Any update on the STA bb gun story?

[Anonymous]

I actually think they were arrested, and hence the punishment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think they were arrested, and hence the punishment.

They were arrested. Photos and news footage of one boy being hauled out of the NCS building went around the world. I don't think the school acted in a knee-jerk fashion, but tried to consider all the circumstances. Remember, post Columbine and VA Tech it is a different world and schools have to take anything with weapons seriously. Remember that the bb gun looked like a rifle with scope and they had taken it out of the car and were sighting with it into the woods--this triggered multiple 911 calls from passers-by. It might have been different had it been in the car by accident and sighted in the back seat, for example, but the judgment in taking it out was just terrible (and, again, it was illegal under DC law to possess and transport). The school has also acted strongly in cases of other illegal activities--several expulsions for illegal drug use this year. No school is perfect and kids will make bad decisions--it's what adolescent males do and why 18 year olds make such great combat soldiers (they can't conceive that bad things will happen to them)--but the school has to try to walk a line and set standards of behavior.