All I can say to the Mother and Father is.....

Sue Sue Sue.

did not have enough room to say on my comment, but i agree SUE SUE SUE. maybe the nonsense will stop.

If you encourage these parents to sue, do you know what will happen next? Some money hungry parent will encourage their kid to take a toy gun to school secretly hoping they get caught with it and get in trouble. And then they can SUE, SUE, SUE too in hopes of a big payday!

Why do parents allow their kids to take any toys to school anyway? LEAVE YOUR CRAP AT HOME! If you don't bring it, you can't get in trouble for it! It is parents not having control of their kids that is the problem.

From my perspective of the popular views of our nation, I am the devil. I am White. I am a Male. I am a Republican. I am middle class. I am everything that is not diverse in this country. I am the reason for all of the worlds ills.

At least this White Male Middle Class child now knows how the world will view him the rest of his life. He knows now he is the DEVIL. Tough lesson but at least he gets it early in life. Maybe he can make the most of his new found identity.

I have to agree with z1r2p3 in that the toys should STAY HOME...the children are SUPPOSED to be at school to learn not play with toys. Plenty of schools have toys to play with during recess, and that goes the same with the damn cell phones ipods and all that other crap...LEAVE IT HOME!!!

Obviously, toys should stay home from school. That is not the point here. The point is that a child got suspended over a tiny lego gun that was obviously a little lego toy. And to say that the parents are irresponsible because the child took the toy to school is a ridiculous stretch and assumption. Are you telling me that you have your eyes glued to your school-age child at all times? That he could never slip a toy into his backpack on your way out the door? Do you search your child's pockets and backpack when you drop him off at school? Please. You guys who are acting like the parents are bad parents for the toy getting to school are ridiculous. Your child NEVER did anything you didn't wish them to do?

yeah i agree SUE SUE SUE its not right

I know! Lets outlaw toy guns in any size or shape! That will protect society!

There is no problem, you moron. At least not with the toy. The problem is that there needs to be an IQ test for teachers and principles. If it is not over 50, they shouldn't be allowed to teach. That way you would get rid of the morons imposing this sh*t. And yes, I said morons. These school administrators that believe that they are protecting society need to be immasculated in some manner, even if it is a woman, she is thriving on entirely too much power and someone needs to realize that and not talk about some stupid code of conduct in sme idiotic behavioral manual for little kids with toy guns. Dumba$$

This was NOT A TOY GUN! This was a toy's toy gun. Give me a break! Like one other reader said... you can't teach common sense (something this principle and the 5% of you who agree with him/her clearly don't have - either that or you dont' have children).

Do you go thru your kids stuff every morning before they go to school? You can tell a kid not to take something and sometimes they still do it. I mean don't be stupid. It wasn't anything that could of hurt anyone and it doesn't even look like a real gun. He is 9, not a bloody murderer. And the gun was on a cop, not a robber. So, at least act like you have a brain and look at it from a child's point of view. He was playing with his toys not planning on taking out the student body.

You said it, Will. It is just a toy's toy gun. The responsible action would have been to take the toy away, remind the child that toys are not allowed to be brought to school, and to let the parent know to speak to their child to prevent toys from being brought to school in the future.

Sure toys should stay home, i agree whole heartedly. However something that small a kid could be playing with,and when it was time to leave stuck it in his pocket and forgot about it. To those of you who think the parents should have stopped him taking it, all i can say is we are parents who do our best, but not jailers or policemen, and things like that happen. What the crime was, is that there was no sense shown in the principal's behaviour. Take the toy call the parents, big deal!

Why do toys have to stay at home? This is a 9 year old kid that was playing with legos during lunch. What's the harm in that? That 9 year old is probably developing more useful skills playing than he is being taught in the class room. He's a little kid, they are supposed to play. If he was playing with the toy during class, then fine take it away. But he was playing during lunch! Obviously he should be paying more attention to his food, or counting the peas in his vegetables...

