April 19, 2010
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Finger Gun Threat
A 13-year-old girl has been kicked out of school for 3 days for pointing her finger gun at her teacher.
The girl said, “I was shooting the markers at the front of the board.” The teacher turned around and thought it was a direct threat to her. It was considered a “terroristic threat” and is labeled a “level four violation.” The school has a “zero tolerance policy” Here is the link: Link
Do you think a finger gun pointed in the direction of a teacher should be treated as a threat?
Comments (141)
Good grief.
…really?
HELL NO!!!
Only if you can shoot flame or lightning from your fingertips.
I just finger gunned my boss the other day! OH NOES! I must be a terrorist! XD
I guess it would depend on where the school was.If it was more of a gang realted school and I was the teacher i would be worried,but if not then its dumb
Yes.
hey man, that thing might have gone off.
Okaaaay this is getting way out of porportion. Thank my lucky stars taht I will never, ever never never have kids!
hahaha, thats kind of really overreacting. people these days need to calm down and realize that not everyone is a terrorist.
like they say, when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.
this is re-fucking-diculous
@vangelicmonk - Yeah…!
Would a fingerbanging joke be inappropriate here?
OMg wtf has the freakin world come too?!
The teachers a freaking wussy then, finger gun? Get a life.
@DrugInducedDuck - I’m all ears ^^
I’m a terrorist? I point finger guns at my siblings all the time. They do the same to me. It’s as natural to us as giving a thumbs up to someone.
this zero tolerance policy is really getting out of hand. seriously?
I used to work at a preschool operated by a church and at lunchtime all the four-year-old terrorists would eat their sandwiches into the shape of guns and shoot at each other. I’m still traumatized whenever I smell peanutbutter.
well…if high fives can get teachers fired and students suspended…finger guns should be up there with first degree murder and carry at least 10-20…smh.
I find that pointing a banana is much more threatening. Especially when it is a loaded banana.
Next thing you know the finger across the throat will be charged as first degree pretendsie attempted murder.
@TakingxOverxMe - LOL!
Sounds like something that would happen at my school…….
LoL.
Oh my goodness how silly
@myfingersfitinbetweenyours - “when you assume, you make an ass out of you
and me.” Hahah .. good one .. *fakes laugh, slaps knee*
the irony is she was pretending to be a cop.
@Crushpuppy -
corny, yes, stupid, yes, but true? yes.
I don’t know about you, but kids freak me out. Especially when they shoot finger guns in my general direction.
But that’s just me.
The teacher “feared for her life?” from a finger?
I thought it was stupid when my 8 year old son got 5 days suspension for having a nail clippers on the bus. This is more ridiculous, even.
Does anyone remember doing that but also doing it with a rubber band that you can shoot at someone? what if the kid had that? Hate to see what she would have been charged with.
@WavesofNihility - in certain neighborhoods I would agree with you.
@vangelicmonk - Haha agreed.
@myfanwe - If you watch Monty Python’s Flying Circus, you will know how to defend yourself against any fresh fruit!!
Not unless I should be sent to intensive counseling every time I point a finger gun at my head.
That was only a level FOUR threat? I’d put that at maybe DEFCON 2 at the least!
Only with the safety off. Those things can kill you. Zero tolerance policies are the dumbest thing.
That’s just crazy…
Oh, no! I am a thirty-year teacher who just got shot by a little girl’s finger!! Where’s my safe haven?
Fellow teachers, do your job and engage your students in learning.
we need to outlaw the sales of all toy guns too. and no more playing “cops and robbers”. and no more movies. or cartoons. i think the government should give us all a zombie pill so we are all dressed the same and look alike and have no imagination. and furthermore………
under a zero tolerance policy, YES .
Should have flipped off the teacher instead.
THE APOCALYPSE IS LONG OVERDUE.
yes. and it should be taken away from her by force. amputate that finger gun if they must! don’t people know you need a permit to have a finger gun? finger guns are the most dangerous weapons on earth, next to suicide bombers. she could have killed her teacher with the laser rays that were about to shoot from her finger tips that explodes upon contact with the enemy. the united states should ban finger guns for the safety of all americans. i hope they send that girl to guatemala with all the rest of the terrorists. their missiles and guns are nothing compared to her finger gun.
