As I’ve previously written, I’m often disgusted by the behavior of so-called “educators.” That disgust is usually provoked by the politically correct abuse of students. This particular case, however, is unusual in the depth of its sheer stupidity. That it takes place in Massachusetts is unsurprising.
School Officials: These are Terrorists!
Look upon Jamie Pereira (left) and Tito Velez, dressed in their homecoming dance finery. The guns? Airsoft replicas. They shoot nothing but soft plastic pellets, and those only a short distance. What’s the fuss? NCEN.com has the story:
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.
‘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.
Any rational person can see the photo was not taken on school grounds, but in the living room of one of the kids. So why did their school suspend them?
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.
Wait a minute: the photo was taken before the dance and eventually posted on Facebook. Pereira and Velez attended the dance–without the airsoft guns that aren’t real guns at all–and caused no difficulty of any kind. And someone unnamed persons saw the photo, apparently after homecoming, and were “fearful and parents were concerned”?! Doesn’t anyone in that school district have an ounce of common sense? Surprisingly, the dance was “uneventful.” Imagine that.
Pereira and Velez defend themselves, saying they often play with the pellet guns with friends at local fields, and that the photo was taken by Velez’s dad at home on private property. In the comments below the picture, they say they made it clear the guns were fakes.
Now 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.
The local police are distancing themselves from this particular mess, claiming they had “minimal involvement.” There were obviously no arrests, which, considering the hysteria of the supposed adults involved, is amazing in and of itself. The Daily Mail, a newspaper in England, a nation that takes anti-gun hysteria to incredible lows, was far more rational than local school officials:
Miss Pereira told CBS Boston she understand why school officials had expressed concern over the image, but said: ‘I think they took this way too far. Suspending us for 10 days and possible expulsion is way too much.’
The students, who posted the photo online last Friday, were pulled out of school on Monday as they headed to a track meet for long-distance runners. They were then quizzed by police officers.
Miss Pereira’s father, Jailes, said the school’s reaction to the image was ‘ridiculous’ and blown out of proportion, adding that it went against the couple’s freedom of speech at a ‘private house’.
But defending his decision to suspend the students, Superintendent Richard Gross said: ‘It has nothing to do with free speech. Their behavior caused a significant disruption in the school’
‘We had our homecoming event on Friday and following that the students were looking at Facebook and, of course, it caused a tumult in the building.’
He added that the photo had been uploaded to an online album titled ‘Homecoming 2014’, meaning it was directly ‘tied’ to one of the school’s events.
Ah! So that’s it. If a student posts a photo a school official doesn’t like in an online album titled “homecoming 2014,” or “basketball game,” or “track meet,” that’s “directly tied to one of the school’s events.”
Where to begin? Was there ever any danger or any reason to believe there was danger? None whatsoever. The kids were in their homecoming finery, the photo was posted long before classes on Monday, and there was nothing threatening about it.
But what about the “homecoming” caption under the photo? Obviously, no sane pair of teenagers wanting to commemorate their homecoming date while displaying one of their favorite pass times would want to write “homecoming” on a photo of them in their homecoming clothes before attending the homecoming dance. Only crazed terrorists would want to do something that unusual, bizarre and threatening.
It’s a paranoid mind utterly detached from reality that, three days after homecoming, would see that photo and its caption as a threat.
Is there any indication that Periera or Velez were potentially dangerous loners? Did they dress in black, make threatening drawings, say odd, disturbing things to others? Apparently not. If they had, school authorities would surely be trumpeting it to the rooftops. They are, instead, cross country runners, and apparently very good cross country runners; they qualified for the State Meet, but were prevented from participating because school authorities can’t tell the difference between a commemorative photo and an actual threat of violent death. Those of us that actually teach high school know that cross country kids are normally among the most quiet, studious and self-motivated kids on campus. Surely the staff at their school knew that much about them? Or was all they could think: GUN! GUN!
Jamie Pereira demonstrating the Airsoft gun of soft pellet death
But what about the “fear” and “concern” and “tumult in the building”?
Teacher to fearful student: “Bobby, it’s a toy gun. There is no danger. There never was,” to be followed by a strong slap to the face and an admonition to get a grip on himself if necessary.
