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Girl suspended for empty shotgun shell at Des Moines school

strife

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You've got to be kidding me!

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines girl who brought an empty shotgun shell to school to show her science teacher was suspended for violating the school's weapons policy.

Authorities say 12-year-old Jazmine Martin brought the shell to school last week. It was a souvenir from a summer vacation to South Dakota. It was empty and had the word "blank" written on the front.

Jazmine said that during fourth period, she was pulled out of class and questioned about her souvenir.

Brody Middle School Principal Randy Gordon said Jazmine actually brought a bag of shell casings and shared them with other kids.

Gordon said that even though they were empty, the casings are considered ammunition, which violates the school's weapon policy.
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I don't know if Iowa has a teacher's union, but most teachers don't understand the "individual thought" concept. In California, most teachers are pinheaded liberals. Follow the herd. Like most school districts, there is a "no tolerance" policy for these types of issues. No thinking is involved...just an automatic suspension.

By the way my wife is a California school teacher. By law she is required to be a member of the union, but as a conservative she despises the union and their bullshit policies and opinions. Her goal is to educate children, not f**k the system at any cost.

Jason
 
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As someone who shoots hundreds of rounds of ammunition a month, I can tell you that there is no harm in a empty casing. This is a travesty that the poor girl got suspended for bringing a piece of plastic to school.
 

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I think this is ridiculous that the kids got suspended.

Bagfulofpings, how can you say the vast majority of teachers are pinheads? I really take offense at that and I'm surprised your wife isn't offended by that also.
 

Hot_Sauce

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I wonder how long this girl was suspended for? This is silly. We should be teaching chirdren gun safety not suspending them for bringing empty blank shot shells.

And what I mean by gun safety is how to check guns to see if they are loaded and such. Not shooting or defensive tactics.
 
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I think this is ridiculous that the kids got suspended.

Bagfulofpings, how can you say the vast majority of teachers are pinheads? I really take offense at that and I'm surprised your wife isn't offended by that also.
I am speaking of California, but wherever there is a union, there are liberals. As I said, my wife is a conservative and she is the first to say most of her colleagues are pinheaded liberals. If that offends you, oh well. We agree to disagree.

Jason
 

Daviso27

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That sucks....

A kid in Orlando, FL just a few weeks ago was expelled from middle school for bringing a steak knife to school and pulling it out during lunch.... oh yeah and he also brought in 1/2 a NY strip, mashed potatoes and a fork... The school board said, "oh well, the parents and the student should have known better, Zero tolerance means no exceptions."
 
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That sucks....

A kid in Orlando, FL just a few weeks ago was expelled from middle school for bringing a steak knife to school and pulling it out during lunch.... oh yeah and he also brought in 1/2 a NY strip, mashed potatoes and a fork... The school board said, "oh well, the parents and the student should have known better, Zero tolerance means no exceptions."

Yes sir!!!! You have proved my point!!!!! There is no individual thought in the educational system...or any governmental system. Do what the man says, or else you will suffer.

Jason
 
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tubaman

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That sucks....

A kid in Orlando, FL just a few weeks ago was expelled from middle school for bringing a steak knife to school and pulling it out during lunch.... oh yeah and he also brought in 1/2 a NY strip, mashed potatoes and a fork... The school board said, "oh well, the parents and the student should have known better, Zero tolerance means no exceptions."
Um, hello, it could be used as a freakin' weapon!! That one I happen to agree with, although the response you have quoted was idiotic to make. If that's what a member of the schoolboard said, that person didn't think before speaking, which is unfortunate.

Maybe the kid wasn't going to use it for anything more than eating his steak, but what if someone took that from him and used it to hurt another student? Of course, there would have been a public outcry and the teachers and administrators would have been vilified by the public for not doing their job to ensure the safety of the children. We are charged with the safety of the children when they walk through our doors and I will ALWAYS ere on the side of caution when dealing with the safety of kids. I would expect nothing less of the school that my kids go to as I want them as safe as possible. The original case of this thread was stupid because there is nothing remotely dangerous about an empty shotgun shell. But a knife is a weapon and the school must act to ensure the safety of it's students, not just from students that go off the deep end in a Columbine like way, but from kids flying off the handle and doing something stupid because they were "disrespected" by somebody. It's easy to have twenty twenty hindsight, but not so easy when you are dealing with this sort of thing on the spot.

You're right Jason, you and I will agree to disagree. Student safety is of primary importance. Nobody EVER thinks some disastrous event can happen in their school, but for some it did. I want to at least know that I did everything I could to ensure their safety. It's too bad your wife seems to work in a district where teachers don't seem to care or administrators fail to inspire quality teaching.

I guess I'm blessed to work in a district where we pride ourselves in finding ways to reach ALL children. I also know many teachers in other districts that work very hard to try their best to educate our country's children. It's certainly not a perfect system, but to say that the majority of our country's teachers are pinheads who teach to a specific model and don't account for varied learning styles is just too broad a statement.
 
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Many good points made on both sides of the argument. I'm not sure that either of these cases required as severe disciplinary action (expulsion for a steak knife and suspension for a shell casing) as was taken. I do however agree that both of the students should have had the object removed from their possession. I just think the punishment should fit the crime, and since neither of these children were intentionally trying to make school an unsafe environment, I don't believe either should have been punished for their actions.

However, no, I am not willing to die in support of that opinion.
 

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Well Jason, I would like to think that there are some things that I hold dear that I would give my life for, so yes. But you are taking yourself way to seriously. So if a child of yours, I don't know if you have kids or not, were to get suspended over a situation like this, you would fight to the death about this?

Out of respect to Mike, I'm done on this thread because it has really moved away from his original intent. One thing I have learned, there are some people that no matter what, they are always right. So I'm not going to bother arguing with you anymore.
 
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