Jr. High schoolers? That’s just naive
@vangelicmonk - i know right. like seriouslyy. –;;
Depends on the situation. If the student pointed the “finger gun” at the teacher and said something along the lines of “I’m gonna kill you while you sleep”, then absolutely – treat it like a threat. Just playing, though, as this student seemed to be doing? Uh, no. Major overreaction.
Wow…
Sorry, what were you saying…? I was too busy looking at that photo!
jk. No not really. I mean, it depends. If a teacher turns around to find that, no big deal. But if a teacher and student are arguing, like I dunno the teacher tells the student to be quiet, and they don’t, and they tell them to leave the classroom, and they don’t, and it gets heated, then the student does that, then yeah. Not a threat, but more serious.
LMAO @DrugInducedDuck
It was clearly her own fault for showing up for school.
You can’t be fucking serious.
I finger gun at my boyfriend a lot.
Luckily I’m not in the States.
My knee jerk reaction is that this is overkill but then again she is 13. If this was a 1st grader I’d let it slip. It also depends on the demographics of the school. I think suspension is too extreme.
Terrorist act . .. oh c’mon!
@CiaoBella810 - link?
I definitely don’t think so. Maybe if the kid was known for their violence or something. But it doesn’t sound like it.
ugh, public schools overreact to everything.
I think its situational. If some punk student does it that seems like he/she has a bad attitude….sure. If it is a boy or girl who has no trouble in class, sweet and looks just as shocked as the teacher when thier eyes meet, probably not.
Unless it was done in a threatening way then theres no reason to feel alarmed.
Jeebus I hate how people never take into consideration meaning behind words or actions. I call my gay friends faggot, tease my black friends with calling them nigger, and in return they call me whore and spic. But we never get offended because we know we’re just messing around.
Theres no reason to get offended or upset unless theres a valid reason to be.
Teachers are afraid of their students to the point that every tiny gesture becomes a threat? It’s sad, just sad.
@verified_but_still_denied - That was like…a close cousin to a pun.
Lol teachers with no balls. Even a female reporting that is disgraceful. It’s a fucking finger.
Stories like these add to the feelings I have about NOT enrolling any of my kids in school. Maybe it shouldn’t be that way, but it is. Homeschooling will definitely be the first try.
~V
lmmfao.
Yeah, fingering should be banned. Wait, what?
Same thing happened to my nephew, who is Autistic, is in a class FULL of other Autistics, and dosen’t really understand why it is bad thing anyways. I swear some schools are just plain ridiculous anymore. If it isn’t a “finger gun” it is a plastic G.I. Joe one. Neither of which can do anything except maybe give you a scratch.
Why don’t we just ban all fucking imgination and creativity.
There is a SLIGHT exception to my previous post, and that is if the kid is, say, going up to the teacher and making it threatening. That is, placing it to the persons heqd and threatening to blow there head off or something like that. If that were the case, then yes, they should be expelled.
ZOMG! What a close one! Can you imagine the horror if that girl actually pulled the trigger? Thank goodness she was stopped in time!
@saintvi - LOL
Wow… My nephews shot at me all the time.. .Thankfully they aren’t loaded finger guns cause man. I would be dead!
LOL
This is pathetic…
But then again. The world is going to the crapper… Are we suprised?!
@vangelicmonk - Attempt of murder?! … LOL
Stupid shit like this is why I’m not sending my kids to publik skools
Absolutely. She could have nailed her with that thing!
a terrorist threat? good lord. that’s a bit much.
but i will say there’s a more easily discernible difference between a 13 year old doing this and a 6 year old. but even an in-class reprimand would probably cover that.
She should have used her laser eyes instead. The teacher would have never known and it would have been easier to deny if she figured it out. You have to look at someone to shoot them with laser eyes and the teacher would have assumed she was being studious.
@buddly47 - Haha! I love the smell of a pun in the morning!
I wonder how they’d react to a delicate middle digit?
Most of my family are teachers in the inner city. Guys and girls alike
can be gang members or wannabes and you’d be surprised how many of them
have parole officers/rap sheets. So if they make a gesture like that,
it is taken very seriously. That said however, they need to allow for individual cases instead of a blanket policy.
i could see how the teacher could have seen it as a threat.
What the fuck is wrong with people these days. Nothing but paranoid pussies, I swear.
Wow.
