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Finger_gun1

A 10 year-old boy in Ohio has been suspended from school for using a ‘Level II Look-Alike Firearm’ in school. His ‘firearm’ of choice is more accurately described as his ‘finger.’ Where gun control and zero tolerance collide, all kinds of crazy Orwellian shit goes down. A joke becomes a threat. And your finger becomes a firearm. Doublespeak much? . . .

From CNN:

Ten-year-old Nathan Entingh doesn’t understand why he got suspended from school for three days.

According to his father, Paul Entingh, one moment the boy was “goofing off” with his friends in fifth grade science class, and the next the teacher was taking him out of the classroom invoking Ohio’s zero-tolerance policy.

The offense? Nathan was “making his fingers look like a gun, having the thumb up and the pointed finger sticking out,” said Entingh, describing the February 26 incident.

“He was pointing it at a friend’s head and he said ‘boom.’ The kid didn’t see it. No other kids saw it. But the teacher saw it,” he said. “It wasn’t threatening. It wasn’t hostile. It was a 10-year-old kid playing.”

The next morning Paul Entingh escorted his son Nathan to the principal’s office, where they met with Devonshire Alternative Elementary School Principal Patricia Price.

“She said if it happened again the suspension would be longer, if not permanent,” said Entingh, who also received a letter explaining the reason for Nathan’s suspension as a “level 2 look alike firearm.”

The letter, which Entingh shared with CNN, read, “Nathan put his fingers up to another student’s head, simulating a gun, and said, ‘BOOM,’ “

Price’s office referred CNN’s call to Columbus City Schools spokesman, Jeff Warner.

Price “has been warning the students for some weeks,” said Warner. “We’ve had a problem at this school. The boys have gone around fake shooting and making paper guns at class. It’s inappropriate. She has sent notes to parents for the past three weeks alerting them of the problem.”

Entingh said he never received a notice, but was aware of school authorities telling students, including Nathan, that any gun-related behavior would have serious consequences.

“I don’t know if it’s to the point it happened so much they needed to punish somebody to set an example, I don’t know, it blows my mind,” said Entingh.

Warner acknowledged there was likely no ill-intention in Nathan’s actions, “I know he (Nathan) felt it was funny and in jest, but the teacher felt it was inappropriate given the warnings that were given.”

Appropriate? Any educator who can say that with a straight face needs strong psychotropic medication, stat, and is patently unfit to have any unsupervised contact with minors, let alone supervise their education. In Nathan’s school district, a dozen students were expelled last year for ‘lookalike firearm’ incidents, while none were expelled for harassment or intimidation. Care to explain that, Mr. Warner?

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94 COMMENTS

  1. When people start spouting off about “common sense gun control”, this kind of situation is where I point them to for an example.

    • Unfortunately, I suspect a good percentage of comsituents in that area would see nothing wrong with the decision and might go so far as to expect counseling for the person being pointed aten that individual can go around saying how they are a Level II gun encounter survivor. Soinds like something that should go on a t-shirt.

      Front: a picture of a finger gun like in the picture above
      Back: Level II gun violence survivor like you

      • Teachers feel the need to control. I do not see them applying such standards to public servants. When the teacher sees a cop pointing a gun at a black guy during a fairly routine stop because he’s suspicious looking, the typical teacher just things…”good. You can never be too careful.”

        In 1920 and even 1950 elementary teachers were just a step about serfs. It might be best to go back to that. I don’t want the people who are attracted to the early education profession deciding our cultural agenda.

        • …because they’re all antis?

          Here’s a thought: how about we don’t adopt the mindset of hoplophobes and civilian disarmament proponents and refrain from stereotyping.

    • The greater problem is that Level II look-alike firearms are “ghost guns” undetectable by airport security.

  2. Playing cops & robbers, cowboys & indians- sorry- Native Americans, war, etc. That’s what KIDS do. Applying the HUA* Syndrome of today to my growing up, I would have never been allowed to set foot in a school.

    *HUA: Head Up A**

    • That’s what KIDS do.

      No, that’s what boys do. The feminazi jihadists who run the schools hate boys because they might grow up to be men, not the neutered robots that they want them to be.

      • This may be the best comment you’ve ever produced Ralph. I’ve cut and pasted it for future reference. I now have my punchline for all my public education needs (and I have two boys so I’ll need this a lot). Thank you.

      • I have to shake my head at the level of misguided vitriol in your comment.

        Unless this was meant as irony, I believe it likely that the only thing we could ever agree on is gun rights….for what it is worth only, and given that I am a proud union man and public school teacher, that’s probably not a lot to you.

        • “Misguided vitriol”? You betray yourself.

          Forgive me while I disbelieve you have ever fired a gun in your life, even though you claim common ground here.

          I think there are Oprah reruns on somewhere that you are missing.

          Government indoctrination camps (aka “public schools”) seek nothing less than to DESTROY the male identity in growing boys. They should be teaching gun safety, proper handling and marksmanship rather than kicking boys out for holding their fingers in a certain way.

