A 5-year-old girl was suspended for pretending a stick was a gun at school.
Caitlin Miller was playing“King and Queens” with two friends on the playground during recess.She was the guard so she picked up a “gun” — a stick — to imitate shooting intruders trying to breech the kingdom, ABC11in North Carolina reported.
”Chloe was the queen and Jaslin was the princess, I was the guard and Jaslin was rude to me and told the teacher on me,” Caitlin told Reuters.
The school said the kindergartner violated policy 4331 and posed a threat to other students when she made a shooting motion.
“Hoke County Schools will not tolerate assaults, threats or harassment from any student. Any student engaging in such behavior will be removed from the classroom or school environment for as long as is necessary to provide a safe and orderly environment for learning,” a statement from the school reads.
Brandy Miller, Caitlin’s mom, said the punishment bowled her over.
“The assistant principal told me Caitlin had a stick and she was using it to shoot and kill other students,” Brandy told Fox News.
Caitlin is back at school, but her mom is still trying to figure out how to tell her that what she did was wrong without quelling the 5-year-old’s imagination.
“I mean, we know why it’s bad because we watch the news, but then I have to tell my kid you’re not allowed to play like that in school because people do bad things to kids your age,” Miller told ABC11. “I just want them to apologize to her and tell her that it’s OK. You can be five and have an imagination.”
School suspensions over things that resemble guns aren’t wholly uncommon.
In May 2016, a kindergartener in Colorado was suspended for brandishing a bubble-blowing “gun” at recess.
A year earlier, a 6-year-old in the same state was suspended when pointed his index finger like a gun at a classmate and said, “You’re dead.”
A 7-year-old inMaryland was suspended for gnawing a Pop-Tartinto the shape of a pistol in 2013. He became a full-time member of the NRAwhen he was eight.
