Modesto school suspends 5-year-old boy for 'terroristic' threat

[Egomaniac]

Saying "Bomb" in a school should be treated the same as yelling "Fire" in a Theater

[Adam Jensen]

Zero tolerance needs to stop being a thing. What needs to happen is better legal protections for schools so they don't have to resort to such bullshit policies. The five year old does need to be taught a lesson, but maybe not make it that severe. It's pretty common knowledge that 5 year olds are idiots.

[Independent voter]

Looks the type who'd say something like "I've got a bomb in my backpack".

[Post]

You seem to like making assumptions. Just because all of us are on here on a random forum that doesn't mean none of us have gone to school or have jobs/careers directly, or even indirectly, related to one or more of the topics at hand. Shocking I know.

Go ahead and argue with yourself on your earlier post then.

[Raetary]

Kids aren't morons. They're assholes.

I'm sure this kid 100% knew what he was saying.

And the school did the right thing in response.

The kid is 5...

[Pantalaimon]

Go ahead and argue with yourself on your earlier post then.

Regardless, the research, knowledge base in theory and modern practice stand against you if you attempt to argue he had clear understanding of what he was doing. Arguing won't change the reality.

[Charge me Doctor]

It's not something to joke about, especially in 2017, regardless of age.

[Endus]

I don't know what kind of "permanent record" they want expunged. If it's just "he was suspended this one time", a resounding "meh". If that "terroristic threats" thing is on there, that's asinine though. He's a kid, and he was stupid and back-talked the teacher.

That said, we're in a state where suspension is basically the lowest level of punishment available. Detention's increasingly not a "thing", because parents have such tightly scheduled plans for their kids that you CAN'T keep them past school hours as punishment. Penalizing them scholastically (in terms of grades and such) isn't fair. You can deny them school-run extracurriculars, but if they're not involved in those, it's not a punishment you can issue. Since detention's off the table because of parents (basically), that ends up leaving schools one option. Suspension.

I'd be open to other types of punishment being available (not corporeal punishment, but things like detention), but parents tend to flip out over that stuff. Telling a parent their kid can't go to their expensive piano lesson after school because they have detention leads to the parents throwing a hissy fit and demanding you let their kid out 9 times out of 10.

And now he gets to stay home a day and watch cartoons instead of going to stupid school, I'm sure he's irreparably damaged.

Suspension is 80% not a punishment for the students. It's a punishment for the parents, who have to deal with it. And it isn't even really meant as a punishment. It's the school telling parents "your child is being shitty, we're not dealing with it, raise them better." You had to leave work because you couldn't leave your 5 year old at home? Tough nuts. Raise your kid to not be a little shit, maybe.

[Adam Jensen]

I'd be open to other types of punishment being available (not corporeal punishment, but things like detention), but parents tend to flip out over that stuff. Telling a parent their kid can't go to their expensive piano lesson after school because they have detention leads to the parents throwing a hissy fit and demanding you let their kid out 9 times out of 10.

Fuck the parents. Seriously. My mother was a teacher and she got so sick of parents acting like their little darling was an angel and they'd trust the word of their snot nosed little kid over the grown adult teaching them.

As much as she loved teaching, the parents drove her away from the profession.

[Endus]

Fuck the parents. Seriously. My mother was a teacher and she got so sick of parents acting like their little darling was an angel and they'd trust the word of their snot nosed little kid over the grown adult teaching them.

As much as she loved teaching, the parents drove her away from the profession.

Oh, I agree. I'm just pointing out that it's the parents that have largely been responsible for negating every other avenue of punishment, leaving teachers no options but suspension. So you end up with silly-ass things like this, because teachers have two options; ignore bad behaviour, which encourages it. Or suspend them.

[De Lupe]

>Kid threatens school with a bomb.
>School suspends kid.

I see nothing wrong. The little shit got what he deserved. Don't make bomb threats unless you mean it.

[Cosmic Janitor]

It's just one day.. that is punishment. The parenting fail on the otherhand.. I hope they get the bill . Edit: Detention is such a hillariously cliche American way of punishing people. Did something? Get punished by removal of freedom. Just my personal opinion, but having teachers and other semi-educated individuals wield the power of the justice system seems just wrong to me. If the parents agree to the punishment fine, but I don't see any real reason why teachers should be able to willy nilly decide that they can detain you. Same for forced labour btw. Also why the heck does the forum ignore my carriage retrun and line feed when "typing" enter?

[TirielWoW]

>Kid threatens school with a bomb.
>School suspends kid.

I see nothing wrong. The little shit got what he deserved. Don't make bomb threats unless you mean it.

He's 5 years old. He probably doesn't even know what a bomb actually is. Your statement is utterly ridiculous in the context of what actually happened.

[De Lupe]

He's 5 years old. He probably doesn't even know what a bomb actually is. Your statement is utterly ridiculous in the context of what actually happened.

Don't dismiss someone because of their age. Kids are smarter than people think they are. I find it hard to believe that he didn't know what a bomb was.

Furthermore, kids need to be taught that there are repercussions for their actions. Better to do it when they're little and impressionable so they learn to stay out of trouble early.

[Everwake]

So should I trust you or the school of qualified people?

Most teachers have little to no training in child development or child psychology.

[Hiricine]

This kid didn't want to take his backpack off, and the problem with a 5 year old's imagination is that it has absolutely no filter.

At 5 years old you basically have no concept of punishment for this sort of thing.

Of course, a Kindergarten suspension really isn't the worst thing that could happen to you, and the parents can hopefully straighten out the entire bomb threat thing in that period of time. In that perspective, a 1 day suspension really isn't a huge deal in proportion to what he did, even accounting for his age.

[LiiLoSNK]

I remember when pretending sticks were guns was completely fine in school. And then one of my classmates found a real gun and killed half my class.

Just kidding, kids back in the day knew what pretend guns meant, but at the same time knew that real guns were a very real thing that were not to be played with. This was the 90's though.

I don't feel bad for any of the retarded little bastards that get in trouble these days because the newer generations are so bat shit crazy that I would truly believe it if one of them said they had a live bomb in their backpack.

[MonsieuRoberts]

Kids. What a bunch of bastards.

[Tenjen]

eh its a day. The effects that will have are intended and how it should be.

If they put him on a watchlist, tackled him to the ground and/or called in a swat team (which can happen) then we should get talking.

[Sandraudiga]

If he was 10 or something, yeah. 5 years old? Nah. The correct response would to have been detention, talking to him about why things like that aren't to joke about and then call the parents in to explain what happened.

*Is a Primary School Teacher*

+1 to this post. Completely agree, and I came into the thread ready to agree with punishment. He was 5 years old and didn't want to take off his backpack, he didn't threaten anyone, he simply said something stupid that he didn't understand.