Boy, 6, suspended over finger gun

Jan. 3, 2013

SILVER SPRING, Md., Jan. 2 (UPI) -- A Maryland 6-year-old was suspended from school for forming the shape of a gun with his hands and saying "pow," a lawyer for his family said.

Robin Ficker said a boy, a student at Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Silver Spring, was given a one-day suspension from school with a conference planned for when students returned from winter break for the pretend shooting a week after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., The (Springfield, Va.) Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.

"What they're doing is looking at the worst possible interpretation of a young, naive 6-year-old," Ficker said. "This is a little child who can't form the intent to do anything like that."

Assistant Principal Renee Garraway sent a letter to the boy's parents saying the child had been warned.

"Your son ... was involved in a serious incident," Garraway wrote. "(He) threatened to shoot a student. He was spoken to earlier today about a similar incident."

Ficker said the school has not told the parents what the "similar incident" entailed.

"It just shows the overreaction," the lawyer said.

He said the school should have discussed the issue with the parents before handing down the suspension.

"They could have called the mother in. They didn't do that. They just said, 'You're suspended,'" he said. "Five years from now, when someone in to Montgomery County looks at his permanent record, they're going to see that he threatened to shoot another student."