A 5-year-old in Colorado is in hot water for bringing a gun to school. A toy bubble gun. The girl's mother—Emma, no last name given—tells Fox 31 that she didn't know her daughter had stashed the plastic toy in her backpack. She says she was shocked when the school called and told her to pick the kindergartener up. "Could we have a warning?" she says. "It blows bubbles." But the school is standing its ground, saying in a statement that "despite the student's age and type of item, this suspension is consistent with our district policy," adding that other students have received one-day suspensions for similar infractions, such as packing Nerf guns.
The executive director of the Colorado ACLU tells WABC that these types of punishments are clearly out of proportion. And Tom Mauser, who lost his son in the Columbine massacre, says it's cases like these that made him rethink his stance on zero-tolerance policies. "We're given a brain, and we should use it," he tells WABC. Emma tells Fox she understands the spirit of the district's policy. But, in this instance, at least, it's a "silly reason not to go to school," adding, "It's always going to be lingering there in her school file." (More Colorado stories.)
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