Pennsylvania Girl’s Bubble Gun At Center of ‘Terrorist Threat’ – Should the Child Have Been Suspended? [POLL]

We can’t seem to get away from stories involving kids and gunplay.

Although the gunplay in question isn’t really gunplay at all.

It’s fake gun play. In one instance that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago, it had to do with a child pointing his finger at another as though having a gun in his hand.

This time it involves a 5 year old telling another she was going to shoot her with a Hello Kitty Bubble Gun.

No joke.

Although you have to wonder if one overhears such a threat, can it be taken lightly? (Seriously!)

According to this:

A Pennsylvania elementary school allegedly suspended a 5-year-old girl for making a “terrorist threat” after the child told a friend that she was going to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty bubble gun.

The unidentified kindergartener was initially suspended for 10 days following the Jan. 10 incident at Mount Carmel Area Elementary School in Northumberland County, PennLive.com reported.

“This little girl is the least terroristic person in Pennsylvania,” Robin Ficker, a lawyer for the girl’s family, told the website.



Ficker said that the girl did not have the toy gun, which blows soapy bubbles, on her at school when she suggested that she and a friend shoot each other.



“This logic, which was not said in malice, came from the mind of this beautiful 5-year-old child who was playing with her friends, whom she hugs every day,” Ficker told The Daily Item.



The family of the kindergartener is now fighting to get the elementary school to remove the punishment, which was eventually reduced to 2 days, from the child’s record.

The child was reportedly required to receive a psychological evaluation because of the suspension. The evaluation found that the girl did not represent any threat to others, Ficker said.

“I think it’s pathetic when little kids can’t play... or get in this kind of trouble for using the wrong words,” he said.



The child’s mother, who was also not identified, said her daughter has been very upset since the suspension.

All I know is what my daughter has told me and she said she was told she could go to jail, which is a very traumatic thing for a 5-year-old to live with,” the mom told the Item. 

The Mount Carmel Area School District said the allegations “may not be consistent with the facts.”



The wise thing in my mind would be to rescind the child’s suspension…since the “terroristic threat” wasn’t a threat per se (since it involved a bubble gun!).

But…and this is the big “but”…you can’t ignore a seemingly innocuous comment made by a 5 year old telling another about how they’re going to “shoot each other”…albeit with a bubble gun.

What corrective action follows “not ignoring” the “terroristic threat” is probably up for debate…but I’m sure it wouldn’t involve a visit with the school psychologist for hours on end...and a 10 day suspension!

What say you?