Pointing Pencil “Like a Gun” School Suspension – I’ve Done Worse

I don’t generally post these kinds of articles here, but I wanted to share an interesting contrast with this particular case. A kid in NJ was suspended for pointing a pencil “like a gun”

Ethan Chaplin, a seventh-grader at Glen Meadow Middle School in Vernon, was sent home for two days after he allegedly pointed his pencil like a gun in math class, according to News 12 New Jersey.

When I was in 7th grade, we were doing a unit on medieval times and as a project we had to build something relating to the lesson. Most kids chose to build a small castle out of sugar cubes or something. A classmate and I had another idea: We each decided to build scale models of medieval crossbows. When it came time to present the project, we both brought our crossbows to school, presented about them (which included launching pencils across the classroom with enough force to have them shatter when they hit the wall) and then we took them home after school, and that was that.

We didn’t get in trouble, nobody even batted an eye. The fact is that these crossbows were weapons, and we didn’t get in trouble. Matter of fact, I think we both got A’s on the project.