Father: Son's Suspension Crummy

[dArKeR]

 The parents of a sixth-grader say they are outraged over an indefinite suspension of their son after he was accused of threatening to expose a highly allergic teacher to peanut butter cookies.

At the start of the school year, Social Studies teacher Caroline Pew had made it clear: No peanuts in class, because of her allergy.

The boy's father, Loubert Gabriel, said his 12-year-old son, Jules, was suspended on April 2 after a girl in his social studies class at South Orange Middle School made the accusation.

The family was under the impression that the suspension would be for 10 days. But Gabriel said the boy still has not been allowed to return to classes pending a May 13 suspension hearing by the district.

"They mishandled this," Gabriel said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/23/national/main613335.shtml

Just think of the 'bad' things you did when you were young and could you be in Guantanamo Bay under Bush's rules today? Repuke Fundamentalist Christians are dangerous!

I have a friend who became a teacher in CA. He has Engineering and MBA degrees. When you jump professions into teaching they make you do some community type stuff. He did kids in prison counselling. He came out of there disgusted. He couldn't believe what these kids were doing hard time for. 'Nothing I didn't do. They just got caught.' And of course, 98% where black or hispanic.

Any kind of African or Hispanic person who votes Repuke is truely clueless or has sold their soul to Satan; ie; Condi Lice, Powell...

What I exactlyl mean by 'Sold their Soul to Satan' is doing something 'immoral, wrong' which you know will promote yourself to gain monetarily or politically. OReilly, Lice, Powell, Fineman, Woodward, North, Bush, Cheney...

[BlueEyedSon]

1. "Cookies of Mass Destruction"... what's next???

[jdsmith]

2. Am I wrong for understanding this as a death threat?

If the student did indeed make the threat, and if he was serious, wasn't he, in effect, saying that he intended to jeopardize the teacher's life?

I really don't understand the connection between this story and the stuff that follows in the first post.

[iverglas]

5. we must just be dim, eh?

"Am I wrong for understanding this as a death threat?"

That's certainly how I understood it.

The words, anyhow. The nature of a statement -- whether it is actually "a threat" -- can only be determined from the context.

But threatening to expose a teacher to peanuts when that exposure could cause her death is no different from threatening to shoot her, in that respect. On the face of it, it could be a real threat, and it needs investigating.

Btw, someone named "Loubert Gabriel" with a son named "Jules" sounds more francophone than Hispanic to me. I didn't check the story for fear of netscape crashes ... South Orange, New Jersey? Could be a transplanted québécois family ("Loubert" is an old surname there), or more likely Cajun Louisianan (Louisianian?). (I find a Loubert Trahan, a Louisianan who seems active in maintaining the Nova Scotia connection).

.

[RoeBear]

6. You insult people that agree with you?

Tha's not very nice.

[jdsmith]

7. ?

[Tiberius]

3. Does anyone ever say their kid's suspension was justified?

Granted, an indefinite suspension is too harsh for something like this. But I'm just wondering if a parent has ever said, "yes, my child misbehaved and deserved to be punished, the school is justified."

The kid should be punished in some way if it's true.

[TX-RAT]

4. I see childish behavior, but i fail to see a threat.

[CO Liberal]

8. If You Knew Anyone With a Severe Allergy to Peanuts....

...you'd see the threat.

[TX-RAT]

9. The threat is a unopened pack of cookies?

Not being critical of people with allergy's to peanuts. Would the school be a threat if they carried peanut based products in the snack bar.

[CO Liberal]

10. From The Referenced Article

Nine students in the social studies class allege that Jules Gabriel stood up in the classroom when Pew stepped out, produced the cookies and declared "the teacher better not mess with him because he has a deadly weapon," the Newark Star-Ledger reported.

Sounds to me like this kid knew full-well what he was doing. IMHO (speaking as the brother of two teachers), he got what he deserved.

[iverglas]

11. sigh, restricting the rights of the many ...

to protect the few.

I have a friend with a kid (now grown) who had a potentially fatal peanut allergy. All peanut products were banned from her classroom, and might have been banned from the school; I dont recall. When she was very young, she had a personal teaching assistant assigned to her by the school board to ensure that she was not exposed to peanut products, and to take action if she was.

(For those who don't know, the severe form of an allergy can lead to swelling that blocks the airway and anaphalactic shock, circulatory collapse and death. I'm supposed to carry antihistimines because it's possible that I might react to a my next bee sting badly. Because of a suspected egg allergy, I was kept at the clinic for a while a few years ago after receiving a measles vaccine to ensure that I didn't react that way.)

Allergies are just becoming more common, as those of us who have them live long enough to reproduce. ;)

It's all a drag, in that peanut butter is a cheap and nutritious food that most kids like (I've always hated the stuff), and that these restrictions in schools limit kids' and parents' choices, and impact most on picky kids and low-income parents perhaps.

But when we consider the potential costs to the affected child -- death, or exclusion from the public schools -- well, it's really a pretty small price to pay.

Gosh, does that remind us of anything else? Potentially enormous harm to some peope, minor inconvenience to others deprived of the thing that less careful or less law-abiding others might use to cause that harm ...

.

[Wickerman]

12. hmm let me think

nope, I can't think of a damn thing that the fair minded folk of the gungeon would agree upon.

anyone else?

[FeebMaster]

13. Nope. Not a thing. (nt)

[Something Blue]

14. Hmmm...

How about ice cream? EVERYBODY likes ice cream!

[TX-RAT]

15. Luna likes Bluebell

And I heartily agree.

[Something Blue]

17. Ya see?

Social Harmony Through Snack Foods. Ain't progress grand? :)

[Wickerman]

18. cookies and cream?

[Something Blue]

19. Dreamery fan here...

I've been on an "Ultimate Mudslide" kick lateley. I'm known to eat it by the pint...

[Something Blue]

16. I was thinking the same thing.

We're talking about a sixth grade kid for chrissakes. Give'm a few hearty swats on the ass and move on...