50 State-By-State Most Ridiculous School Disciplines in K-12 Public Schools

Children being criminalized in school ending up in prisons or streets with no future

Do you have a story to report on and add to the stars on this flag?

Want some free amusement today? Forget about the cutesy kids or crazy cats on YouTube. Try something new today – by using not-so-popular keywords like “suspended,” “expelled,”  “student arrested,” etc. on social media. You just may find a truckload of unbelievable and ridiculous school disciplines like I did.

Across all 50 states of America in the K-12 Public School System, every day thousands of students are being disciplined or treated by unfair treatments, out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, or calls to have them arrested.

Herein, I have picked out 17 such absurd cases from social media. Help me fill out the rest of the stars on this American flag of The Most Ridiculous Disciplinary Actions in the K-12 Public School System by reporting in the comment box at bottom of post:

Pick one of the following to report on:

  • Reporting your pick of such a case for any state that is not on my list, or
  • Challenging any one or more of my picks on my list, or
  • Telling a story of unjust disciplinary action against you or someone you know.

Here are my 17 picks of the Most Ridiculous School Disciplines:

California: A 6-year-old elementary student was accused of sexual assault by the school officials, because he was “brushing” his young friend on her leg and groin at playtime in the playground.   http://cbsloc.al/1IOkIXc

Also a report from our member, Trey Stevens: A 3-year-old was suspended 5 times.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/24/my-son-has-been-suspended-five-times-hes-3/

Colorado: A 9-year-old girl was barred from entering her school with her bald head, because it violated the school’s dress code, after she shaved her head to show support for her best-friend who had lost all her hair due to chemotherapy.   http://bit.ly/1y24acJ

Florida:  A 16-year-old honor student was expelled by the school district and charged with 2 felonies because of a science experiment gone wrong.   http://bit.ly/14Exx94

Georgia:  A 6-year-old kindergartener was handcuffed and arrested, because she had a temper tantrum at school.   http://cbsn.ws/1x65mIa

Indiana:  Four high school students were expelled after they created a home-made movie, in which the main character had the same last name as a teacher’s, because the school regarded the movie as a threat to the teacher, despite that prosecutors found no illegal matters in the movie.   http://bit.ly/1E4cae7

Kansas: Report from our member, Jim Liston:
“In Kansas, a student at Chanute Elementary School was suspended for bringing an empty rifle shell casing to school. The principal told the boy’s mother that the incident could lead to a 168-day suspension, but they reduced it to five days after speaking to the school superintendent.

I agree that it was inappropriate for the child to bring the shell casing to school, but I think that detention, discussing correct behavior with the boy, and parent notification would have been sufficient.”
http://www.chanute.com/news/article_be4861c0-80c5-11e4-9433-0b2d9486f3e8.html

Ohio:  A high school student and self-defense expert was expelled, sent to prison, and kicked out of an Army program, because police found a pocketknife in his car during an unauthorized search.   http://bit.ly/1BwZjBM

Maryland:  A second grader was suspended for 2 days, because his teacher accused him of shaping his Pop-Tarts breakfast pastry into the form of a gun.  http://fxn.ws/1sD82QR

Michigan:  A high school star basketball player was not arrested or even suspended, after a girl complained to the principal of sexual assault by the athlete, despite additional complaints from another student, and bullying of the girl by fellow students, including the alleged attacker.   http://bit.ly/1AUGuH1

Mississippi:  Students were regularly shackled and chained to railings for minor violations of school rules such as making a loud greeting to another student, and wearing shoes what the school officials regarded to be the ‘wrong” color.   http://bit.ly/1ynRkUZ

Also a report from our member, Todd Palmer III:
“Around 01/17/2013 in the state of Mississippi a child was sent home from school because of the “color” of his shoes. The mind blowing part of it all was the fact that the police took the child home. The child (whom shall remain nameless) was sent home for violating the schools “shoe” policy which required the students to wear all black shoes. The child’s mother was unable to afford the child some all black shoes so she took a black sharpie and did her best to make him some all black shoes. Long story short she missed a few spots leaving some white and red on the child’s shoes and that resulted in the child being sent home for the day. With amazing rules like that it’s no wonder Mississippi has an educational crisis going on with its public school.”
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/01/18/cops-nab-five-year-old-wearing-wrong-color-shoes-school

