School watch

it was part of enrichment exercise

but in how it was executed it obviously lacked judgment

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (CBS5) -

A couple pulled their sons out of Scottsdale Country Day School last week because they said the headmaster threatened to expel their 8-year-old for drawing "highly disturbing" pictures.

"In this situation, it's actually the principal of the school who bullied the parents - so much that we couldn't even be safe in that environment," said Jeff, whose last name we're omitting to protect the identities of his children.

The three images in question depict a soldier, a ninja and a Star Wars character - possibilities for the 8-year-old's Halloween costume.

Each of the drawings show the character holding either a gun or a knife.

"I think we really send our children the wrong message when we show that, as adults, we're so afraid of our shadow that an innocent picture - that any 8-year-old might've drawn - is cause for this kind of concern," said Jeff.

During the meeting, the headmaster also showed Jeff his son's journal, where the headmaster had highlighted words he found violent and unacceptable.

One passage about escaping a killer zombie at a haunted school read:

"I'd open the window, but, stand back quickly. Booby-trapped. Shoot the gadget - a rope gun - I'd swing across without getting hit."

Many of the third-grader's other journal entries were about saving the earth and protecting humanity.

In one passage, he wrote he'd like the ability to stop an atom bomb and stop bullets.

But Jeff said the headmaster told him he couldn't guarantee the safety of other students with his son around.

"I don't understand how somebody can say that about an 8-year-old that has no history of violence, no history of making threats - nothing at all," he said.

Jeff said his son is gifted and can get easily frustrated - but, the most he'd ever done at school was crumple up some papers and throw his eyeglasses to the ground.

According to Scottsdale Country Day School's online student and parent handbook, "drawings that depict weapons" are grounds for expulsion.

The school declined to comment on the situation.

I think there are better ways to teach a kid to "be aware of their surroundings"
(the point of this lesson) than sending a masked, armed, intruder into the classroom.

I believe most schools have lock down drills now.

I'd be really interested to learn what the teacher said to the kids during this lesson.
"Keep calm and cooperate"? "Get under your desk"?

Dumb just plain old dumb.

For kindergarten kids at Coghlan Fundamental Elementary School, tucked away in a remote rural area of Aldergrove, it’s no more tag, no holding hands, or you’ll get teacher’s dirty looks.

A letter went out to Coghlan kindergarten students’ parents on Friday, one of those types that often sit in backpack over a weekend or are put aside to be read later and somehow never are.

Julie Chen found the letter, explaining a new no-touch policy for kindergarten students, on Monday morning as she was packing lunch for her five-year-old daughter.

It reads, in part: “We have unfortunately had to ban all forms of hands-on play for the immediate future ... we will have a zero-tolerance policy.”

Penalties for making physical contact with a schoolmate include being grounded during play time and/or a trip to the office “for those who are unable to follow the rules.”

“I read the letter, it said there had been quite a few injuries, I said, ‘OK,’ and kept reading,” Chen said. “When I saw no hands-on would be allowed, I just got mad, I got so upset.

“What is happening in our society when our kids aren’t even allowed to be kids any more?

“Kids get hurt all the time. What are we going to do next, put them in a bubble to go to school?”

Chen said she talked to other moms on Monday and most hadn’t read the letter.

Based on what Chen told them, she said, they were appalled.

“I’m not going to tell my daughter she can’t push her friends on the swing,” Chen said.

“Do we expect our kids to be robots? How can they possibly do this?

“They’re five-year-olds — you can’t stop them from running around and having physical contact.”

At recess, the students were kept well back from 256th Street, but waved at photographers as they gathered in the school yard.

School employee Arthur Bourke drove up in his van and was happy to defend the policy.

“I don’t know how anyone would be against this,” Bourke said. “They’re trying to make it safe for everybody.

“They do a terrific job here of making sure everyone is safe.

“It’s something we have to do — if we don’t control it, it will get out of hand.”

