School Shut Down, Student Arrested After Toy Gun Seen in Backpack

In Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Chester Upland

Will this student get an invitation from the White House?

The Delaware County Daily Times reports:

A toy gun brought to school by a Chester High School student sent the school into lockdown Tuesday morning, according to police and school district sources.

The incident occurred at about 10:30 a.m. when school officials received a report that someone had brought a gun to school, Chester Upland spokesperson Becky Taylor said. A student reported seeing a classmate take what appeared to be a gun from their waistband and put it in their backpack. Police and school security officers put the building into lockdown and did a room by room search of the school.

The school district says the issue is a "police matter" now.

Firearms training in high school would go a long way in fighting hoplophobia and preparing students to exercise their Second Amendment rights responsibly, but at the very least a "national conversation" on how far zero tolerance has been taken in schools is long overdue, and shouldn't have to wait until a student of a certain race is mistreated. The Department of Justice, after all, has already warned about the "disparate impact" of zero tolerance policies.

Given the tendency of the most restrictive gun control laws to be imposed in majority-minority neighborhoods (think stop & frisk in NYC or Chicago's war on guns), it shouldn't be surprising the fear of people exercising their right to bear arms would be most acute when it comes to minorities.

While many minorities support gun control laws today, even as some of them oppose the mechanisms by which their local governments choose to impose those laws, the push for more gun control laws in the 1960s came in part from the fear of armed African-Americans.

But the race of this, or any student treated like a criminal because of the zealous application of zero tolerance policies (which, not so coincidentally, also permit school administrators to avoid making judgment calls of their own about safety), shouldn't matter in order to realize that treating students as criminals because of the culture of fear adults have bought into is antithetical to any serious understanding of what education means.

Comments

[Pan Zagloba]

White House invite inbound?

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

"Cool toy, [kid]. Want to play cops and robbers on the White House lawn?"

That's what a COOL president would tweet!

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

(and, obviously, the pres would be the robber)

[lap83]

racist

[Hyperion]

It's just an outright race to see who can shit their pants the quickest over the least of concerns. Welcome to the USSA.

[JW]

In America, Zero doesn't tolerate you!

[Marshal]

I hope this story lasts longer than the last zero tolerance outrage.

[Rich]

Police and school security officers put the building into lockdown and did a room by room search of the school.

I suppose this is the modern version of "Nobody is leaving this room until someone owns up."

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

According to your headline, the school was shut down after a toy gun was found. Is that correct?

[GILMORE?]

EVERYONE THINKS THEIR AN EDITOR

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

He changed it.

That point was that it sounded like the school found a toy gun and locked the school down because of it.

That's a little different than locking down the school for what is later determined to be a toy gun.

[GILMORE?]

(sigh, makes 'over your head?' gesture)

He still thinks the school is in DE, however

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

No, I got it. YOU didn't get it.

[GILMORE?]

YOUR A TOWAL

[Rich]

The the [sic] lockdown was ended at about 11:30 a.m. and classes resumed as usual.

Sure they did.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Being a pussy has become a national pastime.

[Hyperion]

The quicker you can claim to be a victim and then shit your pants over the slightest of slights, the higher your status in society. Nothing can possibly go wrong.

[LarryA]

Firearms training in high school would go a long way in fighting hoplophobia and preparing students to exercise their Second Amendment rights responsibly...

It wouldn't even be technically difficult to set up a range in a school, using air rifles, and copy the 4-H program.

Politically, of course... [heads exploding]

[american socialist]

What kind of hick hillbilly loser brings a toy gun to a school? I agree with libertarians that there should be fewer laws and fewer people in prison. I also think that cultural and social mores should go further in discouraging anti-social behavior. In that vein,I hope this kids' parents get shanked at the next PTA meeting.

[Millard Fillmore]

*shoots AmSoc in the head with a paintball gun while the teacher isn't looking*

[GILMORE?]

"What kind of hick hillbilly loser brings a toy gun to a school? "

Uh, one who lives in a 90% black, white collar suburb?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

This past week-end a few of the neighbors including myself were doing stuff around the house. A couple of kids, at one point, passed by each with those rifle toys that shoot pellets. NOT ONE PERSON FLINCHED.

What you absurdly, arrogantly and insultingly attribute to being a hillbilly loser, I chalk up to kids being kids.