Missouri:  A middle-school Special Ed girl, who was raped, was expelled and reported to the juvenile authorities, because school officials assumed she filed a false report of rape.   http://sgfnow.co/1x66dZd

New Jersey:  A 13-year-old was suspended for 2 days and was ordered to take a psychological evaluation, because he was “twirling a pencil” like a gun.   http://bit.ly/1DIqj35

New York:  A junior high student was handcuffed and arrested for using a marker to write “I love my friends Abby and Faith” on her desk.   http://huff.to/1DIqlrP

North Carolina:  A 16-year-old victim of bullying was suspended and arrested, facing criminal charges in both the juvenile and adult court, while the Assistant District Attorney could not find records of charges against the alleged bully.   http://bit.ly/1CDK0Wa

Pennsylvania:  When a 15-year-old recorded a bullying incident against him, instead of disciplining the bullies, the school official called the police on him. He was found guilty of “disorderly conduct” since his wiretapping was considered to be an offensive action, according to the police.   http://voc.tv/1ynY3ym

 South Carolina:  Report from our member, Stalwart Unique.
An autistic boy in middle school was suspended indefinitely because he drew a bomb. The school agreed with his mom that he was not a danger. However, according to her, one school official said “perception is reality” – that people could perceive the drawing as a real bomb. 
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/361377/autistic-kid-draws-cartoon-bomb-suspended-school-alec-torres

Texas:  A 17-year-old boy was expelled and arrested, because the principle insisted the broken belt buckle she found in the boy’s backpack during a random search looked like a “weapon” to her, disregarding even the Assistant Principal’s support for the boy.    http://chn.ge/1y25HPU

Virginia:  A 17-year-old was suspended for 3 days, because he was “being gay and wearing high heels,” according to him.    http://bit.ly/1CbJ8HH

Wisconsin:  A first-grader’s braid was cut off by her teacher in front of the whole class, because the educator was annoyed by the girl’s playing with her braid.   http://bit.ly/1Bx1m8R


Again, to report the Most Ridiculous School Discipline happened in 2014 or any year earlier, pick one of the following to report on:

  • Reporting your pick of such a case for any state that is not on my list, or
  • Challenging any of my pick and reporting your own pick, or
  • Telling a story of ridiculous disciplinary action against you or someone you know.

To ensure cyber security, your “report” will go through moderation before it is published. Or, instead of a story/report, you can simply give us your comment below.

Note: We reserve the right to protect the identity of certain individuals. For example, we might not disclose the names of students or teachers, unless they are already public.

About the author

Shirley Tang has devoted her life to students’ success. Drawn from personal experience, she founded uCANcomplain – an organization and platform that helps parents with children facing peer/adult bullying and discrimination in K-12 public schools. Shirley is an Educational and Civil Rights Advocate, a Mentor, Journalist, Policy Watchdog for the local community, and Former Educator. Her passion is to empower parents and students in seeking their voice, truth, redress, and school accountability. Shirley’s goal is to equip students for success by ensuring they receive a sound education and equitable opportunities.

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unique
Member
8 years ago

One example of ridiculous zero tolerance in schools which I was quite familiar with happens in south Carolina to Rhett Parham, a 13-year-old boy with autism, liked to play Bomberman 64, a video game for Nintendo 64. It is well known that those who have autism often lack many social skills, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that Parham didn’t think anything was wrong with drawing an illustration from the video game and bringing it to Hillcrest Middle School in Greenville, South Carolina. However, after students complained, Parham was suspended.
According to the students who complained, Parham said that he had a “bomb” and would then show his hand-drawn picture to them. What the schools don’t realize was that Parham disability was the reason that he made statements and drew picture and had no malicious intent whatsoever.
When i heard about it I was angry, upset and incredulous, honestly, that a child could come in and bring a drawing and that’s somehow perceived as a threat . . . especially someone with special needs who really doesn’t filter information the same way that typical children do.

