‘Pencil gun’ suspension: A second-grader in Suffolk, Virginia was suspended from a school for pointing a pencil at another student to simulate a gun.
Christopher Marshall, 7, was playing with another student at Driver Elementary School on Friday when they pointed pencils at one another, reported WCSH-6 TV.
“When I asked him about it, he said, ‘Well I was being a Marine and the other guy was being a bad guy,'” Paul Marshall, the boy’s father, told the network. “It’s as simple as that.”
It was reported that the second boy, who was not identified, was also suspended.
Marshall thinks the school overreacted for suspending his son.
But school officials didn’t see it that way.
“A pencil is a weapon when it is pointed at someone in a threatening way and gun noises are made,” said Bethanne Bradshaw, with Suffolk Public Schools.
She said that some children might consider the move threatening, reported The Associated Press. She said the policy has been in place for around two decades.
The policy also includes drawing a picture of a gun or using a finger as a gun.
“Enough is enough. I mean, where will we draw the line?” Paul Marshall told NBC Washington. ” I mean, a pencil. Was it sharpened? Was it not? Was it a No. 2? What’s the big deal?”
