Opinion
Fairfax, VA – -(Ammoland.com)- There has always been ridiculous. But now there is Tredyffrin-Easttown School District ridiculous.
That’s because this Pennsylvania educational board currently tops all-comers in the hotly-contested race for the most counter-productive overreaction to a perceived “threat” from an objectively harmless student.
In this case, the victim was Margot, a 6-year-old kindergartner who has Down syndrome.
Last November, according to a local CBS news report, “Margot became frustrated and made a gesture that sparked a disciplinary investigation.” The girl’s mother acknowledged that Margot pointed her finger at a teacher and said, “I shoot you.”
While that’s certainly inappropriate behavior, it’s also hardly beyond the pale of a young child who’s experiencing a moment of aggravation.
Notwithstanding Margot’s young age, developmental challenges, and obvious inability to discharge an actual projectile from her bare finger, school officials convened a “threat assessment.”
That process, Margot’s mother told the CBS reporter, determined that “nobody was in harm’s way” and that Margot “didn’t even really know what she was saying.”
Unfortunately, school officials then turned what could have been a teachable moment in the importance of choosing words and gestures carefully into a master’s class on bureaucratic rigidity and ineptitude.
Tredyffrin-Easttown School District policy calls for police to be contacted when a threat assessment is convened.
So school officials called the cops on 6-year-old Margot.
The police would not comment to the CBS reporter on what measures they took in response to the school’s report.
But Margot’s mother is upset that the little girl is now on file with local authorities as having “threatened” a school teacher.
The school district told the CBS affiliate that it had “agreed to review” its “school safety practices” in response to a parent having expressed concerns. But it defended them, insisting “the District worked collaboratively with parents, law enforcement and private safety/mental health agencies and legal consultants to ensure our safety measures reflected considerable input from both our local community and experts in the field of school safety.”
Margot’s mother said in another interview that her meeting with the district’s policy committee left her feeling “disheartened,” as she recognized that the process her daughter was subjected to was “intentional” and had in fact “worked as it was intended to.” “That should really frighten people,” she added.
She has also pointed out the harm these one-size-fits-all policies do to children like her daughter, telling the Washington Post that “nationwide data shows students with disabilities are disproportionately likely to be disciplined.”
Margot’s mother emphasized in a public Facebook statement that she does not blame the teacher or principal for what happened and that they “were merely following a policy in a manner in which they were directed to follow it.”
Her motive for going public after meeting with the district’s policy committee, she explained, “is about educating and informing our community about a policy that needs to change in order to protect all our students.” Her recommendations for reform are outlined in a detailed letter she submitted to the committee.
If this were an isolated incident, it could perhaps be chalked up to good intentions gone awry.
But anti-gun hysteria has grown so acute and pervasive in the public education system that no child is safe from potentially life-long consequences for what has historically been understood to be normal, if immature, behavior. These incidents should be kept in mind as policymakers debate the important issue of school safety.
Fortunately, Margot’s parents appear determined to do whatever is necessary to remove any effect the incident may have left on her record and to ensure other vulnerable students in the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District are spared a similar experience.
We wish the family well in righting a wrong that could have been avoided with a modicum of common sense and good judgment. In the meantime, we grade the district’s efforts at a rational approach to safety an F for fail.
About:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
This mother would be well-served to put her kid in a private or church school that have staff trained to address special needs children. Public School is child abuse, and teaches kids to be subservient to the government – the exact opposite of what they need to learn!
70 years for communists to make the “Long march through the institutions”, and 70 days for patriots to burn through them all with 2 trillion rounds of ammo when the boog kicks off. Real Americans just need to keep future patriots OUT of the commie brainwashing centers till then!!
@W&WR, that is why I think grand parents are in a unique position to tell kids that what they are told in school is all crap that is to be recited back for tests, but not to be really believed. Keep the secret to them selves regurgitate back for exams, and go on to bigger and better things. After all testing is all school is really about.
