Judge upholds school suspension of boy who chewed pastry into gun shape
A Maryland judge has upheld a two-day school suspension for a boy, then 7 years old, who chewed his breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun and pretended to shoot it.
Judge Ronald Silkworth of Anne Arundel County Circuit Court said the suspension was appropriate because the incident was disruptive and the boy had a history of “escalating behavioral issues,” the Washington Post reports.
The boy attended Park Elementary School in Anne Arundel, Maryland. He made his pastry gun less than three months after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
The boy’s family is represented by lawyer Robin Ficker, who said he was disappointed by the decision. “There was no physical injury, and I think they should be able to deal with a 7-year-old in-house,” Ficker told the Post.
Ficker told the newspaper he has handled 10 student discipline cases involving pretend guns since the Newtown shootings. The Anne Arundel case is the only one in which school officials did not clear the student’s record.