That’s pathetic.
Are you joshin’ me?! A 13-year-old…geeze. People these days are so vapid.
Teacher sounds like a wuss.
Sounds more like she had a stick up her…. Anyway. No.
thats absolutely crazy and stupid
I thought when I had a student grab my tie and start swinging that he was a terrorist.
When I was 13 I used to draw pictures of my teacher dying. I was a terrible student. We all did not like him. He was easy to make fun of. I feel bad about it now, but it’s too late. I never got in trouble for it.
At the same school a few years later my friends little sister got into a confrontation with her friend and said “I’ll kill you.” Not a in a serious way. In fact it was something that I said all the time that had rubbed off on her. She got suspended from school for a week.
School’s are very touchy now a days, with all the school shootings that have been happening over the years, I’m not surprised the teach felt threatened.
The only way of knowing whether that little girl is a terrorist or not is to waterboard her 183 times (182 would not be enough, 184 times would constitute torture which is of course wrong)!
Yep, these days children have more adult tendencies. You have to stop them dead in their tracks, or they will run all over you. Truss me…
Sigh. More crap to ding us gamers with.
Seriously, sure it should not be taken lightly but to just outright kick is stupid.Where are our brains? How about psych testings and all that jazz.People are lazy nowadays arn’t they.
Sheesh! This is beyond inane!
wtf thats the stupidest thing I ever heard it a finger i mean seriously i guess schools have changed since I went there I rememebr fighting with one of my teachers and she threatened me in soem way I cant remember and I told her that ok I know where u live and I stay up late and she left me alone I know it seems wrong but you would understand if I could just rememebr what she said to me it was somethign to to with my killing my mom Any way a finger is nto a threat a threat is a threat and that teacher was just looking for an excuse to kick some one out and I find this ridiculous
The kid could have been a troublemaker in the class for the longest and the teacher figured that this was the perfect opportunity to get here out of here.
@TheMarriedFreshman - ha ha so close so close. xD
@GiantUnicorn - I am ashamed to admit that the first thing I thought when I read the first four words of your comment was that Bieber song. “When I was 13, I had my first love…” lol
I’m just curious what the punishment is at the same school for getting into a real fight or for pushing a teacher. Lets see just how consistant this school really is. I mean, if you’re going to have a regime that strict, why not add swastikas and have students address the principal as “mein fuerer”?
In today’s day and age…who knows?
Get in trouble – yeah. Get suspended – no.
A level four offense is on par with assault, public lewdness and the selling of drugs and alcohol and includes threats on a teacher’s life. I want to know what kind of person the seventh-grade math teacher is. To feel threatened for her life due to the circumstances you described, should this person really be a teacher. The student is a kid and kids must be students – they have no choice in the matter. An adult has the choice in deciding to become a teacher. I agree with the policy but this is clearly not a case where a reasonable person should have felt threatened for her life – unless there’s information which the media has not presented to us.
That’s ridiculous. I finger gun my friends at school all the time. That teacher completely overreacted to a 13 year old. She was only playing around.. what a jerk move!
I hate public school.
@saintvi - haha
only if she really meant she wanted to shoot him, but i’m sure she didn’t. good grief.
I would take it as a threat…but thats just me
No, and the little girl wasn’t even trying to “shoot” her.
I did that once, but it was with my penis and she didn’t appreciate it very much.
Oh god. We’ve gotta stop the proliferation of these finger guns. They’re so dangerous.
http://illarecords.blogspot.com
That is just…absolutely ridiculous. Really?
stupidity strikes again
Oh wow. I wonder what they are going to suspend students next for— pointing their pencil away from their test? I swear, school’s these days are getting stricter and suspending students for no legit reason.
I understand the teacher probably felt threated and stuff, but she could have asked what was going on and stuff. Poor girl, now she’s marked as a “terrorist” for a stupid reason. *sigh*
no.
i mean i often point my finger gun at myself.
That teacher needs to be checked up.
A 13-year old with a finger gun=a level 4 threat?Really?
Oh, goodness. Really? It’s difficult to take those kind of authority figures seriously. That might just be me.
maybe she can shoot laser beams out of her fingers
Better safe than sorry. There’s no way to know if she was telling the truth or not.
This is so dumb. That poor girl was probably just trying to have some fun in a boring class.
