A high school sophomore was suspended for ten days after he was allegedly caught with a bright yellow squirt gun. The student was punished under the school’s zero tolerance policy on firearms. The teen was discovered to have the squirt gun after it fell out of his backpack at school.
Lewiston School Superintendent Bill Webster said, “I can say that a student bringing a water pistol to school will, at first, be told that they are being suspended from school for 10 days. We then work to get more facts and complete a review that often results in a reduction of the suspension period. Also, it is not uncommon for other factors to enter into the suspension decision, including the level of student cooperation.”
“Would anybody actually mistake this for a real weapon?” asked the father of the student. “Time to get real.”
Webster said that the gun, “certainly looks innocent enough on one hand, but can be used in a disruptive way and lead, perhaps, to students bringing other water pistols that may not look so benign,” he said.
Detective Sgt. Joe Bradeen told the Sun Journal that some squirt guns looks like real weapons, which could lead to a dangerous situation.
The Libertarian Republic has protested these kinds of ridiculous zero tolerance policies with our “Toy Gun March” on Washington D.C., which raised over $1,100 dollars for the Toys For Toys charity. We believe that these are ridiculous, because America is a gun culture and children should not be persecuted for playing with toy guns.
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