District Hears Appeal of Tarzana Boy Suspended Over Toy Gun

Josey1

District Hears Appeal of Tarzana Boy Suspended Over Toy Gun LAUSD: Mother of second-grader asks officials to keep disciplinary measure off her son's record. By KARIMA A. HAYNES, TIMES STAFF WRITERThe mother of a Tarzana second-grader, who on Friday appealed his one-day suspension for taking a small toy gun to school, will know early next week if the school district's penalty stands.Sabina Gonzales, 35, an executive secretary, presented her case to a Los Angeles Unified School District administrator and two principals during a closed meeting at District C headquarters in Van Nuys.Gonzales' son, Michael Rodriguez, 7, was found to have violated the California Education Code, which prohibits the possession of an imitation firearm on campus. Gonzales said panel members appeared to listen attentively to her reasons for appealing the suspension on the grounds that the Nov. 1 incident could become part of Michael's permanent school record, possibly hindering his chances for enrollment in academic honors programs or future college scholarships.Beyond the suspension, Gonzales said she is pressing her case because she doesn't want other elementary school children to be suspended or expelled for an honest mistake."My child will go back to school and have to deal with this same kind of punitive mind-set," she said. "I am facing a future of this unless I deal with it now."Still Tarzana Elementary School parents support the school's ban on all firearms, said PTA President Yafa Ifrah."We had a parents' meeting [Friday] and we talked about the issue," she said. "The parents support zero tolerance for weapons because children can start out with toy guns and before you know it, it escalates to real guns. You have to put it in their heads at a young age that guns are bad because if you don't, you will have a hard time controlling them later."District officials said they would weigh evidence presented by Gonzales and Tarzana Elementary School officials before deciding whether to allow the suspension to stand, change the penalty or expunge the suspension from Michael's school records, said Sue A. Spears, director of operations and student support services for District C.Although Spears declined to comment on the specifics of Michael's case, citing student confidentiality, she did say that the California Education Code states that, after due process, a student may be expelled or suspended for possessing an imitation firearm at school. For information about reprinting this article, go to http://www.lats.com http://www.latimes.com/editions/valley/la-000095501dec01.story

Bullzeye

".....because children can start out with toy guns and before you know it, it escalates to real guns. You have to put it in their heads at a young age that guns are bad because if you don't, you will have a hard time controlling them later."Un-freaking-believeable. She can say that legally because guns are taboo these days. If she were to have said the same thing about premarital sex, for instance, she would have had 500 pissed-off Liberal parents.I had a neighbor growing up who wouldnt let her kids play with me because I "played with guns". I actually hunted squirrels and turkeys with my father from my 11th birthday on, but from her perspective any gun owner was evil.Those kids weren't allowed to own toy water pistols or even watch Saturday morning cartoons that had guns or weapons of any kind in them.The oldest one of those boys ended up blowing his head off with a 20-gauge Winchester lever action when he was 14. He was over at a friend's house and they were looking at the friend's father's gun collection.When will people learn that ignorance to an issue doesnt make the issue go away? If we seriously want to see our children stop killing each other and killing themselves with guns, we need to pull our heads out of the sand.

competentone

Bullzeye,You picked-up on the same quote I did--it's disturbing to hear people be so explicit admitting that it's all about "control".The kid might grow up thinking he's free or something! That must be stopped!YOU WILL OBEY!

.250Savage

The thing that makes me laugh is when these granola-munchin', pony-tail wearin' socialists give their sons toy dolls (after all, they would rather have their sons turn gay than be normal) and the kids go "Bang! Bang!" with the doll. ROTFLMAO!!!!!!