Boy disciplined after waving gun-shaped pizza slice

[The Straight Story]

Boy disciplined after waving gun-shaped pizza slice

SMYRNA, Tenn. -

For the rest of the semester, a Rutherford County elementary student has to eat lunch at the "silent table" for allegedly waving around a slice of pizza some say resembled a gun.

Nicholas Taylor attends David Youree Elementary School in Smyrna, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville.

School leaders say the 10-year-old threatened other students at his lunch table with a piece of pizza with bites out of it so it looked like a gun and when asked about it was initially not truthful.

Nicholas' mother LeAnn calls her son's punishment "absolutely ridiculous" saying he was just playing around and never said anything derogatory or anything about shooting anyone.

"The kid across the table from him said it looked like a gun so he picked it up and started shooting it in the air," she told Nashville's News 2 Investigates.

http://www.wkrn.com/story/16325409/gun-shaped-pizza-slice

[Justice wanted]

1. Zero-Tolerance = ZERO common sense

[Wait Wut]

2. Okay...gun or not...

...waving pizza around and pointing it at other kids is just begging for discipline. It's food. Sit down and eat it without getting pizza sauce on the head of the little girl next to you.

LeAnn needs to teach the boy some table manners.

[Burgman]

4. OMG. You didn't just say that?

[Posteritatis]

13. Then say that instead of ranting about threats and requiring firearms safety lessons. (nt)

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. +1

[Bjorn Against]

32. And from the story it sounds like he lied as well.

If he were suspended I could understand the outrage a bit more, but the combination of lying, playing with his food, and pretending an object is a gun and pointing it at the other students adds up to something. I don't think the punishment should be too severe, but I don't think the six days at the quiet table he got is unreasonable. While I strongly disagree with schools suspending kids for obviously fake guns, I don't have a problem with schools banning toy or pizza guns as long as the penalties are reasonable and don't interfere with the child's ability to get an education.

[Survivoreesta]

47. Yeah right!>

I remember the time my house was robbed by a Jumbo with pepperoni and bacon!

This is ridiculous!

[Wait Wut]

50. And, I remember raising my son...

...to be respectful of others.

That's NOT The kid has zero respect and his mother is making excuses for him. What if you found out that this kid had a history of bullying smaller, weaker kids? Would discipline still be "ridiculous"? In my experience, kid's that behave this way have a tendency to be real little pricks with equally prickish parents. But, hey, he's just a kid. Let him off now and worry about it later.

We're all so eager to protect the rights of teachers, but when they discipline a kid, burn them at the stake! Teach the kids that they should lie to their teachers and others in authority. Great start to life. While we're at it, let's laugh when they behave like little neanderthals and let them intimidate others. It's not like he's a teenager...yet.

[leftyohiolib]

53. i love it when people whip out the what if game.

better not even get out of bed cause what if... that's right up there with the i-know-a-guy-who stories

[Wait Wut]

55. Right.

We should never think about what consequences our actions bring by saying "what if". We should just act on whatever impulse we feel at the moment. We should never consider what kind of adult our child will become by saying, "what if I let him behave this way now...what will happen when he grows up?"

I've been getting out of bed for 47 years. I don't live in a "what if" world, I'm just smart enough to know that every action has an effect. And, I do "know a guy". He's the son of a woman who planned ahead and didn't excuse him for being a brat so that he could become a conscientious, compassionate and polite adult.

[Enrique]

3. one thing to point out

the punishment is just that he has to eat at a different table.

[Tunkamerica]

5. silent table for the rest of the year.

to a kid, hell to some adults, that would be a pretty harsh sentence.

[Enrique]

8. six days

the rest of the semester, six days at the freaking silent table. And the mother alerts the media.

He continued, "The student didn't tell him the truth about it so he got silent lunch for six days."

[Tunkamerica]

12. yeah not so bad

def. not news.

[LiberalAndProud]

23. Correction: rest of the semester.

If for the rest of the year, this would be way over bounds, but the likelihood is that the semester ends at Christmas break, or soon thereafter. This may be too harsh as well, but it is best not to exaggerate.

[Tunkamerica]

33. enrique corrected me earlier, but thanks. not as bad, though technically we're both right since

the end of the year is next week. And I wasn't exaggerating. I misread.

[jberryhill]

38. The kids go on break next week

This is grade school. The marking period ends on Friday, which is itself probably a half day.

[Tunkamerica]

39. sigh...

what's your point?

[jberryhill]

40. Oh...

Just that having a kid sit at the quiet table for a couple of days for waving food around at lunch, seems pretty mundane.

[Tunkamerica]

45. didn't i say that like six comments up from this? i admitted my mistake that the end of the year

isn't the same as the end of the school year. I was corrected again and I pointed to the above correction and my comment that it wasn't really a big deal then and wasn't news... and now you're saying exactly the same thing as two others and myself.

So... what's your point?

[jberryhill]

48. It's not official until I say it

[Posteritatis]

15. And lectures on firearms safety, because those are somehow required. (nt)

[The Genealogist]

21. When I was in elementary we had the "quiet table"

It was separated from the rest of the table, and the point was to embarrass and shame the child by isolating him or her as much as possible. Even one day spent there was a very shaming, embarrassing experience. It was no little punishment to be ostracized like that.

[jberryhill]

41. Do you ever have nightmares or flashbacks?

[The Genealogist]

52. I'm not sure if you are asking the question seriously

but no.

[think]

6. Kids need to realize pizza is a gateway gun....

[Matariki]

7. Lesson learned: adults and persons in authority

are sometimes out of their fucking minds.

He might as well learn that early in life

[etherealtruth]

16. That was my first thought

They taught that lesson well!

