This may sound ridiculous....but my opinion? This principal should be immediately fired.

How are we going to ever stop being this stupid unless we turn the tables on the people making these irrational decisions, and keep them just as accountable as the things they are supposedly enforcing?

If I made decisions at my job that were this common senseless, I would be fired? And I'd deserve it.

I'm too mad just thinking about it to comment further. Stupid is a disease that needs just as much money and effort thrown at it as any other out there.

Just one guy's opinion.

the_golf_guy

I am not going to blame or defend the Principal, it is the zero tolerance policies that are the # 1 culprit- then administrators that are afraid of their school boards show no backbone. I ask parents to tell their boards of ed. that these type of 'zero tolerance" policies are to be eliminated and allow common sense rule.

zero tolerance policy or not the principal can choose what she "sees" How about this; just keep walking. This is absolutely ridiculous and makes it that much harder to legitimize suspending real threats. That was a no-win situation and she pushed it. The principal should be on probation with her decision making priveleges monitored.

Dubya-Tee-Eff!

That poor kid was probably sh@$%ting himself, and then they have to find a "Security administrator" all for a Lego gun? I can understand if the kid was packing a air-soft gun, but this is overkill. I hope that school board will re-evaluate that principals competence.

This story just gets me boiling. Its ludacris. The simplest solution to that problem, if the less than 1 inch gun was so offensive and threatening, would be to just take the the lego man from the kid and maybe, i mean maybe, call his parents to let them know of the situation. I suppose a whole battalion of little green army men, a portrayal of those who protect our rights and freedoms, thank you to all those who serve by the way, would get a student barred from even obtaining an education.

What we really need is more power and regulation so kids don't even get in the doors of the school with such alarming toys! - Extra heavy on the sarcasm there

Common sense has left the building......

I hate to overgeneralize or stereotype people, but the average adult in this country, especially in the urban areas, is an overcivilized wimp. And we're training the kids to be even bigger p-$$ies than their parents. I think I'm preaching to the choir--outdoorsmen tend to raise their children a little tougher than the average.

sounds besides just like a case of bull, but that this principal has an issuse with either kids, legos or guns, or all three and should be fired for limiting the child's imagination in the little reality or his legos.

this principal is crazier than those see kittens. i think that is the dumbest thing to suspend a kid for a toy lego gun. for god sakes hes a little boy , little boys like guns. that teacher is crazier than norman bates in psycho

What a load of BS! If that would have happened to me when I was a little kid, then I would hope that God had mercy on the soul of that principal when my dad found out. Common sense is apparently not a gift all of us are blessed with.

I like to put a plastic mouse in that Principals office!

While a conscientious parent will not permit a child to take toys to school, This was outrageous. Children need to feel safe and nurtured at school so they can focus on learning without distractions. Zero tolerance policies are in general ridiculous, but how now will they get that child to willingly return to classes when they have caused him so much stress and anxiety.
Some parents feel that children shouldn't receive "war toys" or play violent games. Obviously such individuals have forgotten what it was like to be a kid, cause kids play emulates adult life and allows kids to try different roles. In any world that includes warfare as a possibility, children should also be allowed to play at war, just as they might play at being truck drivers or hairdressers. Back in the 80's when America had no overt conflicts going on social pundits decryed "war toys" and toy guns dissappeared from toy shelves. Come the 90's with war now being perennial, now toy guns are plentiful again. However some folks are still stuck in the 80's. If soldiers are held up as heros (which they should be, unless they tarnish their honor) then children will emulate them, which is also as it should be.
The teacher should have gently confiscated the plastic toy, with the admonition not to bring toys to school and promised to return it at the end of the day. Such an approach would have been so much more effective than the overbearing way that this was actually handled.

I don't know what the zero tolerance policy really says. But if a child killing several of his fellow student can be the rational to punish a student from playing with a model that has a 1'' gun then perhaps by extension all students that have hands capable of holding a gun should be excluded from school as well.
Zero tolerance does not mean exclusion of all common sense.
Perhaps a lack of good sense is a perfectly good reason to fire a principal.

Bella

Well said! and a +1 for you!

plus one for you Mr. Cooper, Parents need to step up and take action. Parents are the ones who are supposed to be in charge of their childrens education. Just like parents are ultimately responsible for training their children and raising them right. As long as the left has control over our young minds in Government school, we can expect these kind of outrages to continue and get worse.

Clay, the Bryant case isn't even relevant here. We home schooled our own kid and the state of Massachusetts gave us no trouble. You have to follow an approved curriculum, and this is a good thing, as some people shouldn't be allowed to teach children, because they will attempt to force their own prejudices on the children or will avoid teaching science, or math or something else they haven't a clue about. Children are our most precious resource and yes the State does have a right to take an interest in what children are being taught, so that the children can grow up to be competent adults. Every parent tries to insulate children from something, but children will eventually lead their own lives for good or ill and children need to get their own life experience. My parents tries to shield me from a lot of things they didn't like (growing up Mormon, you'd guess this) but their efforts at censorship did me no earthly good, but only left me clueless and vulnerable because They Didn't Tell Me anything about the trauma and dangers I actually had to face, leaving me an easy target for abusers. But Abusers always perpetuate abuse, they think of it as a right.
You know nothing about the Bryants, I used to live in Waltham and know the city well. Some people shouldn't be allowed to homeschool, there has to be some kind of basic competency first. Homeschooling is not an excuse to indoctrinate your kids with hate. Albeit that the Waltham official's statement was obnoxious, She has to face the voters eventually herself.

Maybe what we need in this free country is a Zero Tolerance Policy prohibiting the Zero Tolerance Policies in our tax funded public schools. This is clearly indoctrination as opposed to security. The only way that Leggo toy gun could be a weapon is maybe as a choking hazard. That principal and any bureaucrat that tries to justify this stupidity should be adding to the double digit unemployment rate. Subjecting a kid to this level of stupidity and leftist indoctrination borders on child abuse.

ahhh another example of the omniscient teacher...what is this country/world coming to?

Playing with a lego go?!? what is it like the size of a quarter? yea this country is going down the tubs..im still in school and i have a principle that suspends me for looking at him the wrong way...he is an A**hole and he thinks he has so much power like most principles do. this kid is in 4th grade he doesnt know and better he's prolly 10 years old..principle sounds like she's stuck up..if anything u tell him you cant have that here or take it..

stupid czarist principle.