Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan True story: So an 8-year old kid in a Baltimore elementary school is eating a Pop Tart and he gnaws it into the shape of a gun. (A delicious, delicious gun.) School has a zero-tolerance policy regarding guns, so he is suspended for two days. Seeing an opportunity to twist a ridiculous situation even more hopelessly out of all proportion, the good ol' NRA awards the kid a lifetime membership. Winner: Rampant adult stupidity!!!
Originally Posted By DyGDisney You forgot the dumberest: This kid gets suspended for 2 days because his pop tart looks like a gun, but some guy leaves a REAL loaded gun on a Disney ride, where any kid or crazy can get to it and he gets a time out in the corner for the afternoon.
Originally Posted By Mr X Can't get any more bizarre, I'll say that much (I dare not say it can't get any worse, certainly it HAS been worse throughout history from time to time, but never has it been so quite onion-like in its level of reality = parody).
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance If that was my kid, I would have been at that school in two seconds flat giving them a taste of mama bear!
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 Can't get any more bizarre, I'll say that much (I dare not say it can't get any worse, certainly it HAS been worse throughout history from time to time, but never has it been so quite onion-like in its level of reality = parody).>> I would say the Internet age does exaggerate things a bit. 30 years ago if something stupid happened usually only locals would know about it, nowadays anything stupid can be broadcast across the entire world in minutes...
Originally Posted By mawnck Some great details here: >>At a fundraiser for Anne Arundel County Republicans, House Minority Leader Nicholaus R. Kipke presented Josh Welch with the membership, which cost $550, during a tongue-in-cheek presentation that involved a Pop-Tart fashioned into pistol and gun safety tips.<< >>Josh, who was 7 at time he was suspended for two days, gave the NRA certificate to his parents at the Glen Burnie event and returned to playing games on a cellphone.<< >>Josh said he didn't know what the NRA was or what it meant to have a membership, but chimed in when his parents were asked whether anyone else in his family belonged to the NRA. "Nope, only me," he said.<< <a href="http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-05-29/news/bs-md-nra-gun-pastry-20130529_1_nra-membership-gun-safety-david-keene" target="_blank">http://articles.baltimoresun.c...id-keene</a>
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 So an 8-year old kid in a Baltimore elementary school is eating a Pop Tart and he gnaws it into the shape of a gun. (A delicious, delicious gun.)<< I'd be a registered sex offender if school officials saw how I shaped my pop tarts as an early teen...
Originally Posted By Dabob2 When I was in grade school I was a geography nerd. I would nibble them (on the rare occasion my mom would let us have pop tarts) into shapes of the US states. Colorado = easy. (Basically, what you start with). West Virginia = hard. Maryland = impossible! Try getting those narrow bits in the NW corner and the NE where Chesapeake Bay runs out without the thing falling apart, then nibble out the state of Delaware using straight lines, and THEN get the coastline right?? Impossible, I tell you! <a href="http://geology.com/state-map/maryland.shtml" target="_blank">http://geology.com/state-map/m...nd.shtml</a>
Originally Posted By andyll <<So an 8-year old kid in a Baltimore elementary school is eating a Pop Tart and he gnaws it into the shape of a gun. >> If you are taking the time to make shapes out of pop tarts you are not eating them right. At best you are allowed to eat the edges without frosting. The zero tolerance play guns can be kind of stupid however you have to be dumber then a rock to not know about them. My kids been in public schools for 5 years now and at the beginning of every year I remind him he can't even pretend to shoot a gun. If he and his friends play any type of shooting game it would not be usual for me to repeat it. If you don't like the rules of your school take the kid out and find a school you can live with. Don't teach the kid that its ok to break rules if you think they are dumb.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I rarely see kids playing outside whatsoever. They're in organized sports and things.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Do kids still play army these days or is that too taboo?<< Mine do. To excess. We've had good conversations about real vs. fake violence.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney >>My kids been in public schools for 5 years now and at the beginning of every year I remind him he can't even pretend to shoot a gun. If he and his friends play any type of shooting game it would not be usual for me to repeat it. If you don't like the rules of your school take the kid out and find a school you can live with. Don't teach the kid that its ok to break rules if you think they are dumb. << Does it say he was pretending to shoot with it? I have gone over and over and over those packets the school has sent home. For 11 years I have been signing the non-violence pact. Every year I remind my kids it's not ok to have weapons at school (we don't even own guns). My daughter has taken things like cakes and brownies for different events and projects and can not even take a butter knife to cut them, but not once have I ever read that it's not ok to gnaw your pop-tart into the shape of a gun. It's not even something I would think of, and I'm sure it wasn't something the 8 year old thought of. To assume the parents think the rule is dumb is a reach. To suspend an 8 year old for having a gun shaped pop tart is asinine.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance This reminds me of the time my brother came home from grade school bawling because he got written up for sticking his middle finger up, but at the time he had no idea what it meant, or what he had even done wrong. He came into my room, tears flowing, "They said I have a bad finger, and I don't know which one it is!" *wail* Effing ridic.
