Seventh Grader Expelled in Virginia for shooting Air Soft gun on private property

BLUF: couple of kids waiting for the bus to show up, were firing airsoft guns at targets and each other in one of the kids front yard. They were 70 yds from a bus stop. The school initally suspended both and this morning unaminously expelled one kid. first link is to initial story, second is an update with expell outcome.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/24/7th-grader-suspended-for-playing-with-airsoft-gun-in-own-yard/
http://www.wavy.com/news/local/va-beach/has-zero-tolerance-gone-too-far

School claimed (and kid's record) reflect "possession, handling and use of a firearm." even though in my opinion air soft does not met the definition of a firearm, except in appearance. The letter from the principal claims the kids were firing pellet guns.....again, my understanding of a pellet gun is one that fires pellets, normally .177 caliber pellets.

Now news stories are not the most accurate and it appears they may have shot some of the kids going by on the way to the bus stop but what allows the school to impose penalties for behavior or misbehavior that happens on private property (may city property depending on where the kids were walking) but definately not school property?

Was it a long gun airsoft? If it was some people will say it is deserved...

WalkingWolf said:

Was it a long gun airsoft? If it was some people will say it is deserved...

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Having just come from the virginia forum I know both of you are familiar with this story and you made the same "jokes" there. Please try and picture how this feels to the family's being affected (or afflicted) by this is. To suggest that this response is "deserved" is cruel and heartless in my opinion and salt in a wound. I had a higher opinion of you than to laugh in the face of someone else suffering injustice and oppression from the system.

Caraballo and his friend Aidan were suspended because they shot two other friends who were with them while playing with the guns as they waited for the school bus.

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Their parents and their parents' attorneys would disagree with this - or should disagree.

One waits for the school bus at a school bus stop.

The two seventh graders say they never went to the bus stop; they fired the airsoft guns while on Caraballo's private property.

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These urchin future killer mercenaries were playing in their yard before it came time to move to the school bus stop. And I would like to see the school system's designation of where the school bus stop is, especially in relation to the yard where the kids were playing.

Schools have extended their reach over children to now include what happens at school bus stops, which may be acceptable depending on the specific activities they are seeking to control. But to try and extend their reach to include what a child does between crossing the threshold of their home and arriving at the school bus stop is over-reaching. In my neighborhood the school bus stops are at designated locations - often at the end of the driveway of a single-family home or apartment complex. In the mornings I see mothers supervising children at play back from the school bus stop - probably mostly to keep them from darting out into the street in front of traffic as opposed to umpireing hopscotch and jumprope and various ball games. While 12-year olds do not need the close supervision that 6-year olds may require I am fairly sure there is some form of parental supervision in action.

If it were my kid my attorney would be filing civil suits for all sorts of violations of privacy, interfering with parental right, and loss of consortium.

stay safe.

bah! homeschool. problem solved. and its easier than they lead you to believe.
just started my high schooler who is bored by county dummy curricula and wants to get in college earlier.

http://vahomeschoolers.org/

and, you can OPEN CARRY when you do it!