A school that suspended a five-year-old girl for ?threatening? class mates with a Hello Kitty bubble gun will not back down on the issue, refusing to retract a statement describing the girl?s actions as ?terroristic?.
As we reported last week, the incident occurred on January 10th, when the girl, whose identity is being protected, declared she was going to shoot other children, and then herself with a pink toy gun that fires bubbles composed of a harmless soap solution.
School officials reportedly categorized the incident as a "terroristic threat," and labeled the girl's actions a "threat to harm others."
Superintendent Bernard Stellar of Mount Carmel school at first suspended the girl for ten days, before reducing the punishment to two days. All this came after an interrogation that lasted several hours, at which the girl's parents were not present, according to their lawyer, Robin Ficker.
This week, Ficker has told local reporters that the school has refused to budge on the issue.
"I don't understand why the school district doesn't put this all behind them," Ficker said. "Admit you made a mistake, apologize to the family and expunge these labels from her record. Do they really still think she's a threat to others? Their own psychologist said she isn't."
Ficker says that the offending ?threat? that was overheard by an adult was something along the lines of ??I?m gonna shoot you, you can shoot me and we can all play together.?
The Superintendent also released a statement on the ongoing affair, which read:
"The Mount Carmel Area School District has been criticized for the handling of an incident that occurred recently. Although by law we cannot officially comment on the specifics of the incident involving the students, we are confident that much of the information supplied to the media may not be consistent with the facts in this matter. The Mount Carmel Area School District has investigated the issue and will continue to do so."
"When given the opportunity in the appropriate forum, we look forward to presenting information that will portray our school district in a more positive light.? the Superintendent?s statement also read, adding that the school values ?the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical wellbeing of each child."
Robin Ficker said that the school district is ?stonewalling? on the facts.
"Are they really trying to argue that this little 5-year-old girl understood the implications of the words she was saying? Look, the bottom line is they are in error and they need to admit it."
Ficker will meet with the district?s legal advisor on january 30th.
"I'm looking for nothing less than a complete expunging of all this from that girl's permanent school records," he said. "She has been branded a troubled person. But she was suspended for the words she was saying. She had no gun. She had a bubble-making machine."
As we have noted, this is far from an isolated incident, and represents one of many knee jerk reactions in the wake of the recent shootings that have been subject to a mass media frenzy.
This week, a ?South Philadelphia elementary student was searched in front of classmates and threatened with arrest after she mistakenly?brought a "paper gun" to school.
Earlier this month a 6-year-old boy?was suspended from his elementary school in Maryland for making a gun gesture with his hand and saying "pow".
Days later?another two 6-year-olds in Maryland were suspended for pointing their fingers into gun shapes while playing "cops and robbers" with each other.
In Oklahoma, a five-year-old boy was also?recently suspended for making a gun gesture with his hand.
A 13-year-old Middle School seventh grade student in Pennsylvania?was also suspended for the same hand gesture.
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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones? Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.
