guns either from adults, or from other kids who got them from adults. Nice "investigative" work, you
clown.

To Claude,
Are you crazy? The kid should be expelled from that school!!!
GUNS? A six year old? The parents should be arrested. Crazy!!!

Tom: I don't think I'm crazy, but then again I work for BCPSS so I guess that's debatable. I did say that the rules indicate expulsion is mandatory, at least in the City. I'm not sure if it's the same in the County.

What I questioned was how effective expulsion is going to be on someone who may or may not know that they've done something wrong. We are talking about a small child, after all. There needs to be a lot more intervention for that kid than simply moving him to another building for 45 school days. And, unfortunately, that's all too often what happens.

As far as the parents, it's going to come down to the individual circumstance. I recently spoke with staff in a school where a student had brought in a hunting knife. He told teachers he'd found it enroute; the parent indicated that he broke into a locked cabinet to get to it. Do we arrest that parent? This is part of the problem of "zero tolerance" laws.

I think we just need to understand.
We need to understand these (rich, middle class) kids are victims, see?
Because I'm insane.
Lets all go to our happy place now.
Maybe we should allow Shari'a law for muslims, too. And how about free state money for sex change operations. We alll need to be more like San FranFreako!

Boy, I was considering a career in teaching, but NOW??? I DON'T THINK SO!!! The Nuns were right!

detectors not worth the money? its not that it doesnt happen often!! its just not known. if the gun did not fall out, no one would have known it was there! this might not even be HIS first time!

Hey Claude,
I'm guessing you have a Phd, right?
I mean, "Blah, Blah, Blah" and "it's going to come down to the individual circumstance", etc.
HaHaHaHa!
No wonder we're doomed!
And you are an "educated" person!
You can't compare a hunting knife and two loaded handguns!!!
Like I said, you are CRAZY. And thats why our society is falling down all around us. Because the men abdicated their position of authority eons ago. Now we have politically correct clowns actually IN CHARGE of decision making for our children!
Doomed! WE'RE DOOMED!!!

Metal detectors? I don't think that would make school very inviting for my 7-year-old, even though it might make her safer.

Tom:

1) I don't have a PhD. But I do know when to stop using punctuation. Hint 1: stop after the first mark. Hint 2: Exclamation points don't make your case any stronger.
2) I can compare a hunting knife and two loaded handguns because they're basically identical from a procedural standpoint.
3) I did suggest that my sanity was debatable, so I won't argue that point.
4) Your statement about "abdicating a position of authority" means that this is the second time in a row that you've resorted to a personal attack and then said something that essentially agrees with what I've just said.
5) My position is teacher-level. I'm not a decision-maker at this point. However, I 'll concede that you didn't necessarily mean me.
6) As long as there are enough people thinking that we're "doomed", we are.
7) I'm done with this argument, now. I think your posts have said much more about you than they have about me.

s stephens: As I said, I'm done with it here. But I've been working on a post on my own blog that goes toward your comment (which I didn't know was here). That will be up by tonight if you choose to continue the dialogue.

Those of you ready to hang this CHILD from the rafters sure have resorted to a lot of name calling and negativity. Is this due to a lack of meritorious arguments?

As I read Claude's comments, I did not interpret that he condones the behavior - but that he RIGHTLY questions whether an automatic expulsion of a SEVEN year old will serve any purpose other than letting another child fall through the cracks. Are serious consequences in order? Absolutely - both for child and for the parents who irresponsibly provided access to the guns. Is expelling the child from school going to teach that lesson to the kid? Neither Claude nor I are sure - and THAT is the argument I believe he was originally making.

If you want to claim we are doomed, it is not because of "politically correct clowns" as you claim, Tom. It is because we live in a society that puts more value on building prisons and emphasizes punishment over education at a very young age. FACT: The Juvenile Justice Center in Baltimore is a lot nicer and newer facility than just about every single school building in BCPSS. If you want to claim we are doomed, maybe it is because our priorities are absolutely in the wrong place.

IF HE WAS MY YOUNGEST SON DEXTER ID BEAT THA HELL OUT OF HIM!!! AND HIS PARENTS MUST OF HAD THE GUNS JUS LAYIN DOWN FOR THEM TO GET THEM THEY SHULD BE HANDED TO CPS... WELL SAITIN WILL DEAL WID DEM LATER ON IN LIFE

If we were to actually check kids for weapons, the results would be astonishing. School administrators choose not to check because they don't want negative attention on their school. For every weapon like this one that is found, there are probably 50 that aren't.