'A Pencil is Considered a Weapon When It's Pointed at Someone in a Threatening Way and Gunlike Noise

I was all set to post something snarky about this story from Santa Clara, California, where a college went into lockdown because someone mistook a cardboard cutout of a gun for a real weapon. But hey, at least that incident involved a bona fide suspicion, mistaken though it was, that a ski-masked gunman was on the prowl. No such excuse is available for school officials in Suffolk, Virginia, who just did this:

CEI

A Suffolk second grader has been suspended for making gunlike noises while pointing a pencil at another student. WAVY-TV reports the 7-year-old boy was suspended for two days for a violation of the Suffolk school system's zero-tolerance policy on weapons. He was playing with another student in class Friday at Driver Elementary. He heeded a teacher's order to stop…. Suffolk Public Schools spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw says a pencil is considered a weapon when it's pointed at someone in a threatening way and gunlike noises are made.

For more on school security scares and crazy zero-tolerance policies, go here.

#ZeroTolerance #Schools #Guns