AND IT'S PERFECTLY FUCKING NORMAL.

It's the adults who are retardedly hyper.

[Sapient Mulch]

So true. I remember in junior high, there were three or four of us who brought our pellet and BB guns to school and kept them in our lockers so we could go to the ponds and shoot cans after school. No one said a word. And since most of us had gotten out first BB gun when we were around six, we already had a real good idea what happened to you if you shot at anything other than cans, rocks and apples.

[Seamus]

You'd shoot your eye out, right?

[John C. Randolph]

I routinely took toy guns to school when I was a kid, and I heartily invite you to go fuck yourself, you commie rat bastard.

-jcr

[Hyperbolical (wadair)]

Socialism/communism/fascism has killed many more people through starvation alone, than citizens with guns could even think about doing. Your avowed world-view and its policies do far more damage than "hick hillbilly loser[s]" could do with their gun collections.

Your assumed dichotomy is false. Socialists (and nanny progressives) are not smarter than "hick hillbilly loser[s]". Gun owners typically know the damage that their guns can do, while socialists focus only on their stated intent and conveniently ignore the resulting damage from their policies. I'd say that those you call losers are much smarter in general than you and your compatriots.

[Mad Scientist]

Police and school security officers put the building into lockdown and did a room by room search of the school.

A security officer discovered what appeared to be a gun in a backpack, and a student was taken into police custody, she said. The gun was not real.

So it was an excuse to rifle through every kids' backpacks.

[Sapient Mulch]

Principal: "Why the SWAT team?! That seems excessive."

Cop: "We have to be ready for anything. We had a report one of your little incorrigibles brought a DOG to school!"

[Suthenboy]

Toy gun. I dont know what means.

Was it something that could reasonably be mistaken for a firearm?

[C. S. P. Schofield]

I have to say, I agree with this. It's one matter if we're dealing with a reasonably accurate replica. Taking that to school would be seriously stupid, amd the kid who did it would deserve some punishment. Not anything serious, mind, but something to get through to him hptat he'd been a dumbass. If we're talking about a neon plastic squirt-gun, then somebody needs to have their meds adjusted. And not the kid.

[GILMORE?]

"In Delaware.""

Uh, Delaware *County*.... Pennsylvania

Someone really does need an editor

[GILMORE?]

DOH

[Millard Fillmore]

You know that scene in Die Hard 2 where McClane goes off on the police chief with that machine gun loaded with blanks? If I was president, I would make that school have an all school assembly and reenact that shit with the principal.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

OVER TO YOU OBAMA....

[american socialist]

You can google "bringing a toy gun to school" and realize that bringing your Nerf AK-47 is a stupid idea. What I'm arguing for is common sense and respect for others-- something which this kid and, I suspect, her parents don't have.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Oh please.

It has NOTHING TO DO WITH COMMON SENSE.

Stop using the term like those SJW putzes.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Common sense is what I described up above when people didn't run for the hills when they saw a couple of kids with two 'scary' looking toys.

[GILMORE?]

"common sense and respect for others'

Things you've never once demonstrated?

I did think it was cute that you called the mostly-black suburban high school "hick hillbillies" though

[american socialist]

"Respect for others"

Hmmm... I think for the most part I've tended to respond without personal attacks or insults. That's not how I am treated here, I assure you.

"The mostly black suburban high school hick hillbillies"

I didn't care so much about the story-- just the astonishment by right-wingers about how school officials would respond to the sight of a gun in a backpack at a school. I mean, the hurrah... He'll probably get detention.

[GILMORE?]

Oh, *that's* what you meant when you respectfully referred to the student as a "Hick Hilbilly"?

Because that's just so *white* of you.

[John C. Randolph]

That's not how I am treated here, I assure you.

Boo fucking hoo. You get the same treatment that any advocate of tyranny deserves, tovarisch.

-jcr

[d3x / dt3]

You are so completely correct. Thank you for your "hick hillbilly" argument - completely on-point! We hicks here just insult you because we are embarrassed that we couldn't come up with sharp ideas like yours.

*spits*

[John C. Randolph]

What I'm arguing for is common sense and respect for others

Fuck you.

