# Suspending a six-year-old from school for pretending his finger was a gun and saying 'POW' **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 4, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspending-a-six-year-old-from-school-for-pretending-his-finger-was-a-gun-and-saying-pow/646015 "2013-01-04T00:15:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspending-a-six-year-old-from-school-for-pretending-his-finger-was-a-gun-and-saying-pow/646015/161 "2013-01-14T19:28:17Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Did anyone else notice that no other punishments were mentioned? Where’s moving their desk away from people? Where’s standing on the wall at or not being able to go to recess? Where’s detention, whether during lunch, recess, or after school? Where’s overnight suspension? Where’s flipping in-school suspension? I see no escalation of punishment. It’s just talk to kid with different people and then, boom, suspension. That’s ridiculous. What do standing _on_ the wall, in-school and overnight suspension entail? I mean, I suspect the first is what it says on the tin, but I might be wrong and even if not I’m not sure what the point is. And I’m only familiar with one type of suspension, “don’t come into school for X days”. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspending-a-six-year-old-from-school-for-pretending-his-finger-was-a-gun-and-saying-pow/646015/162 "2013-01-14T19:35:50Z")
At my school, discipline usually goes like this: -Verbal warnings in class. -Laps at recess -Silent lunch -Phone call home -Office referral -In-school suspension (you get a bunch of paperwork, including writing assignments about your transgression and what you could have done instead, and you do it in a quiet room where you sit all day long with little interaction) -Out-of-school suspension ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspending-a-six-year-old-from-school-for-pretending-his-finger-was-a-gun-and-saying-pow/646015/163 "2013-01-14T19:39:27Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > That’s not an argument I made. I didn’t say you said that. I was quite specific in how I worded it. > [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > I said an account driven primarily by the family’s complaint. you challenged my point that the school was quoted with: "Why? Do you think that any article gives a full and complete quote of all that a subject said? " I pointed out that the school was interviewed and your argument is that newspapers suck and then you apparently ignore the end result which was the reversal of the suspension. You’ve ignored the obvious and insist something more sinister is afoot without any evidence. In short, you have no argument. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspending-a-six-year-old-from-school-for-pretending-his-finger-was-a-gun-and-saying-pow/646015/164 "2013-01-14T19:48:36Z")
Again, if you think that a newspaper reporter includes verbatim quotes of everything that an interviewee says,rather than selectively editing in order to write an interesting story, you have a childlike naivete about the world that is in many ways enviable. Knowing the truth and asserting it is not the same as saying “newspapers suck.” ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspending-a-six-year-old-from-school-for-pretending-his-finger-was-a-gun-and-saying-pow/646015/165 "2013-01-14T19:59:12Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Again, if you think that a newspaper reporter includes verbatim quotes of everything that an interviewee says,rather than selectively editing in order to write an interesting story, you have a childlike naivete about the world that is in many ways enviable. > > Knowing the truth and asserting it is not the same as saying “newspapers suck.” /that’s a specious argument to make considering the school’s official position on the matter. You literally have nothing to base your opinion on except a vague ivory tower position of how newspapers operate. You’ve further poisoned your position with a strawman argument that verbatim quotes were not used and therefore selective editing ensued. Were the lack of verbatim quotes from the school pertinent to the report the decision was reversed? Do you want to argue the accuracy of that too? ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspending-a-six-year-old-from-school-for-pretending-his-finger-was-a-gun-and-saying-pow/646015/166 "2013-01-20T21:08:30Z")
Similar story… [http://www.inquisitr.com/488555/bubble-gun-suspension-kindergarten-students-comment-draws-controversy/](http://www.inquisitr.com/488555/bubble-gun-suspension-kindergarten-students-comment-draws-controversy/) ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspending-a-six-year-old-from-school-for-pretending-his-finger-was-a-gun-and-saying-pow/646015/167 "2013-01-31T18:18:25Z")
And here’s a toy gun expulsion from South Carolina: [6-Year-Old Expelled for Bringing Toy Gun to School](http://www.wltx.com/news/article/219116/2/6-Year-Old-Expelled-for-Bringing-Toy-Gun-to-School) I hope there’s more to all these stories, or something is seriously wrong with school districts now. And they’re the ones in charge of educating our children :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspending-a-six-year-old-from-school-for-pretending-his-finger-was-a-gun-and-saying-pow/646015/168 "2013-01-31T19:07:44Z")
I love how the little six year old ruffian couldn’t _possibly_ understand the simple commands directed to him because he’s only six but all of the other sensitive children should just grow up and stop being sensitive. Apply your standards consistently, please. - Former Sensitive Child [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suspending-a-six-year-old-from-school-for-pretending-his-finger-was-a-gun-and-saying-pow/646015.md?page=8)