Are you kidding me??
A 12-year-old boy in Colorado has been suspended because the teacher saw him with a toy gun. But the toy was in the boy’s room because like many students across America, he is forced to attend classes online over Zoom.
Although the teacher suspected the gun may be a toy, authorities were still called to do a welfare check in the child without notifying his parents.
Curtis Elliott, the child’s father, said, “It was really frightening and upsetting for me as a parent, especially as the parent of an African-American young man, especially given what’s going on in our country right now.”
“He was in tears when the cops came,” said the father. “He was just in tears. He was scared. We all were scared. I literally was scared for his life.”
He said his son, who has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and has learning disabilities, was not aware of the toy being in view of the camera during his distance learning.
“The virtual setting is not the same as the school setting,” he added. “He did not take the toy gun to school. He’s in the comfort of his own home. It’s a toy.”
According to reports, the school district refused to hand over recordings of the online class but authorities were able to show the family a video of the class taken from a police body camera.
The boy’s mother says the punishment, a five-day suspension, does not fit the crime.
She said, “For them to go as extreme as suspending him for five days, sending the police out, having the police threaten to press charges against him because they want to compare the virtual environment to the actual in-school environment is insane.”
The mother adds that she wished the teacher had contacted them before condemning the boy. “If her main concern was safety, a two-minute phone call to me or my husband could easily have alleviated this whole situation to where I told them it was fake.”
The school is refusing to apologize for the discipline and stated, “We follow all school board policies whether we are in-person learning or distance learning. We take the safety of all our students and staff very seriously. Safety is always our number one priority.”
The parents feel that the school crossed the line and are looking to enroll their son in a charter or private school.