[RevStPatrick]

18. Yep... I learned that lesson in kindergarten!

I was SO excited to go to school!
The first couple of days were like heaven.
And then I go into trouble.
In the New York City school system, in the 1960's you had to stand in line in size place, and wait until the teacher came to let you into the class.
I was the second kid in line, and I heard footsteps coming down the hall.
It sounded like our teacher's footsteps, and I couldn't wait to get back into class.
She saw me jumping up to see over the kid's head in front of me, and that was it... I was in BIG trouble!

My fuck school/fuck authority attitude began on the 3rd or 4th day kindergarten.

[Matariki]

20. lol

way to crush the joy of being in school right out of you.

[JBoy]

9. Kid shoulda said

You can have my pizza gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

[McCamy Taylor]

10. This is a thought crime. He thought the pizza looked like a gun.

If he thought the pizza looked like the Shroud of Turin would we make him a saint?

[jberryhill]

42. Doing anything with food at lunch other than eating it...

...is not a "thought crime".

My friend once made a spaghetti catapult out of his tray and fork, leaving a red mark on the ceiling which lasted for four years.

He didn't get caught.

He's now an attorney with the SEC.

You see what happens?

[etherealtruth]

11. They taught this child a valuable lesson

People can be complete jack asses ... he had to learn sometime.

[limpyhobbler]

17. Sounds about right to me. Kind of depends how long the rest of the semester is though.

I know it might seem to defy common sense at first, and maybe it does, but schools really do have to take a tough stand on these things, because of some things that have happened in the past. Every once in a while that's going to mean something a little strange happens for the sake of being consistent. This discipline says "Hey kids, we don't pretend to shoot each other." If the semester ends in January, that might be a month at the silent table.

[Odin2005]

29. What nonsense.

Should a kid be punished because he goes "bang-bang" with his fingers? I don't think so.

[limpyhobbler]

34. I see what you mean but being a school administrator means having to do some unpopular things

Say for example if a kid makes his fingers like a gun an points it at another kid's head and goes 'bang bang', I think he should be asked to stop doing that. I'd probably give him a detention or something and call the parents. So I think there is a question of where you draw the line. And this school decided that the pizza-gun kid should be asked to stop, and they gave him a very lenient punishment just to let other kids know that they shouldn't pretend to shoot each other in school. They can pretend to shoot each other after school if they want. I think the teachers and principals have a tough job and sometimes it means making an unpopular decision that seems weird or overkill, but they are erring on the side of caution and sending a clear message that kids shouldn't pretend to shoot each other in school. They can do that after school. Twenty year ago I might have been with you saying that kids should be able to shoot pretend guns at school, but with all that's happened since, I think banning imaginary gunplay at school is reasonable and parents should support teachers and principals in this community effort. If the school wants to have a rifle class or gun safety class, that's cool if the community wants it, and I'm sure they will teach responsible firearm usage in the class.

[abelenkpe]

19. OMG he was eating a vegetable?

[Politicalboi]

22. This is ridiculous

It is thought crime. When I was in school we had an English teacher who didn't allow gum chewing. And if you got caught, she would have you put the gum on the end of your nose. LOL! We were well aware of the punishment if caught.

[The Straight Story]

24. Some of those teachers/etc could be hosts here on DU

[DocMac]

49. Lol.

[LeftyMom]

25. Why is a kid having to eat lunch at a different table for a few days news?

I had to stay 45 minutes after school once for something I didn't do, I didn't realize I should have fought that injustice in the media.

[jberryhill]

28. Agree

These "weird thing happened at some school somewhere" stories seem to be getting undue circulation.

Every day, there are a gazillion disciplinary interventions in a gazillion schools. Every one of them now is potentially national news fodder.

[LeftyMom]

30. It seems like a reasonable response to disruptive lunchroom behavior anyhow.

They didn't call the cops, expel the kid for violating the weapons policy, or otherwise do anything "zero tolerance" and stupid. They just have a kid who was being a bit rowdy at the lunch table eating quietly by himself for a pretty short period. I'm not sure how long the remaining days of the semester would be, but I'm thinking that represents at most a few weeks after the break?

[jberryhill]

36. Seriously... Why should the kid be waving pizza, regardless of its shape

[Odin2005]

26. Zero Tolerance = Zero brains.

[pintobean]

27. Shooting peperoni at someone

could put an eye out. All schools should ban pizza guns.

Pepperoni Control Inc.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. There are days I wonder what exactly we are teaching kids these days?

it's not the three R's...

[Quantess]

35. Stupid.

Total over-reaction.

[L0oniX]

37. Good thing it didn't look like Jesus.

[marasinghe]

43. damn; guns & pizza: sounds like a mashup of the Trump-Palin tete-a-tete in NY.

hopefully, the kid won't end up eating his pizza like Trumpelstiltskin.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-1-2011/me-lover-s-pizza-with-crazy-broad?xrs=share_copy

[LeftishBrit]

44. Sounds like the boy was being a persistent nuisance at the table (as kids sometimes are)

and received a fairly ordinary punishment (as kids sometimes do).

I suspect that the mother is making of it something that it isn't.

If this is taking a 'zero tolerance' gun policy to extremes, then it's ridiculous; but it sounds much more trivial than that: the boy was playing around with food at an age beyond that where this is acceptable table behaviour, and was persistently teasing the other children, and was disciplined in a fairly routine way for it.

[ellisonz]

46. The more toppings on your pizza, the manlier the pie.

*with a nod to Herman Cain*

[ddeclue]

51. I knew I left Tennessee in 2000 for a reason...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

54. Well, if it was loaded with anchovies he deserves everything he gets.