Principal to concerned parent: “Mr. Bobby, it’s a toy gun. There is no danger. There never was. The photo was not taken on school property, and there was never any actual connection to any school event,” to be followed by a strong slap to the face and an admonition to get a grip on himself if necessary.
And the “tumult”? After word of a few strong slaps got around, the supposed “tumult” would promptly subside. I suspect whatever chatter might have been circulating, it would never have been described as tumultuous in any normal, rational school run by adults.
Any rational principal would have done this very differently. It would have taken only a few minutes to call the kid’s parents and ask a few rational questions, such as:
Principal: “Are those real guns?”
Parent: Real Guns?! No. They’re Airsoft guns. The kids play with them. They shoot soft plastic pellets. Haven’t you ever heard of Airsoft guns? They’re toys.
Principal: “Are your kids intending to shoot up the school?”
Parent: “What?! What’s wrong with you? They’re going to the state cross country meet today! How many kids are doing that?”
Principal: “Why would they write ‘homecoming’ on a photo depicting them at homecoming?”
Parent: Uh, because they wanted to remember how they looked at homecoming? That’s why we take pictures.
Principal: “Where was the photo taken and when?”
Parent: “As though it’s any of your business, in my living room on Friday before Homecoming. That’s why they wrote ‘homecoming’ on it. Get it?”
After such a phone call, any rational principal would have been mortified, and there the issue would have died, if for no reason other than that he didn’t want to be publically revealed to be an irrational, panicky nitwit. It would have died because any rational principal would have realized these things:
(1) The photo was completely harmless.
(2) The photo was taken off school property.
(3) The photo had no substantive, actual connection to any school function.
(4) The guns were not real. There was never any threat, implied or otherwise.
(5) Writing “homecoming” on a photo meant to commemorate homecoming, absent anything else actually, you know, threatening, is not, you know, threatening.
(6) Doing anything more would make any educator look like a fool.
So of course, the local school authorities had to act, three days after the photo was taken, as though armed terrorists were coming to the school to commit murder, and after their illegal search turned up nothing at all, had to cover their idiocy by suspending a couple of innocent kids for ten days.
It is difficult to explain how unprofessional are the comments of Superintendent Gross. Evidence of actual potential threats must indeed be acted upon, but in this case, it could, and should, have been handled by nothing more than a phone call or two to parents, and perhaps a brief chat with the kids to allay any potential concerns. Their comments are far more rational and adult than those of the adults involved.
Photos taken at home, regardless of whether then remain in an album on a home computer or are posted on Facebook, are not the business of schools, except in the narrowest circumstances, none of which apply here. School law is not at all ambiguous on this point. By Gross’ calculation, a student that takes a photo of himself in his bedroom blowing a trumpet and writes “band” under it, has directly “linked” himself to a school activity. This is, of course, nonsense.
No doubt, Dr. Gross is being paid $100,000 dollars or more a year to exercise this kind of discretion. The citizens of that school district might want to look into that.
As for Pereira and Velez? They’ve learned an important and useful lesson about adults and human behavior. Unfortunately, rather than learning what should be done and how people should be treated, they’ve learned precisely the opposite, but that’s useful too. It will help them stay as far as possible away from people like Gross in the future.
Stately McDaniel Manor 
By what authority did the school suspend the students? Seriously.
Principal Milquetoast seems to forget his place. More parents need to get involved and put him back in it.
I think it is time to start an organization similar to FIRE to sue the school districts that abuse their student in this manner. That this occurs, sadly, is not surprising. This all came about because of lawsuits after school shootings and since district officials are bureaucrats, whose primary and overriding concern is to protect their phoney baloney jobs, they decided as bureaucrats do that anything worth reacting to is worth over reacting to. Since such people do not live in a world of reasoned response we need to install an equal fear that their phoney baloney jobs will be at risk for over reaction that punishes kids for perfectly legal and acceptable actions.
It is insane that it has come to this but as long as we continue to place people of little or no moral courage to be in charge of the education of our children, we have little choice.
I’m wondering just when the “tumult” occurred, given that the dance was on Friday night, and last I heard high schools don’t have classes on Saturday & Sunday.