7th-grader expelled for playing with airsoft gun in own yard

[Everybody Hates Raymond]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/23/7th-grader-suspended-using-airsoft-gun-his-own-fro/

http://www.wavy.com/news/local/va-beach/has-zero-tolerance-gone-too-far

Why is everyone so sensitive nowadays?

Also, if possible, could someone quote the article in here for me? Can't quote it in mobile for some reason.

[Raoul Duke]

I loves my guns!!!!

[Where's Wellwood]

7th-grader suspended for using airsoft gun in own front yard

Jason Pfingsten, owner of Pacific Rim Airsoft, Ltd., shows a airsoft semi-automatic pistol designed to look like a real Beretta at his Seattle store on Feb. 13, 2008. (Associated Press/Andy Rogers, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

By Jessica Chasmar -The Washington Times Monday, September 23, 2013

A 7th-grade student in Virginia Beach, Va., suspended from school for shooting an airsoft gun in his front yard will find out on Monday if he is expelled for the rest of the year, a local television station reported.

Khalid Caraballo, 13, and some friends were playing with airsoft guns on his front lawn as they waited for the bus one morning, WAVY first reported. Airsoft guns are non-lethal replica firearms that fire plastic pellets by way of spring-driven pistons.

A concerned neighbor called 911 to report the incident.

“He is pointing the gun, and it looks like there’s a target in a tree in his front yard,” she told the dispatcher. “This is not a real one, but it makes people uncomfortable. I know that it makes me [uncomfortable], as a mom, to see a boy pointing a gun.”

Ironically, the caller’s son was playing with Khalid and Aidan in the Caraballo front yard.

Khalid and his friend Aidan, 13, were suspended for “possession, handling and use of a firearm.” The airsoft guns reportedly never made it to school property. The bus stop is reportedly 70 yards from the yard.

Aidan’s father, Tim Clark, said he doesn’t allow his son to play with the replica guns unsupervised, and the suspension lacks common sense.

“My son is my private property. He does not become the school’s property until he goes to the bus stop, gets on the bus, and goes to school,” said Khalid’s mother, Solangel Caraballo, according to WAVY.

Larkspur Middle School principal Matthew Delaney issued a statement that the “children were firing pellet guns at each other, and at people near the bus stop,” adding that one child “was only 10 feet from the bus stop, and ran from the shots being fired, but was still hit.”

Police said no one will be charged in the case.  

“We understand that a number of juveniles possess air soft guns and have ‘airsoft gun’ wars with each other, but as it relates to the city code referenced above, they are in violation of the code if the juveniles are not exercising ‘reasonable care,’ ” the Virginia Beach Police Department said in a statement. “We want to stress to the parents of the juveniles and the operators of these type of ‘pneumatic guns’ that they need to be handled responsibly and with reasonable care to ensure that the projectile is properly contained.”

The boys had a hearing Monday afternoon to determine if they will be kicked out of their school for the entire year, the station reported.

[LostViking]

If they attacked kids at the bus stop, I can see the school being upset about it and laying down a (short term) suspension, if they were playing in the front yard and their friends joined them then no wrong was done. Getting shot with an air soft gun is a really good way to learn to respect weapons, definitely a good lesson to learn before getting to the age where a lot of kids start carrying knives around, driving cars, playing with dangerous tools in wood/metal shop, etc.

Schools are meant to teach, all they are teaching in this situation is that if young kids misbehave, let's give up on them, don't bother to even try.

“He is pointing the gun, and it looks like there’s a target in a tree in his front yard,” she told the dispatcher. “This is not a real one, but it makes people uncomfortable. I know that it makes me [uncomfortable], as a mom, to see a boy pointing a gun.”

[avelanch]

if the kids were shooting other kids at the bus stop who were not playing with them, even if it's from their own yard, i don't see the issue, as the kids were at the bus stop waiting for the school bus and the schools policy is clear. the mother who called it in to 9-1-1 is an idiot/wasting taxpayers money though.

[Warhippy]

The child in questions name is Khalid.

What are the odds this is racially motivated? Couple of white boy playing with fake guns no issue, toss some colour onto a kid in Virginia and all of a sudden...it's a threat

[TheRussianRocket.]

The child in questions name is Khalid.

What are the odds this is racially motivated? Couple of white boy playing with fake guns no issue, toss some colour onto a kid in Virginia and all of a sudden...it's a threat

[Jägermeister]

And meanwhile the NRA would want to give him a real gun.

[avelanch]

And meanwhile the NRA would want to give him a real gun.

[Armada]

Ya.

Lets not educate students by expelling them and letting them do nothing for a year.

[HTania]

if the kids were shooting other kids at the bus stop who were not playing with them, even if it's from their own yard, i don't see the issue, as the kids were at the bus stop waiting for the school bus and the schools policy is clear. the mother who called it in to 9-1-1 is an idiot/wasting taxpayers money though.

[mbal23]

This kid deserves the punishment.

[Wheels22]

So... A mom got her own kid expelled?

[avelanch]

honestly, i don't think a suspension really does anything if it's not in the school. a suspension should be like solitary. you should be forced into going to school and doing all you work with no classmates or recess in the library with a teacher supervising them. and no gym or art class, just extra school work until your suspension is complete.

[Warhippy]

This kid deserves the punishment.

[AppleMrHan]

Soon, kids will be suspended for playing GTA..

[avelanch]

Soon, kids will be suspended for playing GTA..

[:D]

Go back to the Middle East, Khalid Hussein Obama

[:D]

Also I says that they weren't actually expelled

[Everybody Hates Raymond]

Also I says that they weren't actually expelled