Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2013 17:42:17 GMT -5
.....cops and robbers at recess.
www.nydailynews.com/news/national/1st-graders-booted-playing-cops-robbers-article-1.1241260
www.nydailynews.com/news/national/1st-graders-booted-playing-cops-robbers-article-1.1241260
Two first-graders were reportedly suspended for forming imaginary guns with their fingers for a game of cops and robbers during recess.
The disciplinary action against the 6-year-old boys at White Marsh Elementary in Trappe, Md. aroused controversy after parents condemned the punishment as excessive.
One boy’s father, Stephen Grafton, considers the suspension ridiculous.
“This was in no way a threatening act,” Grafton told the Daily News. “It is indicative of a school system that is not attempting to teach the problem but just removing students.”
Grafton thinks that the faculty should have used the incident as a teaching point to explain what is or is not appropriate playground behavior.
“They could simply sit down and say, ‘Hey, this is why we do not shoot at each other.’ That did not happen and that really is why we are so upset about this,” he said.
The boy’s mother, Teri Bildstein, is worried about her child’s self-esteem and academic performance,” reported local newspaper The Star Democrat.
“If you tell him he is bad over something like this, how can this be the best learning environment for him?” she asked.
The gun gesture came to a faculty member’s attention after another student reported reported it. That employee alerted the school’s principal Marcia Sprankle, who decided to suspend the child for the rest of the day, according to Grafton.
The Daily News reached out to Sprankle as well as the president of the Talbot County Board of Education, Sandra Kleppinger, but did not receive a response from either by publication.
The board did, however, release the following statement:
"It is frustrating for school systems, because a complete explanation of events cannot be provided due to confidentiality requirements under the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)."
The school eventually removed the suspension from the child’s record, but Grafton is still concerned that the school might miss out on future learning opportunities.
“If he was running around pointing his finger at people saying, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ it would be one thing. But the actual story was that he was playing cops and robbers,” he said.
Earlier this month, another 6-year-old boy was suspended from Roscoe Nix Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. under similar circumstances.
The disciplinary action against the 6-year-old boys at White Marsh Elementary in Trappe, Md. aroused controversy after parents condemned the punishment as excessive.
One boy’s father, Stephen Grafton, considers the suspension ridiculous.
“This was in no way a threatening act,” Grafton told the Daily News. “It is indicative of a school system that is not attempting to teach the problem but just removing students.”
Grafton thinks that the faculty should have used the incident as a teaching point to explain what is or is not appropriate playground behavior.
“They could simply sit down and say, ‘Hey, this is why we do not shoot at each other.’ That did not happen and that really is why we are so upset about this,” he said.
The boy’s mother, Teri Bildstein, is worried about her child’s self-esteem and academic performance,” reported local newspaper The Star Democrat.
“If you tell him he is bad over something like this, how can this be the best learning environment for him?” she asked.
The gun gesture came to a faculty member’s attention after another student reported reported it. That employee alerted the school’s principal Marcia Sprankle, who decided to suspend the child for the rest of the day, according to Grafton.
The Daily News reached out to Sprankle as well as the president of the Talbot County Board of Education, Sandra Kleppinger, but did not receive a response from either by publication.
The board did, however, release the following statement:
"It is frustrating for school systems, because a complete explanation of events cannot be provided due to confidentiality requirements under the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)."
The school eventually removed the suspension from the child’s record, but Grafton is still concerned that the school might miss out on future learning opportunities.
“If he was running around pointing his finger at people saying, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ it would be one thing. But the actual story was that he was playing cops and robbers,” he said.
Earlier this month, another 6-year-old boy was suspended from Roscoe Nix Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. under similar circumstances.