No matter the size or playful design, bringing a toy gun to school is asking for trouble.
When 9 year old Patrick Timoney brought some Legos to school, he had no idea he’d be hauled into the office for a parent teacher conference and threatened with suspension over it. Such is the case with schools understandable, but narrow “no tolerance” policies regarding toy guns.
The reality is that schools are understandably paranoid about unforeseen Columbine’s creeping up and as such, make very strong messages to kids and parents about the dangers of toy guns at school. Reasonable on its face, but what makes this issue so, silly, is that the toy gun in question was a small, 2 inch plastic Lego gun which was held by a Lego City Policeman minifig.
The child, who’s nine and in 4th grade, has a retired policeman for a father who says that kids who use toy guns to threaten classmates don’t use tiny, laughable pieces of plastic to make their point. And after a meeting with Patrick’s kneejerk reacted principal, the toy was returned and no further action was taken.
According to the New York Department of Education policy, there can be absolutely no imitation or toy guns on a school campus and the principal has authority in this regard. But seriously, the principal should’ve confiscated the toy, placed it in an envelope with a letter reminding parents of the policy and let them handle it from there. But in the end, you can bet that kid won’t do that again!
Who knew Legos could cause so much trouble?