Potential Charges Over Child’s Toy Gun in School Zoom Class

“A Spring Grove Middle School student has been suspended and is facing possible criminal charges after playing with a toy gun in his bedroom during a Zoom class, according to the boy’s mother,” York Daily Record reports. “School officials suspended 13-year-old Brandon Atienza, of North Codorus Township, for three days while deciding on further disciplinary action…”

It was a snow day. The kid was in his home. During a virtual class, he moved the Orbeez gel shooter he’d received for Christmas and, like a child, per the teacher, said, “Look what I have.”

He didn’t threaten anyone. He put it away when told.

A school resource officer was dispatched to his house, who determined it was just a toy. Per the story, when the boy’s mother returned home after getting a call from the school, “a Northern York County Regional Police officer was waiting outside her house who then confiscated the toy gun and told her that Brandon would be charged with disorderly conduct.”

The decision to go ballistic was backed by the school superintendent, who justified it by saying they had no way of knowing if the gun was real.

Here’s a unique idea: The teacher had the kid on Zoom—why didn’t s/he ask him? If in doubt, since he was already holding it, have him hold it up to the camera to see. Then, upon determining it was a toy, act like the damn adult in charge and tell him to put it away and pay attention in class.

You could always call the mom afterward and ask her to talk to her son and make sure he understands there are classroom conduct expectations. It didn’t need to go beyond that. But if we’re going to talk about policy violations, they surely have one against bullying. It turns out all too often that teachers and administrators are the biggest bullies of all, but then again, not following their own policy is evident through presuming that a private home is “school property.”

There’s also the reality that they won’t let boys be boys (or girls be girls) because that would be “gender normative” and “reinforce stereotyped expectations.” Can’t have that.

As for the supplemental “Only One” showing up at the house, stealing the boy’s property, and then putting the fear of God into him, that, increasingly, is par for the course from the profession that enforces citizen disarmament and then expects us to “back the blue.”

We’ve seen these outrages in hoplophobia manifest themselves in all sorts of ridiculous ways over the years, most ludicrously in the persecution of the 2^nd Grade Pop Tart gun kid. Those of us old enough remember when playing with toy guns was ubiquitous, with TV commercials for Mattel’s Tommy Burst (that’s “Otis” from The Andy Griffith Show playing the burglar) or the Johnny Seven OMA, before graduating to BB guns and .22s. We recall a time when if you did hear from an adult, it would be a cautionary reminder to be safe, or a scolding we took to heart if we weren’t.

Curious, how we didn’t have mass school shootings in those days. Perhaps the indoctrination, the pressures, and the pharmacological experimentation by behavioral control freaks weren’t amped up enough to crank out a psychically scarred enough percentage of confused, resentful, angry, and frustrated juveniles, where a portion of them were bound to snap.

Madness is to be expected, though, when the servants have presumed to be the master.

It recalls a question from my friend, colleague in exposing ATF’s lethal Operation Fast and Furious plot, and originator of the Three Percent concept, the late Mike Vanderboegh, who noted and asked:

“We are divided along the lines of the answer to this eternal question – does the government serve the people, or do the people serve the government?”

It also brings to mind some truths from “One of the People” in his response to Tench Coxe’s “On a Bill of Rights”:

“What should we think of a gentleman, who, upon hiring a waiting-man, should say to him—’my friend, please to take notice, before we come together, that I shall always claim the liberty of eating when and what I please, of fishing and hunting upon my own ground, of keeping as many horses and hounds as I can maintain, and of speaking and writing my sentiments upon all subjects.’ A servant must be a fool, who would not suppose such a master to be a madman… Let these truths sink deep into our hearts: that the people are the masters of their rulers and that rulers are the servants of the people…”

They not only haven’t sunk deep, the majority of floaters in “our Democracy” have been indoctrinated to clamor for more controls. The stupid name “Moms Demand Action,” obnoxiously bleated by mouthy cud chewers and their geldings, is an offense to everything the Founders fought and sacrificed for, and is, by undermining what they knew to be “the security of a free State,” treasonous.

There’s one last observation about the poor kid who unwittingly brought the wrath of The Woke Who Must Be Obeyed down on his head for being a normal boy: Notice he was named?

Now look at how officials and the media treat the teen suspects in the Kansas City’s Super Bowl celebration shooting (giving Joe Biden and the useful idiots who vote for him another excuse to demand disarming the rest of us):

“No further information was released. Defendants age 17 and under in Missouri are typically adjudicated through the juvenile system, which is far more private than the system for adults. Names of the accused are not released, nor are police documents such as probable cause statements.”

Maybe if the (Don’t call them thugs!) had flashed an Orbeez in a Zoom class… or had been Kyle Rittenhouse…

And in news just released at this writing, two adult (and named) supects have also been charged in the shootings, with more likely to be charged,

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.