11-year-old suspended for waiting too long to report classmate had bullet

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/09/17/bullet-suspension-virginia-beach/

free link: https://archive.ph/DjiR1

An 11-year-old boy was punished this month for reporting a classmate for having a bullet at school because, according to administrators, he waited too long to do so.

School officials at St. John the Apostle Catholic School in Virginia Beach suspended a sixth grader for 1½ days for waiting about two hours to report a bullet his friend had shown him, according to Tim Anderson, a lawyer representing the boy and his mother Rachel Wigand.

News of the boy’s punishment led last week to threats of violence against St. John’s, a two-day closure of the Catholic School and the arrest of a man in North Carolina accused of making the threats, all while administrators tried to reassure parents who might find the whirlwind “deeply unsettling.”

School officials defended the punishment, saying they held the boy accountable for the kind of delay that could have catastrophic consequences if not relayed to adults, citing the recent school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., that killed four and injured nine. Anderson contended that punishing the boy for “doing the right thing” makes the school less safe by disincentivizing students from coming forward.

[Silent Type]

1. I get the school's concern, but it probably would have encouraged more kids to speak up if they made the boy

a hero, rather than suspending him.

[Solly Mack]

2. That's one hell of a heavy burden to place on a 11-year-old. Can't get the adults to do the right thing about gun

Last edited Wed Sep 18, 2024, 11:06 AM - Edit history (1)

violence, but let's punish a child for thinking like a child and still doing the right thing.

[Happy Hoosier]

3. OFFS....

Great... now kids won't say ANYTHING if delay at all for fear of having waited too long. Do people actually consier the consequences? This pisses me off. That kid should be praised, not punished.

[sarisataka]

4. We do love punishing people for doing the right thing almost

as much as we enjoy punishing those who do wrong. And of course, the "proper" response to show one's opposition to violence is to make threats of violence.

This country is not irony deficient.

[TommyT139]

5. Let me get this right...

A Roman Catholic institution is punishing a child for knowing about something wrong, and waiting too long to inform the authorities?

Really???