The letter to parents cited “several injuries” in the past few weeks.

Neither the school or Langley district No. 35 were prepared for the media attention.

Coghlan Fundamental principal Barb Dayco referred questions to the school district.

“Obviously, student safety is important for us here and the letter was meant as a forum for informing parents,” district 35’s Ken Hoff said. “It’s not a long-term situation. They’ve hit the pause button to get behaviours under control.”

Specifically banned are imaginary Star Wars light-sabre duels, tag, holding hands — and simply touching someone.

The letter asked parents to tell their children to keep their hands to themselves and to come up with imaginary games that aren’t “fighting” games.

“I guess things were getting out of hand,” said Hoff, the school district’s communications manager.

“The letter to parents lets them know we’re addressing it.”

The temporary no-hands policy applies only to kindergarten students.

Hoff said he can’t recall a similar no-hands letter being sent out in the district before.

I don't think any other story can top this:

A Canadian school bans kindergarteners from touching each other:

Quote:

For kindergarten kids at Coghlan Fundamental Elementary School, tucked away in a remote rural area of Aldergrove, it’s no more tag, no holding hands, or you’ll get teacher’s dirty looks.

A letter went out to Coghlan kindergarten students’ parents on Friday, one of those types that often sit in backpack over a weekend or are put aside to be read later and somehow never are.

Julie Chen found the letter, explaining a new no-touch policy for kindergarten students, on Monday morning as she was packing lunch for her five-year-old daughter.

It reads, in part: “We have unfortunately had to ban all forms of hands-on play for the immediate future ... we will have a zero-tolerance policy.”

Penalties for making physical contact with a schoolmate include being grounded during play time and/or a trip to the office “for those who are unable to follow the rules.”

“I read the letter, it said there had been quite a few injuries, I said, ‘OK,’ and kept reading,” Chen said. “When I saw no hands-on would be allowed, I just got mad, I got so upset.

“What is happening in our society when our kids aren’t even allowed to be kids any more?

“Kids get hurt all the time. What are we going to do next, put them in a bubble to go to school?”

Chen said she talked to other moms on Monday and most hadn’t read the letter.

Based on what Chen told them, she said, they were appalled.

“I’m not going to tell my daughter she can’t push her friends on the swing,” Chen said.

“Do we expect our kids to be robots? How can they possibly do this?

“They’re five-year-olds — you can’t stop them from running around and having physical contact.”

At recess, the students were kept well back from 256th Street, but waved at photographers as they gathered in the school yard.

School employee Arthur Bourke drove up in his van and was happy to defend the policy.

“I don’t know how anyone would be against this,” Bourke said. “They’re trying to make it safe for everybody.

“They do a terrific job here of making sure everyone is safe.

“It’s something we have to do — if we don’t control it, it will get out of hand.”

The letter to parents cited “several injuries” in the past few weeks.

Neither the school or Langley district No. 35 were prepared for the media attention.

Coghlan Fundamental principal Barb Dayco referred questions to the school district.

“Obviously, student safety is important for us here and the letter was meant as a forum for informing parents,” district 35’s Ken Hoff said. “It’s not a long-term situation. They’ve hit the pause button to get behaviours under control.”

Specifically banned are imaginary Star Wars light-sabre duels, tag, holding hands — and simply touching someone.

The letter asked parents to tell their children to keep their hands to themselves and to come up with imaginary games that aren’t “fighting” games.

“I guess things were getting out of hand,” said Hoff, the school district’s communications manager.

“The letter to parents lets them know we’re addressing it.”

The temporary no-hands policy applies only to kindergarten students.

Hoff said he can’t recall a similar no-hands letter being sent out in the district before.

CANON CITY, Colo. -

A six year old boy is suspended from school in Canon City for kissing a classmate on the cheek

His mother says it's a crush and the two children like each other. But the school is calling it something else; sexual harassment.

