7-year-old playing an imaginary game at school gets suspended for real

ATS, this makes me wonder if this is a form of subduing freedom of expression? I know he's a 7 year old kid, on school property, but, it does make one wonder if it is going to result in a failure to express ones self for fear of being disciplined. And we wonder why it's so hard to find inventive and innovative people in the past few generations. When you teach the young that thinking differently is BAD and punish them, don't expect to be the leader in innovation some 20 years later either.

Sheeshh.....

I remember the days of playing army on the playground, never had a problem, never got in trouble.
Things have changed for the worse in the 30+ years since leaving elementary school

A blurb from his mother in the article that says a LOT:

His mom says the little boy doesn’t understand why pretending to be a soldier was wrong. “I think that when a child is trying to save the world, I don’t think he should be punished for it.” At least one other parent FOX31 Denver talked to agrees with her. “That’s just a boy growing up,” says Elliott Orozco. “That’s what I did and I didn’t become a bad guy.” Nevertheless, Alex will be playing at home rather than in the school yard because his mom says he’ll stay home until this can be worked out.

When I was young, 1st grade young, I drew multiple pictures of guys with guns shooting other guys with guns. My teacher, who had seen a number of my drawings, brought up this fact to my mother during a parent teacher conference day.

Having expressed her concerns, my mother simply replied: "He plays nintendo games".

That's the end of my story. Please notice the lack of my having been suspended or sent to the principal's office or grounded or disciplined in any way.

That's pretty strange.

Remember the old saying "boys will be boys"?
Well, that's not allowed anymore.

Imagine the confusion these boys feel when war heroes are celebrated.
And then they grow up and they're expected to join the military.
But they never got to play as boys do....

Originally posted by danj3ris
When I was young, 1st grade young, I drew multiple pictures of guys with guns shooting other guys with guns. My teacher, who had seen a number of my drawings, brought up this fact to my mother during a parent teacher conference day.

Having expressed her concerns, my mother simply replied: "He plays nintendo games".

That's the end of my story. Please notice the lack of my having been suspended or sent to the principal's office or grounded or disciplined in any way.

As many kids did my age, I too did the same, but with battle scenes involving jets and tanks. My teacher did the same, but also noted the artistic value in these sketches, and actually took me aside to divert these artistic talents to a different outlet. She challenged me to sketch things I saw around me, trees, birds, pets, etc... This was part of my start down an artistic path in my life, which resulted in choosing to minor in photography (which is just drawing with light on an invisible canvas) in University to balance out my science major. This has actually made me more able to appreciate the artistic aspects of science and natural processes.

Had I been incarcerated (considering I grew up in the worst part of my town, and would have easily feel into the same fate as many of my friends of that time (jail or dead)......who knows what would have happened.

Tell me again how the terrorist aren`t winning?
The war on terrorism is over and they won.When we are so scared that we do things like what was done in this story then it`s time to concede defeat in the war on terror.

Little boys have a right to play at being the hero. Wether self styled, or based in film or current affairs, aspirational play, imagination, and using it to express ones self, is HEALTHY, unless it causes serious harm to others, and in this case, there is no evidence of an unhealthy obsession with explosives, just a healthy ability to imagine and roleplay.

Originally posted by snowspirit
Remember the old saying "boys will be boys"?
Well, that's not allowed anymore.

Imagine the confusion these boys feel when war heroes are celebrated.
And then they grow up and they're expected to join the military.
But they never got to play as boys do....

Well, that would obviously lead to more soldiers doing what they are told, and not thinking for themselves, that the order may be illegal, or worse...

As of right now, the live poll on this topic at the source has overwhelmingly renewed my belief in sanity:

Poll Question: "Should a 7-year-old be suspended from school for activities in an imaginary 'save the world' game? "

Results:
No 93.55% (2,539 votes)

There may be instances when suspension is appropriate 4.31% (117 votes)

Yes 2.14% (58 votes)

I guess teachers don't think we need future soldiers anymore. Aren't we going to have a military in sixteen years? The government needs to address the carried away policies like this at school. I agree that violence has to be addressed but this doesn't portray violence by itself. If the kid has displayed other traits than ok, kick him out.

this makes me sick...it makes me ashamed so many candy butted americans rule over us....there scared of there own shadow's...
What's the bible say the meek shall inherit the earth....Well we are there folks

reply to post by rickymouse

I guess teachers don't think we need future soldiers anymore. Aren't we going to have a military in sixteen years?

This could be the reason for their "zero tolerance" policies...

But would it be to reinstate the draft? Or, to change gears to a privatized military?

We used to play "Guns" all the time as kids. At Schools we'd just use our fingers as guns.
At home we'd use toy guns (like super soakers, etc). What's the big deal?
Before video games, my friends and I would pretend to be playing the modern equivalent to Counter Strike.
Hiding around buildings, sneaking around trying to get the jump on whoever was the bad guy.
It was awesome!

Times have changed...no doubt about that.

Zero tolerance means zero thinking.

This particular incident is a crime far greater than people are willing to admit.

Follow up on the poll and comments on the story can be found here:
Latest Poll Results and Comments

One of the most disturbing comments on this at that link is from a 15 year old kid......i.e. OUR FUTURE.

devin - 1 hour ago
I'm. 15 and when I was in elementary school I had a huge imagination and didn't get introuble for playin imaginary cops and robbers and now to hear that this has happened I'm worried that mylittle brother will get suspended for his big imagination.

Imagination is now going to be illegal in our country. Time to lock up the kids playing army on the playground and cops and robbers in the field.

What are our schools turning in to? Can't think it, can't play it, can't draw it, can't build it our of legos or clay

Perhaps the schools should issue a list of appropriate imaginary games and techniques....

random unannounced drills involving swat teams, firing blanks, at schools - ok.
kid playing with 'imaginary weapon' (?) at school - not ok.


stupidity reaches new lows every day.

My God this is utterly retarded. This sort of extremism is what turned me off from the left field of ideology. I am not more "right" minded now, but I am anti progressive and anti Lib. They are retarded. Completely insane. They also are the driving force of this crap which is a tool for everything we argue against on ATS.

I couldn't be a kid in this world. I would have the FBI called in for the adventures I went on in imagination land growing up. You can all thank me for killing every bad Guy in the universe and saving the world many times over when I played my favorite game..."one man army".