“A picture posted to Facebook is stirring up controversy at a Massachusetts high school after two high school sweethearts posed with large airsoft guns before their homecoming dance last week,” necn.com reports. “‘We took them with the airsoft guns because it’s our hobby, and we wanted to include them,'” now-suspended Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School student Jamie Pereira said.” Wait. What? There were no threats in the photo or caption and besides, what jurisdiction does a public school have regarding students’ non-school-related Facebook posts? What possibly justification for the suspension? Glad you asked . . .
The guns only shoot plastic pellets, but school officials say the Middleborough teenagers, including Pereira and Tito Velez, caused a disruption at the school.
Dr. Richard Gross, superintendent of the school district, said his problem is not with the guns. He says he defends free speech, but that he takes issue with the caption below the photo that reads “Homecoming 2014.”
“When you tie that to a school event, that’s something to be concerned about,” said Dr. Gross.
School officials say the dance Friday was uneventful, but people Monday in school were fearful and parents were concerned.
I guess Jamie Pereira and her main squeeze Tito Velez violated the progressives’ sacred [claimed] right to not live in fear.
I’ve got no problem with the school investigating the possibility of a threat to student safety. But where do you draw the line in suspending students for “causing a disruption”? If this was the standard, I don’t think I would have graduated eighth grade.
On the positive side, Pereira and Velez learned an important lesson about the Powers That Be’s anti-gun paranoia.
They’re upset with what they call a 10-day suspension and how they were allegedly treated by both police and school officials before their State Cross Country meet Monday.
“We were brought into separate rooms and then questioned by a police officer without parental consent there,” Pereira said.
“They took me to an empty room, searched everything I had on me, my bag, my clothes,” Velez said.
An abundance of caution or political correctness run amok? Again. Still. We report, you deride.