Poor kid...

*sigh*

NEWTON COUNTY, Ga. -- The latest case of zero-tolerance at the public schools has a 10-year-old student sadder and wiser, and facing expulsion and long-term juvenile detention. And it has his mother worried that his punishment has already been harsher than the offense demands.

"I think I shouldn't have brought a gun to school in the first place," said the student, Alandis Ford, sitting at home Thursday night with his mother, Tosha Ford, at his side.

Alandis' gun was a "cap gun," a toy cowboy six-shooter that his mother bought for him.

"We got it from Wal-Mart for $5.96," Tosha Ford said, "in the toy section right next to the cowboy hats. That's what he wanted because it was just like the ones he was studying for the Civil War" in his fifth-grade class at Fairview Elementary School.

"It kind of reminded me of the [soldiers'] guns that I was studying," Alandis said, "because I had brought pictures home of the gun and stuff, and that gun that I had reminded me of the revolver" depicted in his textbook.

Tosha said that Wednesday afternoon, after school, "six police officers actually rushed into the door" of their home. "He [Alandis] opened the door because they're police. And then they just kind of pushed him out of the way, and asked him, 'Well where's the gun, where's the real gun?' And they called him a liar... they booked him, and they fingerprinted him."

The "police officers" were actually Newton County Sheriff's Deputies.

Lt. Mark Mitchell said Thursday that Alandis had used the toy gun to threaten other children on the school bus and in his neighborhood, which Alandis denies.

Alandis was charged with possessing a weapon on school property and with terroristic acts and threats.

"On the school bus," on Tuesday, Alandis said, "when I dug into my bookbag trying to get my phone out, the boy beside me, he reached in my bookbag and got it [the toy gun] and started telling everybody, 'He's got a gun, he's got a gun,' and spread it around the whole bus. So I put it back in my bookbag."

But he said the students kept shouting, "He's going to shoot all y'all, he's got a gun, he's going to bring it to school and shoot all y'all." Did Alandis ever say anything like that or make any threatening moves with his toy gun? "No!"

The school bus driver never caught on to what the students were saying, and as a result never confiscated Alandis' toy gun.

There is video from inside the school bus, and investigators are reviewing it.

The next afternoon, Wednesday afternoon, Alandis and his cousin went to the home of a friend in the neighborhood, another 10-year-old boy, to play with him.

"And we told him, 'We came over to see if you can come out.' He saw the gun that I had. So he ran in the house and called 911."

Alandis said he found out later that his friend had never before seen a gun and thought it was real, and thought Alandis might shoot it. Alandis insists he never said anything to the friend other than inviting him to come out and play.

"The 911 call that we received" on Wednesday, Lt. Mitchell said, "was that a 10-year-old male was outside of a residence with a gun threatening to shoot another child."

Mitchell was referring to the incident report from the Newton County Sheriff's investigators who write that deputies "responded to a 911 call from a ten-year-old [neighbor of the Fords] who said there was a boy outside of his house with a gun trying to kill him."

Lt. Mitchell said that, apart from Alandis' denial that he made any threats, investigators quickly realized that the only gun Alandis had was his cap gun.

"In this day and time, we do not take anything lightly, whether it's a toy gun or a real weapon, for the safety of the kids and everyone involved, the safety of the school. That's our main concern."

Tosha Ford agrees that Alandis should not have brought the toy gun to school, and did not know that he did, but she said the reaction that unfolded was overblown, due to rumors that school children quickly spread.

"Someone heard that Alandis had a toy gun in his bookbag and said, 'Oh, Alandis is going to bring a gun, he's going to shoot everybody.' He [Alandis] was wrong, he should never have taken it to school. And I told him that. And he's being punished" at home. "But also on the other side of the coin, I think it's a travesty what's happened to him.... For them to say that's he's made terroristic threats is just ridiculous. We've taken it and changed what 'terroristic threats' was meant to be for. And with children saying that 'he's got a gun, he's got a gun,' it's gotten blown out of proportion.... I don't think they handled it very well. I know it's their job, but I think they took it to the extreme."

Sherri Viniard, the Director of Public Relations for the Newton County School System, emailed a statement to 11Alive News Thursday that reads, in part:

"Student safety is our primary concern, and although this was a toy gun, it is still a very serious offense and it is a violation of school rules. We will not tolerate weapons of any kind on school property."

Alandis had his first hearing in juvenile court on Thursday. Tosha said the case worker assigned to Alandis will recommend a period of probation, rather than juvenile detention. The judge will make the final decision.

Tosha said Alandis is not allowed back in school for now. She has a meeting scheduled with school administrators. She does not know if he will be expelled, and is hoping for no more than a ten-day suspension.

"A toy gun is a toy gun," Lt. Mitchell said, "to be played with and for kids to have fun with. But when kids use it the wrong way, just like anything, then it can be scary."

And that's the crux of the dispute about the "terroristic threats" charge, whether Alandis purposely did anything to scare anyone, or whether other children over-reacted at the sight of his toy gun.

For the record, Alandis knows what he wants to be when he grows up -- a police officer. And that hasn't changed.

"You know, he's a 10-year-old little boy who wants to be a police officer," Tosha said. He also has "little walky-talkies and stuff, because they like to play police and recon."

Innocence of child's play now lost, she says, no matter what the outcome of the case is.
http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=124359&catid=40&GID=juD5/d++YtmiZjwqGKDay6Tw1TGed4c0A5QCiVJAOvA%3D

We're slipping back to the spanish inquistition and the Salem witch hunts.

All the reports of abuse and stupidity of "enforcers" is simply beyond belief, yet many still believe "our protection" is best left in the hands of a government agenda that supports these actions.

You have to ask..... Who are the real terrorists here?

We suffer more at the hands of our own government policies than we ever could under an isolated attack. Government "actions" effect ALL of us, not just an unfortunate few as from a terrorist event

When are we going to wake up and see the real danger here? You would think that when a government "attacks" our children and general citizenry, with the frequency they have been, that we would say enough and react!

"Student safety is our primary concern, and although this was a toy gun, it is still a very serious offense and it is a violation of school rules. We will not tolerate weapons of any kind on school property."

I guess they better have an empty room and all lessons learned only by speaking. Because anything can be a weapon nowadays, look at the little boy that stabbed a girl with a pencil....

I was suspended for a week in High School because I brought a cheap water gun to school. I was using it as a prop for English class but teacher saw it in my bag and took it (We had to have mesh bags).

And that was a month after I got suspended because the principle thought I was going to blow up the school (right after the Columbine event) and there was no evidence to prove his case.

The Patriot Act, Dept of Homeland Security, are black holes we are pouring...correction, THEY are pouring.... our money into.

You hear more about the abuses of citizens, another loss of our rights and liberties, wiretapping, home invasion, more restrictions (as in gun control laws and the ammunitions bill), pure and simple "blown out of proportion" stupidity, and yet we are supposed to trust they are "looking out for our safety"? You have to wonder what the outcome would be if they did get our 2nd amendment rights!?

Destroying even one right , one liberty, is one too many when they take an oath to uphold them. If we did such a violation of "employment rules and standards" at our jobs how long would we keep them?

Suspension is a justifiable action to a mistake or an error, like a lesson to teach you the error of your action, but this is out of control!