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.
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.
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
Ana, this IS outrageous: elementary students arrested for NOT stopping a fight? This story goes beyond the already ridiculous Zero-tolerance school policy. This is zero-common-sense on the part of the school and police department.
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!
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.
Thank you, Trey, for sharing this story — a 3- or 4-year-old suspended for 5 times. This story exemplifies the frustrating situation between school officials and parents in too many schools. That is: the lack of collaboration between them to correct children’s misbehaviors in the classroom. Often times, it simply involves cultural difference, not necessarily unruly behaviors, that needs to be discussed between the two parties.
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.
Thank you for telling us this story, Piper. It seems the mother’s complaint on this case — her son being accused of being a “racist” at school when he was talking about the brownies — paid off. At the end of the story, it states, “Collingswood Mayor James Maley said the policy has been ‘reversed.’ He said the original policy had been the result of a misunderstanding between the prosecutor’s office and school officials. The prosecutor’s office just wanted to report serious events more promptly, he said, not for schools to report all incidents to police, according to Philly.com.”
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.
Unfortunately, children face similar treatments by SROs everyday in schools. The difference is: most of these incidents are not recorded for the world to see. In this South Carolina case, the child refused to leave the classroom. The SRO was strong enough to lift both the young girl and her desk out of the classroom, if he wanted, instead of tearing her away from her desk and tossing her around the room. In the end, it was reported that the SRO was fired.
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
Thank you, Todd. This is another perfect example of how the Zero-tolerance school policy becomes the Zero-common-sense school policy.
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
Thank you, Jim, for your report and your advocacy for a kinder disciplinary practice in this school. Totally agree. This incident should not have been escalated to suspension. It is crazy that the school official considered an empty shell casing was dangerous enough that the young child was told he could be suspended for 168 days! Will put your report under Kansas.