Is this nuts, or what??

Three 7th graders in Virginia Beach get suspended from school for the rest of the year because they were playing with Airsoft guns (toys) in one of the students yards while waiting for the school bus!

"Because students were on their way to or at a school bus stop when they were struck by pellets, the school division has jurisdiction to take disciplinary actions against those students responsible for the disruption,"

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...#ixzz2g0N0NvUW

Sounds reasonable. The parents of those students getting harrassed could sue the school, and the school would likely be liable. If there is a school bus stop at or near his house and instead of shooting pellets he was throwing rocks at other kids walking by, even if from his own yard he would have been suspended from school back when I was a kid. Shooting rubber bands could also get you in trouble.

The other kids are required to walk by his house and take the bus every day. They shouldn't have to be harassed. If it was another adult harrassing children on their way to school, he would/should be in jail. 13 is old enough to know better.

The title of the post "Is this nuts, or what?" is right on the mark. I have been involved in similar cases while a police officer. School districts have become increasingly aggressive in determining what constitutes school property, a school "campus", etc... Attempting to extend school jurisdiction to any property to and from a school (this is the whole city or town where you live, by the way) is an intrusion into the student and parent's Constitutional rights. Before you howl about that kids don't enjoy these rights, let me suggest that they and their parents do.

Once, a principal wanted a student arrested because he brought a plastic knife to school to spread (horror of horrors!) peanut butter on his bread. This was in the early 90's, before the now common peanut allergy issue. When I told the principal he was free to suspend the 10 year old if he wished, I was not going to arrest a child for this "offense" He was upset because the school had a "zero tolerance policy" for weapons, so I told him that a plastic knife did not constitute a weapon in the absence of malice. My decision stood; the principal filed a complaint against me, but it was summarily dismissed, for police enforce laws, not school edicts. Imagine if the police were charged with enforcing the myriad of rules that schools promulgate!

My point is that, if administrators want to extend their school "campus" to your yard, then let them try. If a crime occurred, the local police are equipped to address it. Just because children bully each other should not make us want to relinquish our rights like sheep. Would you allow your employer to extend the work "campus" to your yard and hold you responsible at work for actions committed at your home?

Woodsrule is seeing what I see. Schools over stepping their area of expertise, area of responsibility. The offense happened off school property. If laws were broken then the local police should be involved, investigating and prosecuting if deemed appropriate. I can't see how any school could be held responsible for anything a student does outside of the school premises, outside of the school jurisdiction. We might as well say that the school was responsible for the accident caused by the high school senior who ran into my truck when they were leaving school.

Maybe the teens involved are guilty, maybe they do deserve some punishment; not arguing that. I am arguing that the school has no right to exact penalties for any deeds perpetrated off the school grounds, in situations where the school is not directly supervising the students. That is a police matter, first and foremost.