        • Egads, were it not so obvious that you are looking to be “hated on” for a fake muslim name…

      • Let’s not forget, that in 10-20 odd years, when the fruits of their labor mature… they’ll be bitching about there being “no real men anymore.”

    • I worked in a school for a year. There were many times where I had to keel my mouth shut. I wish we could purge our school districts of people like this teacher and principal. They need to reach children not follow bad policy like an automaton. Tell the kid that the behavior is not appropriate and why. My parents and teachers explained things to me when I was a kid. These people do not.

      • The last couple of years before I graduated high school (’01), I recall a lot of the “zero tolerance” policies creeping their way into the school handbooks for things like cell phones, “offensive” speech and clothing, weapons and any imagery & discussion thereof, etc.

        Compared to the older teachers, the young teachers had a distinctly different, and I would even say dangerous outlook on how authority operates. It’s the same attitude and absolute faith in the infallibility of institutional regulations and power that I see coming from many authoritarian politicians that we have in office today, particularly the younger liberal politicians – that, coincidentally, were probably in about the same graduating class as most of the troublesome young teachers I dealt with.

        The older teachers in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, would roll their eyes when they had to explain these policies at the beginning of the year, or whenever a change was made. They thought they were BS, and often let things slide in their classroom.

        The teachers fresh out of college in their mid 20s, were dead serious about these rules, and they didn’t accept any questioning of the district policies. No discussion was allowed and questioning the purpose of these policies was in itself punished – I remember a girl being sent to the office because she said that the rule against having mild pain killers like Midol was stupid. Yeah, girls couldn’t bring Midol for their periods – they had to be checked in at the office and doled out on a schedule.

        Even as a teenager, I recognized it and was disturbed by it, which is why I still remember it to this day.

  3. How is it possible that anyone wouldn’t demand that these types of teachers be fired? Even the most die-hard anti-gunner should be appalled at this incredible overreaction. When did this start becoming acceptable behavior? I remember when I was in kindergarten, I made a 2D gun out of construction paper. It didn’t look much like one, but I was proudly showing it off and telling people, “I made a gun!” And nobody thought anything of it. This was in California, and I’m only 18, so it wasn’t that long ago. I imagine that if that exact same thing happened now, the poor 5 year old would be hog-tied by a goddamn SWAT team…..

    • that’s funny, good one.

      teachers basically cannot be fired. teacher’s unions will fight to the death to even keep a child molester employed.

      when I was a kid – not that long ago, in the early 90s – we brought super soakers and nerf guns to school, especially as the weather got better late in the year. I remember ever years where we had an end of the year super soaker fight for the whole school. every kid had a super soaker 30, at the very least – it was just understood.

      • Right, I completely forgot about how insanely powerful (even by union standard) teacher’s unions are….

      • And in the 70s when life was sane, we brought real rifles/shotguns to school during whatever hunting season it was. We did have to leave them in the office – until we got back on the bus…

      • Right…it’s indoctrination.

        With lockdowns and all this zero tolerance horse manure, they are effectively programming children to hate guns.

        The anti’s strategies are slow, but they are effective.

  4. I wish my finger could become a firearm; it would save me the hassle of toting around 2 extra pounds of Glock in my waistband every day.

    • No, this particular finger-gun was not fully automatic. Had the child said boom boom boom repeatedly without a finger reset for each boom then he would have been in possession of a Level III look-alike firearm. I think he is also supposed to have a tax stamp for that.

      /sarc

      • Sticking out the index finger and middle finger would make a double-barrel sawed-off shotgun, which, since it has twice the barrels, would be at least a Level IV look-alike gun.

      • Actually, it said the target didn’t even know he was doing it. Obviously suppressed. I’m going with Level II-A.

    • Fifty years ago people, especially the very well-off, considered missing a few weeks of elementary school a non-event. Adult vacations took priority over a few weeks of ‘learning,’ and the parents knew that the stimulation of travel and time with parents was more valuable.

      Now the agenda is “every child must be in pre-pre-school, and a week of absence in third grade is a grave matter.” What bull. The translation is “early childhood education” is in good part a substitute for day care. We’re supposed to agree that day care paid for through taxes is a right. Thus is the burden to coordinate and share that duty with relatives, neighbors, friends…eliminated. And with it control over the culture of the children is forfeit to the state. The state, though, has no culture, but only greed and a will to power.

  5. If this is a “level 2 look alike firearm”, what the hell is level 1?

    Thinking about a gun? Making the noise without the fingers? Speaking about guns? using 2 fingers instead of 1 for the barrel? Discussing a game of paintball?

  6. By definition, if you have “levels” of firearm, look alike or otherwise, you are already making exceptions to your own Zero-tolerance policy – so why don’t we just down grade fingers to, oh I don’t know….level 5, and call it a day. idiots!

  7. This is a culture war, but it’s less about guns than it is about males. Let’s face it — schools hate males, except for that peculiarly neutered variety called “administrators.”

    • A friend of mine had to take her 2 boys out of school because they wouldn’t STFU about putting them on drugs. Seems they were energetic & playfull.