Ah, so that means this is illegal but little green army men are not? Maybe I should sue Disney because they had the army men in a number during Disney on Ice. They are a bad influence on my daughter. RIGHT The gun debate is out of control in this country.

I am NOT in the NRA and do NOT own a gun.

"HOWEVER, prior to this decision as punishment, the lunch lasy beraded my son to the point he was so upset and crying that he threw up."

Sue the Lunch Lasy directly, for Child Abuse. That might fix that. If enough people sue the people who perform the action bad actions that stress us and our children maybe they will stop. These people are afraid of law suits that might..occur so much, they strip our liberties. We need to sue them to regain our Constitutional rights from knee-jerk reactionaries whatever the political flavor.

And then when they are afraid that they will get their pants sued off, they will be afraid to enforce the rules when it actually counts. Great idea. The "lunch lasy" simply needs a stern talking to.

The problem we have is extremists on both sides of every argument. I agree she completely over reacted, but if she does not administer the policies of the school board, they will fire her for that. It puts the principal in a no win situation. These stupid policies are an over reaction to school violence in the first place.

I am an Industrial Technology (shop) teacher and I carry an "illegal" pocket knife (1 1/2" blade) at all times. Come to my construction lab - I have more than enough edged tools on the pegboard to make any knife carried by a student look like a tooth pick. How do you teach common sense? If anyone has a suggestion I will certainly listen, but most of my students seem incapable of grasping the concept.

All teachers should be able to carry a knife like that "(1 1/2" blade)." It could save a life.

A boy lost his life in Sacramento CA on a playground during recess when the cord around his sweatshirt hood became entangled on a slide. He strangled to death as the teacher supporting him was unable to free him from the slide nor keep him from choking having been prevented by law to carry a simple pocket knife which could have cut him free.

Echoing the call for "Common Sense" that the NEA is lacking. (National Education Association) "The Teachers Union"

Do YOU know what you're talking about....the rambling lost me....!

Well, I guess I can put it at the elemetary level:

If the policy of absolutely no guns extends to 2" Lego toys, it should also extend to pictures of guns in the Weekly Reader and other publications allowed. But that would be incredibly stupid, don't you think?

If the rules say no Jesus in school, will they expell kids named Jesus? But that would be stupid, too.

I can follow the analogy. What's your reading level?

You can teach kids to respect the rules, but if the school lets kids play with their toys at recess and these are toys that the kid plays with at home, who is to say that he realized that his toy was a danger to society. There has to be a point when someone that is educating our children starts using some of that education and think for themselves. When I was in school, if we had something that we wasn't supposed to, the teacher would take it from us and give it back at the end of the day and tell us not to bring it back. There was no fuss, no threat of suspencion unless it was dangerous (and a 2" lego toy is not). the ones that educate should also think for themselves.

Most educators are liberals - you can't work that hard for that little money with no respect unless you really believe in helping kids. I help my son's classroom every Friday for 3 hours, and his teacher does a good job and really tries hard. Not all teachers are good, but most are.

You should read the book "Playful Parenting" by Lawrence J. Cohen, Ph.D. He does a very thorough and interesting job of explaining why children will play with toy guns no matter if they have plastic replicas or not (they'll make them out of sticks, crackers, etc.) and why it's important for the parent to be part of this play in order to teach valuable lessons and direct the play so that it doesn't become out of hand. Playing is how children "think" about issues and situations. Playing "gun" games is how children start processing things such as aggression, being a hero, protecting others, and so on. Simply banning the child to take part in such play won't really stop it if they really want to do it (they'll find a way when you're not around), but taking part and directing it in a healthy way can really help a child learn about their feelings and use of healthy power.

yup and yep.

it's to me a part of how kids explore and learn how to understand and deal with the world around them.

also as i have guns it also helps me to teach my kids responsible gun practices and ownership.

and before anyone says it yes yes i feel having guns in a home with kids is fine as long as the appropriate precautions have been made.