Ana Scott
Member
8 years ago

I remember when this had happened earlier this year in Murfreesboro Tennessee….outrageous! http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2016/04/19/murfreesboro-elementary-school-students-arrested-for-what-exactly All because they did NOT stop a fight…..wow. I’m a parent who prefers my child NOT get involved in one, much less stop one. And another one, that happened in Chicago back in 2009….for a food fight, middle school kids were arrested…..why couldn’t it just been dealt with by the school staff? Not to condone it, and I have been in a couple of food fights myself when I was in school, but gees. We got detention and cleaned up the cafeteria. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/us/11foodfight.html?_r=0

Linda Brenda
Linda Brenda
Member
Reply to  Shirley Tang
8 years ago

I am glad it is getting better for today’s students. Some schools seem so opposed to embracing technology. One of my college professors had a rule against laptops in class, which I also found absurd. I was using the laptop to take notes during class, and after she told me I couldn’t use it anymore the quality of my notes decreased dramatically.
I really understand not allowing phone use/texting during instructional time. But at my high school, we would have our phones taken away (sent to the office where only a parent or guardian could pick it up… sometimes taking days as parent who worked a normal 8-5 would have to take time out of their work day to pick up the phone during the schools office hours) if we had our phones out during lunch, gym, class changes, pretty much any time we were on school property during “official” school hours. Sometimes our vice principle would even look through the phone and try to figure out who the student was texting, and if it was a student at the school they would go to that students class and take their phone away as well. Seriously they were absolutely insane when it came to cell phones. They treated it as seriously as if it were a weapon or something!

Trey Stevens
Member
8 years ago

The school systems don’t care about age or color…..sadly. Here’s a story that happened a while back, not sure where it happened though https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/24/my-son-has-been-suspended-five-times-hes-3/. These are some crazy reasons for being suspended and/or expelled. That’s why we took ours out and began homeschooling a few years back. All this craziness is not conducive to a good learning environment at all.

Piper S
Member
8 years ago

I know this isn’t from 21014 or earlier, but I just saw this the day and remember it happening. Last month in New Jersey, before school let out, a 9 year old was arrested, for a “racist remark/comment”……..http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/racist-brownies-3rd-grade-party_us_577541e9e4b042fba1cf5ccc It absolutely blew me away when I saw it. Wow.

Jon
Jon
Member
8 years ago

While I think this police officer in South Carolina was put in a bad position, this was a little much:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-south-carolina-officer-tosses-student-20151027-story.html

Texting in class and refusing not give up the phone is certainly not appropriate, but neither is physically man handling and injuring a child for doing dumb kid stuff.

Todd Palmer III
Todd Palmer III
Member
8 years ago

Around 01/17/2013 in the state of Mississippi a child was sent home from school because of the “color” of his shoes. The mind blowing part of it all was the fact that the police took the child home. The child (whom shall remain nameless) was sent home for violating the schools “shoe” policy which required the students to wear all black shoes. The child’s mother was unable to afford the child some all black shoes so she took a black sharpie and did her best to make him some all black shoes. Long story short she missed a few spots leaving some white and red on the child’s shoes and that resulted in the child being sent home for the day. With amazing rules like that it’s no wonder Mississippi has an educational crisis going on with its public school.

Original Story: http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/01/18/cops-nab-five-year-old-wearing-wrong-color-shoes-school

Jim Liston
Jim Liston
Member
8 years ago

In Kansas, a student at Chanute Elementary School was suspended for bringing an empty rifle shell casing to school. The principal told the boy’s mother that the incident could lead to a 168-day suspension, but they reduced it to five days after speaking to the school superintendent.
I agree that it was inappropriate for the child to bring the shell casing to school, but I think that detention, discussing correct behavior with the boy, and parent notification would have been sufficient.

http://www.chanute.com/news/article_be4861c0-80c5-11e4-9433-0b2d9486f3e8.html

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