Well if it is a gang school then I can see how the student should be suspended and/or expelled. In today’s world you have to be ever aware of threats, even if it seems like a trival matter to teenagers/little kids.
@saintvi - LOL!!
No. It shouldn’t.
HAHAHAHAHA
Haha, wow, I just found out this happened at the middle school I was at in 8th grade. It’s like two minutes from my house. Way to go, Cy-Fair ISD…
… while I wouldn’t call it a terrorist threat, in these times you never know who is bringing a gun to school. The school could ignore this girl and she could in fact bring a gun and shoot people, at 13 who still makes finger guns and pretends to shoot things anyways? but I live in Michigan so maybe I’m biased by the amount of violence here, when we have 5 year olds bring guns to school and shooting kids on the playground…
@winter_deathangel - It’s not a gang school. It’s like the second whitest, rich snobby kid school in the district. (I went there for a year..)
The people around here are crazies, but this is definitely a new level.
Oh my goodness. Aside from that, I am speechless.
….So why is this person teaching kids? They don’t have a bit of common sense!
the concept of the “zero tolerance policy” boggles my mind. School administrators are paid high salaries and require years of experience because of the level of judgement that is supposedly required for the job. Making decisions as to whether or not a gesture or comment are threatening is among those judgement responsibilities, or at least should be. There is nuance in absolutely every aspect of life, including the rules. A 15 year old bringing a switchblade to school is not the same as a 7 year old bringing his plastic boyscout camping knife to school. But where zero tolerance policies are concerned, these are viewed as the same offense, and are punished as such.
School administrators in government schools are paid essentially for nothing. This is one of the many lessons that should prevent any rational, thinking individual from surrendering his/her children to the government to be educated.
@ionekoa - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/17/AR2007061701179.html
@ionekoa - His crime was actually hugging but the no touching policy goes on to include any type of physical contact in anyway. Teacher can get fired for ANY type of physical contact.
now.. thats funny! in malaysia.. if you do that to your teacher.. they do it right back at you until someones sprains a finger.. lol
Gee, remember life as a kid before we were all terrorists or all screwed up in the head or had to have everyone regulate every kid into oblivion for lord knows what? I work in a nursing home and one resident, a gentleman with a sense of humor, did the gun finger thing to his own head when he said something he felt was embarrassing and I was told, as the social worker, he needed to go for a psych evaluation. At that point I wanted to send the nurse for one instead. We have become hysterical anymore over what used to be taken in stride. Was her finger loaded?
Now they’re going to start calling it a terrorist fist gun. Just like a terrorist fist bump.
Sometimes these threats do seem blown out of proportion…but, people who eventually commit these types of crimes start somewhere. I don’t know how seriously they should take it, but they definitely shouldn’t blow it off as nothing.
senseless assinine fatuitous stupid cross-eyed numbskulled idiotic unconscionable nitwitted fecal-brained tongue-flapping brain-deprived kneejerk hellacious nose-picking buttscratching knuckle-dragging babbbling nonsense
let’s forbid the mention of words like “begun” and “trifle” because they contain the words “gun” and “rifle” and people might misconstrue
I think that the girl wasnt even pointing it at the teacher haha. Have you ever pretended to squish something that was far away with your fingers? Or pretended to erase something far away with your pencil eraser? I think this is nuts.
next thing you know, blowing kisses will become a form of sexual harassment!
Oh Jesus Christ.
I have a finger the poor kid could point. Have we gotten so silly that kids can not be kids?
That’s a zero-intelligence policy! They always misname those thing!
“Terrorist threat” is a pretty extreme claim, but I also think the girl is full of shit too. “Shooting markers” my ass. She was pretending to shoot the teacher and showing off for her friends and got caught. We have zero tolerance here too and I think that ruling is crap and a lazy response for handling violence in schools, but for now, it’s the rule and the kids know the rules and if they want to behave like jackasses, then they have to live with the consequences. It’s harsh, but then again, school shootings and kids getting bullied to death is harsh too….the world is a harsh place and she just learned that.
The “educators” who dream this crap up are the REAL threat.
I’ve seen students do the finger gun and threaten the teacher’s life.
If the girl was shooting at the markers, why didn’t she just explain that to the teacher and not do it again? Shhesh
Considering the level of violence that children have brought into our schools …… Absolutely.