First grader, Hunter Yelton, told us he loves science and phys-ed. Also...that he has a crush on a girl at school, who likes him back.

It may sound innocent enough...but at six years old Hunter now has 'sexual harassment' on his school record.

"It was during class yeah. We were doing reading group and I leaned over and kissed her on the hand. That's what happened," said Hunter Yelton.

Six year old Hunter was at home on Monday instead of at school.

"They sent me to the office, fair and square. I did something wrong and I feel sorry," he said.

"She was fine with it, they are ‘boyfriend and girlfriend’. The other children saw it and went to the music teacher. That was the day I had the meeting with the principal, where she first said 'sexual harassment'. This is taking it to an extreme that doesn't need to be met with a six year old. Now my son is asking questions… what is sex mommy? That should not ever be said, sex. Not in a sentence with a six year old," said Hunters’ mom, Jennifer Saunders.

Both hunter and his mom, Jennifer, admit he's had some trouble at school in the past. Hunter has been suspended for rough-housing, and for kissing the same girl on the cheek.

“We've been working with him with the classroom disruption. He was grounded for awhile. Big restrictions," said Saunders.

Report Bonnie Silkman asks Hunter, “Are you trying to be good at school? Hunter replies, “Yes…I have a lot of energy. I mean six year olds. They have a lot of energy."

The superintendent at School District RE-1, says any school record remains within the district. And Hunters’ actions fit the school policy description of 'sexual harassment'

"How can you do this? How can you say this about my child? Remove sexual harassment, remove it from his record. I'm going to stand up and fight for him because that's not the case, that's not what happened at all,” said Saunders.”

The school district also says Hunters' parents may believe that kissing the girl at school is overall acceptable- but that's where the school disagrees.

They're hoping the suspension changes hunter's behavior.

Hunter is supposed to return to school in Canon City on Tuesday.

“A knee-jerk reaction for minor offenses, suspending and expelling students, this is not the business we should be in,” Robert W. Runcie, a school superintendent in Broward County, Fla., who is reforming his school’s use of zero tolerance, told the Times. “We are not accepting that we need to have hundreds of students getting arrested and getting records that impact their lifelong chances to get a job, go into the military, get financial aid.”

“What you see is the beginning of a national trend here,” noted Michael Thompson, the director of the Council of State Governments Justice Center. “Everybody recognizes right now that if we want to really find ways to close the achievement gap, we are really going to need to look at the huge number of kids being removed from school campuses who are not receiving any classroom time.”

A mother is speaking out about one school's zero tolerance policy against asthma inhalers which she says claimed the life of her 12-year-old son.

Sandra Gibbons of Ontario says Ryan began feeling unwell while playing outside during recess at his school in Straffordville.

His friends had to carry him to the principal's office to obtain his inhaler due to the school's policy prohibiting students from carrying them around.

"So as he was going to the office to get his inhaler, he kind of was having a hard time and had to be carried into the office, and by the time he got there he had blacked out," Gibbons told the Canadian Press.

Ryan passed away on October 9, 2012.

"To this day I really don't know how exactly the whole day unfolded for him," Gibbons said.

As part of the school's policy, inhalers were regularly confiscated and placed under lock and key in the principal's office, Gibbons noted.

Gibbons would regularly receive a call from the school asking her to pick up Ryan's inhaler after he was "caught" carrying it around in his backpack.

"He wasn't even allowed to bring it home with him," she said.

Her son's death has spurred Gibbons to petition the local government for a system-wide asthma management plan as well as a change in policy to allow students to carry their own inhalers.

Some area schools do allow students to handle their own puffers, but the region lacks a unified policy.

Ontario's Minister of Education Liz Sandals said she supports "Ryan's law," but feels it may need to be expanded to include other medical conditions as well.

"Unfortunately, I stand here today trying to get this bill — Ryan's law — in place so that nobody else has to feel how I feel every day," said Gibbons, "and that's missing my son."