        • Not entirely true. If they were girls acting like boys then the rest of the class would have to learn to accept their status as cross gender Americans. In that case, all of the other children would have to change.

        • We wouldn’t want the boys to feel comfortable with the idea of guns, would we? That might give them an unfair advantage later when competing at the SF Q Course. They might be preferentially assessed when competing for spots on the local police force!

          In other news the Massachusetts SJC ruled yesterday that taking up-skirt photos on the MTA isn’t a crime. Soon we’re going to have to offer PA students a special foreign-affairs course in “Understanding MA, CT, NY, and NJ.” Just strange.

        • Wait. What? Taking upskirt photos of an unknowing victim is not a crime?

          Where are the feminists on this one?

  8. Always wondered why my brother home schooled his kids. Now my son is home schooling my 3 grandchildren. I wonder NO MORE.

  9. Where gun control and zero tolerance “collide”?
    English usage correction.
    Where gun control and zero tolerance:
    Run parallel
    Go hand in hand
    Are good freinds
    Dry hump each other

  10. I’ve never seen a gun with a vertical protrusion extending from the rear of the gun nearly as high as the barrel is long.

  11. Level 2!!! Thank heavens the kid didn’t develop level 3 finger gun technology, oh the carnage that would have reulted

  12. ““level 2 look alike firearm.”

    I really thought that was a satiric exaggeration until I saw it was in the letter.

    No words.

  13. By this logic, he can give principal Price the bird and get away with it, because the middle finger in no way looks like a bird.

  14. The decline of our nation’s schools became a freefall when teachers were allowed to form public employee unions and started calling themselves “educators.” Somehow, in their minds, this elevated them to some sublime sinecure where they became superior beings who were not bound by such tiresome concepts as, “right,” “wrong,” or even “sane.”

    To the good teachers who have to put up with union crooks, Leninist administrators, and the buffoons protected by them: Thank you.

  15. Lesson learned – instruct your school age boys that it is only appropriate to carry your Level II firearm concealed.

  16. I read a different story about this, and the last line was the father being asked if he thought his son had learned anything from the experience. His response:

    “He’s learned never to make his fingers like a gun a school again. I don’t know if you consider that a life lesson.”

  17. The race is now on for which school puts up the first “Finger gun free zone” sign, complete with a picture of a “level 2 look alike gun” with a crossed circle. TTAG should post a bounty on a picture of this.

  18. If that happened to my child, my meeting with the school would include frequent, if not continuous, pistol gestures from me. They can’t suspend me. I’d also be home schooling that day and afterwards. Texas law only requires a course in civics as a curriculum, and the civics I teach would be better than my child being subjected to these morons every day.

  19. when does your finger turn into arm? when you point your finger like a firearm. if my kid was expelled for a hand gesture this would not have been it.

  20. I socked a kid in the face in 4th grade and I got “suspended” for the entirety of the rest of that day. I basically got an early release for punching a bully. I’m glad I didn’t point my level 2 firearm look-alike at him and say “poof”.

  21. Just think if he had a pop tart gun in one hand & his level 2 firearm in the other. We’re talkin Billy the Kid sh!t here now. Might take a whole squad of storm troupers to stop him.

  22. Inappropriate? How many 10 year old boys do you know that are appropriate? At that age I thought girls were gross, fart jokes were hilarious and running around with my penis out was like totally cool.

    I spent the first month of 4th grade(I was 10) pretend shooting my teacher. She was kinda bitchy though. I also told her that I was going to blow her head clean off. This was 10 years ago. All she did was tell my mother she thinks I have ADD and she recommended I go get a prescription for Ritalin. I would have been jailed or shot by today’s standards.

    • At that age I thought girls were gross, fart jokes were hilarious and running around with my penis out was like totally cool.

      And?

  23. Wow. I would have been sent to the electric chair in the corner if they saw my arsenal of cap guns at that age.

  24. OMG, what’s next? Will children play cops and robbers? Will they play…ARMY? Oh no, we must ban fingers…for da chilren’

  25. I propose that, like a ‘thumbs up’ being a sign of approval, a ‘right angle salute’ (picture above) similarly signify approval. Saying or yelling, “Right on!” should cement this new hand sign into the American experience, thus invalidating forever this nonsense. Also, ‘Boom’ means many things besides ‘I send a projectile into your cranium.” Bazinga, Boo Ya, etc.

  26. So he should have motioned a bow & arrow shooting? Maybe a crossbow even? Hey, not a ‘firearm!’ How about throwing a grenade, spraying a flamethrower, firing a cannon…

  27. This would be a good case for some civil disobedience. If a significant number of the kids were to, say, during morning announcements raise their “finger guns” in silent protest.

    Fortunately where I’m at in Southern Illinois, they’ve more sense than this, because there’s too much of a chance of something like that happening – even for 10 year olds. Of course, our B-of-E also just unanimously approved a shooting club for our high-school. Rather different mentality.

  28. A “Level II Look-a-like Firearm”. You have got to be kidding me. A school committee actually came up with this non-sense, and thought it would be a good idea.

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