Toy Gun Still Costs 8-Yr-Old, One Year Later

Last November, second-grader Samuel Burgos was expelled from Pembroke Pines Charter School in Broward County, Fla., for one year after bringing a toy gun to class. A year later, county school board officials say the expulsion still stands as part of a zero-tolerance policy on bringing weapons to school, reports NBC Miami.

"He made a mistake, but why the severe punishment? I don't understand that," Magdiel Burgos, Samuel's father, told the station.

Officials maintain it's a cut-and-dried case - that the toy gun was capable of firing projectiles, earning it's classification as a weapon. They say 8-year-old Samuel can attend a nearby correctional school for problem children.

His parents refused that option last year - opting to home-school him - and remain opposed to the idea.

"I can't sit here and allow them to send my kid to a school where students have committed actual crimes," his father told the station. "He hasn't committed a crime."

Magdiel Burgos said his son has been set back emotionally and academically - he'll likely have to repeat the 2nd grade.

The Burgoses plan to attend a school board meeting next week in an effort to get their son re-enrolled in Pembroke Pines.

[foodandart]

".. the toy gun was capable of firing projectiles earning it's classification as a weapon."

By that logic ANY child with a hand, should be expelled. After all, rocks are projectiles, and they for SURE can kill. Isn't there a woman in Iran looking at a death sentence by stoning?

Goodness, Floridians sure are a daffy lot.

Must be the hurricanes that addle their minds.

Glad I do not live there.

[barbaram99]

We all pay in to the school systems in the state we each live in. Children are taught the Constution. The right to bear arms which they will at adult age. The child took a toy to school. This barring is the buch thing. I think the boy needs an education and should be in school. The Adults are the problem. Just about every child has played army or cowboys. We did years ago. They allow gang colours in school and that seems fine with the staff. I am told children can't write by hand today as penmanship is not taught. I grew up in gun free homes and still live in gun free home. If any one should have cheched the boy's school bag it schould have been his parents. I would rather it been made a teaching lesson. It was a poor choice on the boy's part. Sighted adults could tell it was a toy. Poor kid.

[1renegade]

Just goes to prove common sense isn't so common anymore.

[wyodutch]

Dear Lord. Please keep Florida people within the state of Florida and don't let them spread. We just don't know if stupidity is contagious.

[documemts]

Middle-aged women + menopause = nanny-state. Women have taken over education and medicine that's why those areas are so expensive and why more money doesn't equal better care or higher test scores. Trust me on this.

[Myopinion046]

Expelling that kid makes sense. However, I have to ask CBS News to check to see how the recent teacher staff cuts have affected the conservatives teachers nationwide (how many, if any, are still in public education nationwide is the question, CBS).

[wyodutch]

Dear Lord... Please keep Florida people within the confines of their own state boreders... Just in case stupidity is contagious.

[Xring]

Two major issues quickly pop up. 1) The ability of the citizens to replace poor thinking school board members in the ballot box. Critical and 2) Revisit the "zero tollerance" policy concept. Very few things in life are absolute. In their zeal to provide a safe environment for learning they are willing to use the harshest punishments available to them. Is it too much to ask that an infraction be decided on a case by case basis? Or is the system too inflexible? If so Get rid of those that make it that infexible. That notion of zero tollerance is as archaic as the Spanish Inuisition.

[koko98-2009]

This is the three stikes mentality taken to it's conclusion. By being lazy and adopting manditory punishment you give judges and administrators no descression in dealing with these cases the right way. No administrator would continue to punish this child, but a stupid law passed by lazy people gives them no choice.

[knowerseeker]

A *toy* gun is *not* a weapon. It's a play toy that can be used as a tool to harass teachers and other children, but it's *not* a weapon. Anything less dangerous than a BB gun is not a weapon. (BB guns and above are.)

[Henri_Rochard]

Is a nerf gun a weapon ??? Could injure someone with the right projectile.

What about a starter's pistol ??

In this case, the local school board implemented a zero tolerance policy. Zero tolerance meaning zero tolerance. Period.

[theskeptical1]

Henri_Rochard wrote:

"Zero tolerance meaning zero tolerance. Period."

Correction, Henri; zero tolerance means zero 'intelligence'! Exclamation point.