WLTX news reports that a six-year-old kindergardener brought a small transparent plastic toy gun to school for a show and tell, causing her teachers to completely freak out. Naomi McKinney, a kindergarten student, is such a threat that she’s not allowed at all on school grounds, her parents say. A 6-year-old South Carolina girl who brought her brother’s clear plastic toy gun to class got more than a warning — she got kicked out of school, according to reports. The Sumter County School District says it has a zero-tolerance policy against guns in schools, and would require the Board of Trustees to review the case if she’s to return. [1] Baffled, Naomi’s father, Hank McKinney, tells the story:
I got in the car and rushed down there and when I got in there the principal told me that she had a gun at school and she pulls it out and it is a little clear plastic gun. [2]
The little Naomi told CBS affiliate WLTX that she brought her brother’s toy gun to show and tell thinking her friends “might like seeing it.” [3] Her father, admit that he failed to talk to his daughter about the danger of bringing a gun — real or otherwise — to school. But he added that the gun was no more dangerous than a pencil. “You can fire it as many times as you want, it won’t come out” said 6-year-old Naomi McKinney. “It’s duct taped because it’s broken.” [3a] As the McKinneys describe it, the toy is an old, broken, beat-up toy gun, incapable of firing and held together with camouflage pattern duct tape on its tip and butt. Through the clear plastic of the toy, McKinney said, you can see the pieces of its broken mechanism and the green BBs the gun was once able to fire years ago. The little girl who was pretty much conscious of the fact that this was “just a toy” was totally surprised and scared to see the adult’s disproportionate response. For the moment, she spends her time at her father’s furniture store instead of attending her normal school. Little Naomi McKinney is apparently such a threat that a district official sent a letter Jan. 15 warning her parents that if she’s caught on school grounds she’ll be “subject to the criminal charge of trespassing.” [4]
The whole thing has been blown up out of proportion to a point that it is just ridiculous. Once again it seems that, by hearing the comments that are made, that the kids that they suspend have more commons sense than the school officials who are enforcing those absurd policies. “She cannot even be in my vehicle when I go to pick up my other children,” mom Angela McKinney told The Item newspaper of Sumter. [5] Naomi has been out of Alice Drive Elementary School since Jan. 7. She wasn’t completely expelled from the district but put into a homebased schooling program — which is not generally done, according to the state Department of Education. “Homebound instruction in South Carolina is permissible only for medically necessary reasons with appropriate documentation from the child’s physician,” J.W. Ragley, of the state DOE, told NBC affiliate WIS-TV. The state is sending a letter to the Sumter County School District, WIS-TV reported. The school district said in a statement that its zero-tolerance policy on guns is for safety reasons. Shelly Galloway, public information coordinator for the district, declined comment but provided the following written statement:
It is the policy of the board of trustees to ensure the safety and welfare of its students and employees. The presence of a weapon or look alike is prohibited, and we work very closely with law enforcement when an incident of this nature arises. Sumter School District takes any potential threat very seriously and will remain vigilant in creating a safe and secure environment. [6]
The McKinneys, meanwhile, believe the district is simply overreacting to the recent tragedies at schools around the country. “You’re taking a young girl who loves education, and imposing an unfair punishment on her because of what’s going on in the media,” Hank McKinney said. “With all the incidents going on, with the Connecticut shooting, they (the administrators) are targeting the children now,” Angela said. “I think they’re trying to use the little children as an example of how far they’re willing to go.” [7]
Her case, while a little bit extreme, joins a growing list of similar incidences throughout the country — which cropped up following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. A gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook before committing suicide. Naomi’s father, Hank McKinney, still cannot believe what happened:
“You have to show some kind of judgment,” the father continued. “I know there is a lot going on with guns and schools and that is tragic but a six year old bringing a toy to school doesn’t know better,” [8]
Since then, a fifth-grade girl was pulled out of school in Philadelphia for having a paper gun, while a Massachusetts boy received a disciplinary warning for taking a gun built out of Legos to his class and the madness continues.
