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Pointing a finger gun lands 12-year-old Johnson County student in handcuffs

mgidm86 said:
How fun it must be being a child in America these days.
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Don't panic - it's only in America.

Here, small kids play outside alone, walk to school alone and still play with toy guns without anyone having a panic attack.
 
The Atheist said:
Don't panic - it's only in America.

Here, small kids play outside alone, walk to school alone and still play with toy guns without anyone having a panic attack.
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I think toy guns are a bad idea in this age, but it is a struggle to stop kids from mimicking gangsters (used to be cowboys in my childhood). I didn’t buy toy guns for my kids, but the boys found ways to fashion pieces of wood to mimic guns. And I now my grandchildren doing the same thing. It’s unfortunate but I don’t interfere in things like this.
 
lionking said:
I think toy guns are a bad idea in this age, but it is a struggle to stop kids from mimicking gangsters (used to be cowboys in my childhood). I didn’t buy toy guns for my kids, but the boys found ways to fashion pieces of wood to mimic guns. And I now my grandchildren doing the same thing. It’s unfortunate but I don’t interfere in things like this.
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Quaint. Most kids are too busy playing "shoot 'em dead" video games to waste time playing with toy guns - much less fashion them themselves.
 
lionking said:
I think toy guns are a bad idea in this age, but it is a struggle to stop kids from mimicking gangsters (used to be cowboys in my childhood). I didn’t buy toy guns for my kids, but the boys found ways to fashion pieces of wood to mimic guns. And I now my grandchildren doing the same thing. It’s unfortunate but I don’t interfere in things like this.
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Toy guns are still a huge seller here.

We have shootouts with cap guns all over the city. We had one a couple of weeks ago at the viaduct wharf, which is teeming with people.

Nobody's called the cops on us yet.
 
EHocking said:
In the context (that we know of at the moment) the teacher is totally responsible for this escalating.

The child didn’t, out of the blue, walk up to her classmates and point her finger.
According to the account in the OP link, the children were involved in a classroom discussion. We’re not told about what.
But we are told that she was asked, during a supervised classroom discussion, “who would you shoot?”
Mitigating circumstances as to “intent” as far as I’m concerned.
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I saw that in the article too.

If that is true and pointing the finger has suddenly become a crime then maybe the teacher should have been charged for facilitating a threat to violence?
 
psionl0 said:
I saw that in the article too.

If that is true and pointing the finger has suddenly become a crime then maybe the teacher should have been charged for facilitating a threat to violence?
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It's funny, but I saw that and had a moment thinking it was odd as well.

Why would you even ask that?
 
mgidm86 said:
How fun it must be being a child in America these days. No bikes. No outside. Can't go anywhere without supervision. No football/hockey in the road ("CAR!!!"). Playdates! Can't play "army" and shoot each other. People don't get drivers licenses til they're 25, and they never move out.

I think I'm glad I'm getting old.
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Holy Hyperbole, Batman
 
Reminds me of the incident in Prosser, WA when a 15 yr kid drew pictures for art class that depicted Bush2 as the devil, and another one with Bush's head on a stake. The art teacher ratted the kid out, and it wound up being investigated by the Secret Service and the kid's artwork was confiscated.
 
I'll say it again for this thread.

Given that the story we hear is from the family, who has a clear interest, and an anoymous unnamed individual, it should be basic skepticism to take that account with a grain of salt.

As always with these cases, the school cannot comment in any detail or provide the public with evidence at this stage. So the story we're going to get may be misleading, and historically, these kinds of stories often are.

Other examples of "Can you believe what they did to this student for simple behavior" have often turned out to have left out some important details, or misrepresented key details.
 
psionl0 said:
Quaint. Most kids are too busy playing "shoot 'em dead" video games to waste time playing with toy guns - much less fashion them themselves.
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My kids both played outside and played video games.
The amount of “kids today” grumbling is always humorous in any thread mentioning children.

Our parents thought we were lazy, good-for-nothing generations too.
 
The moral of this story is that Australians waaay overreact to what they understand about gun issues in America, but American school teachers understand even less, and overreact even more.
 
autumn1971 said:
Holy Hyperbole, Batman
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Perhaps some, but I literally never see kids playing outside where I live. I rarely see them walking to school. I just moved from a small town and it didn't happen there either.

I pretty much never see them on bikes and I know there are very few, if any, kids allowed to ride around town on their own on a Saturday. I used to do that in 3rd grade.

See many third and fourth graders riding around discovering how to be responsible by having some freedom? Not me.

We have huge beautiful parks here that nobody uses. Really, they are empty every time I drive by or take the dog.

We got a "kid" that works at my parents shop. He was 21 and had no license. Mom drove him to work. It is not uncommon for kids to not drive until their 20s, and to move out - whenever, if ever.

I work with a girl who is 29 and has no plan to move out. She takes vacations all the time, pays no rent, living life good! Sells weed to her friends when she's not at work. She works hard though I give her a lot of credit there.

I don't think there was a lot of hyperbole there really. The general trend is for kids to stay indoors. Kids today may not know what it's like to have freedom therefore they don't know they don't have it.

This is California. Maybe some parts of the country that aren't as f'd up as we are have it better.
 
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