Our children are bombarded with daily news of gun fights and gang shootings on television all day long. Its not difficult to understand how a special needs child could react to a situation they cannot understand or cope with. They repeat words they hear on the nighty news day after day after day. The crime in this case was not what the child did, but the reaction of the teacher and school administrators. We entrust schools with the care of our children. We expect the teachers and staff to be rational beings with sensitivity to special needs children entrusted to… Read more »
@Jaque, Schools and teachers are just another form of self serving bureaucrat.
Parents shouldn’t let their kids watch TV for the most part, NEVER unsupervised, and NEVER the TV news!
As far as the so-called “educators” and “administrators”, they’re (whether they know it or not) communist indoctrinators. Communist ideology is what is taught, including the lie that a monopoly of violence belongs in the hands of the state.
I said it elsewhere and I’ll repeat it here: public school is child abuse. Loving parents need to keep their kids out of these commie indoctrination centers.
“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” I wonder how many times when as a child I made the same gesture. People who are in authority should use some common sense. Law or not, there was no way this poor kid could have possibly hurt anyone. This went from a teachable moment to a classic show of force bent on intimidation. Sooner or later, if the LORD takes HIS time coming to get us, there is likely to be a reckoning between abusive government and the citizenry. With all that is going on… Read more »
@DB – This story sounds like upper level micromanagement combined with typical bureaucrat CYA. District laid down the law, teacher afraid of losing their job just follows the rules laid down and reports to principal. Written policy says do an intervention, which triggers calling the cops. This is the reality when people fear failing to obey the rules – and when rules are overly specific and do not allow for generalization by intelligent employees. If the child was indeed in a special ed class, I’m shocked that any decent teacher qualified to work with special ed would have over reacted… Read more »
Finn, yes sir it was way over managed. Back in the day when children really did something wrong there was Daddy’s belt to worry about. What happened to this poor kid had nothing to do with helping the kid it was more of a c.y.a. from the teacher up to the cops, just like you said. It’s not hard to imagine Hitler’s pre war Germany doing the same thing.
Arm up, carry on.
I just can’t wrap my head around these people’s lunacy. On one hand we get the PROMISE diversionary program that allows students who commit certain misdemeanors to avoid getting involved with the criminal justice system. On the other hand we get babies and the mentally challenged having the cops called on them for pointing finger guns. SMH
Ban the dreaded Assault Finger!! And Kindergartners! And Kindergarten!
Seriously, Home-School your kids.
Be aware, though, that many states are now requiring that the curriculum you use be approved by the Politburo.
How true, you don’t want to make that gesture while in a car, you can be arrested in Pa for that, the state is getting worse, the riffraff is moving from NJ, NY, Md, it is a virus and spreading West!!!
@willyd – Growing up in CA, I always thought the reason for not making that gesture at someone was that they might pull out an actual gun and use it. In Texas, most gun owners are responsible enough to not overreact like that – but I lived in La-La land, where only criminals have guns. Always grateful I found Texas and was able to raise my kids here!
Just another consequence of draconian gun control.
The nazis were just following orders too, and at the Nuremberg Trials, they pleaded for special considerations just the same. WWII wasn’t their fault. Six million dead Jewish people to include their children and babies weren’t their fault. They were just doing their job. And oh, how many roads to Hell I wonder, have been paved with good intentions? Too many.
Ever wonder why schools call themselves unified? It’s because they’ve created a universal system to keep children in boxes and anyone who disagrees with them are singled out and made examples of.
It’s no wonder children are so dumbed down, can’t function in society and with that “everyone gets a trophy mentality”. As for the so called educators who would rather impose punishment for life than make a real teaching moment, they have become an arm of the left and have no intention of educating. Just look at how the system is going after the scary children.
The PEOPLE Alone are responsible for what they allow and get for it in return.
IF, YOU GIVE your children to others, Then YOU GAVE your children to others and
They will do with them as they see fit and as it pleases Them Not You.
IF, YOU were in the present school system and You were treated as they treat your kids
hopefully, you would never go back. Go see for your self IF, they will allow you.
Set yourself free, Read this and share it.https://www.batr.org/wrack/061911.html
This is what you get when the government ceases to serve and protect and moves to threaten and control! Guess who runs the schools aka gun free slaughter pens???