With the start of the new school year, it was simply a matter of time before the excitement associated with the event for some quickly turned to anguish.
This point was clearly proven at Bagley Elementary School in Jefferson County, Alabama, where the 6-year-old son of Jarrod Belcher was suspended for using his “index fingers as a gun” while playing a game of cops and robbers with another boy. Imagine the nerve of this first-grader!
After committing such a grave offense, school officials contacted the boy’s father to have him removed. This was necessary since his grievous act put every child in the school at risk.
Following Mr. Belcher being notified of his budding juvenile delinquent’s infraction, he naturally had some questions. Did his son threaten anyone? No. Was there violence? No. Was there a current or future threat? No. After Belcher expressed his feeling that this seemed like a harmless act of two kids playing, a school administrator pointedly explained that in this day and age, all such incidents have to be taken very seriously. Indeed.
The school cited in Deputy Barney Fife fashion that young Belcher had violated Bagley Elementary policy by committing a “3.22” ie. making a threat or intimidation of another student. Oh, but Mr. Belcher was advised that there was no threat or violence either current or in the future. So which was it?
It seems that only someone as knowledgeable as Barney Fife could understand the intricacies of a 3.22 threat, as obviously a child’s index fingers must qualify as a “prohibited object or other object which may be perceived by the individual being threatened as capable of inflicting bodily harm.” But Barney, I thought the other boy never felt threatened, nor was he harmed? Never mind that. A rule is still a rule and the second boy was also suspended; for what is unknown.
School officials later contacted Mr. Belcher, after they became further enlightened on the entire matter, to say that his son’s action was being downgraded to a class II violation which would still stay on his permanent record.
Does this mean that young Belcher will be forever branded as potentially violent? All because he was playing a harmless game that boys have been engaging in since the dawn of time. In reality, 6-year-old Belcher’s initial violation was deemed as more serious than had he actually punched his classmate!
This troubling incident reportedly comes on the heels of a similar instance at Bagley during the previous school year where a student was disciplined for possessing a squirt gun! In the case of Belcher, the school planned to ban the child from returning to school until a hearing could be held, but has since permitted him to return since “no further action, other than a discussion with the student, was needed.” Of course, the school stands ready to meet with Mr. Belcher to discuss any other concerns, who meanwhile is considering legal action.
Just how does one discuss with a 6-year-old that his harmless act of play was deemed as dangerous and that he was in the wrong? How will this incident affect him going forward?
Maybe he is so resilient that he will move on quickly, but perhaps not. Even so-called experts who run his school don’t really know.
Then again, many like-minded “experts” such as those described in this case, were responsible for locking down our schools during the Covid pandemic and/or mandating that students wear masks that did nothing to protect them. And many want to impose such measures again over a virus that rarely attacks kids.
It’s all enough to instill confidence that while the real problems in America’s schools go largely unaddressed, there’s always someone there to attend to the little things that are meaningless.
Mark Figley is a political activist and guest columnist from Elida. His column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