-jcr

[kbolino]

One could just as well say that it's "common sense" not to shit your pants every time you see a gun. And I'm failing to see where any lack of respect was shown. Never mind that respect is not something everyone is due; you, for example, have not done a single thing that is worthy of respect. What you and everyone else is owed is toleration, and that you have received in abundance.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Is it fair to ask if Obama is a SJW?

[John C. Randolph]

That's kind of like asking whether Kanye is a Kanye fan.

-jcr

[Heroic Mulatto]

Ok, but why is a high school student playing with toy guns?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Adult males play with all sorts of toys!

[GILMORE?]

grades 7-12

(shrug)

who knows.

That said = someone needs to be a better architectural photographer

Its like the school was saying, "Now dont make my ass look fat again"... Maybe that's where they pick up the garbage.

[GILMORE?]

Obama, after a year+ of steady bombing, $500 million spent on training "syrian moderates", additional billions pumped into Iraq to stimulate their own military, deploying thousands of US military 'Advisors' to Iraq, and arm-twisting of Turkey to join in attacks on ISIS....

...declares "ISIS can only be defeated "with ideas"

Oh, NOW you tell us.

Presumably he feels the Russian Ideas aren't the right ones.

The New York Times seems to emphasize an undertone of "skepticism and contempt" towards Obama in the UN. His speeches aren't directed at actual leaders so much as US media... and the fact that no one actually believes his spin is echoed in the Times reporting

I liked this = "Even Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. acknowledged in a candid moment when he arrived in New York that little would come of Tuesday's meeting. He asked a group of reporters who were following him if they would stay awake at the United Nations meeting '

[Suthenboy]

"ISIS can only be defeated "with ideas" "

This is true. I have a real good idea about how to do that, assuming it were in our best interest to do so. But, I just don't think that is the case.

[d3x / dt3]

1. $500 million for fewer than 10 fighters. That has to be some kind of record.

2. All foreign policy is domestic.

3. Anything to restart the Cold War, apparently. Nostalgia for those halcyon days of threatened nuclear Armageddon.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

OT but related. When I went to the Orioles game we had to empty our pockets. The security man noticed my Swiss Army pocket knife and told me I couldn't enter with it. Either he confiscated it or whatever.

Obviously, I opted to bring it back to my truck. 25 minutes in total round trip on a scorcher day. I felt weird leaving it behind.

Wrigley and Fenway? No problem. Canada? Forget about it. Depends on the venue or show or event I guess.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"...We've all spent the last 14 years in an atmosphere of ever-shrinking (like the aforementioned Balzac's shagreen skin) freedoms, while elements of un-freedom that resemble the mores from George Orwell's book "1984" have invaded our lives more and more. It's not yet fascism, but a peculiar form of totalitarianism ? born out of fear, of course. But are we better off for it?"

"...I draw a connection between the epidemic of European governments' and U.S. leaders' affection for same-sex relations and same-sex marriage, as well as their touchy-feely humanitarian gestures like insisting on rights for the disabled, the adoption of sickly foreign children and so on ? you name it ? and the toughening, specifically, of political life in the West and increase in the number of police states.

"...Ukraine seemed to have broken its statehood itself, but did the Americans, Poles, Dutch, Germans, Finns, French and Baltic people not urge it to do so by addressing Ukrainians on the Maidan? So let's add Ukraine to the list of countries whose statehood has been destroyed. The Europeans and the Yankees systematically turned the Maidan against Russia. It's interesting that even though Russia isn't a communist or soviet country now, they still hate us. So I hope it's become clear to you that anti-communism and anti-sovietism were mere camouflage for Russophobia."

I love reading Russians talk of totalitarianism and democracy. It's Orwellian.

cont'd...

[Pan Zagloba]

I love reading Russians talk of totalitarianism and democracy. It's Orwellian.

Spectacular, isn't it? Oh, Poles and Ukrainians and Balts and Finns all LOVE US SO MUCH except those evil Westerners! EVIL! Why you make us murder them by turning them against us when we love each other so?!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeh.

On the other hand, this is interesting about Russia's foreign policy in Syria being irrational:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/.....35783.html

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"...There will either be a different religion, black eyes and dark skin ? may the Lord save us from accusations of racism (it's me writing, after all) ? and the citizens of Germany will start to look like citizens of the Middle East, or there will be fascist and racist states hidden behind barbed wire, walls and machine guns. There is no third option."

"...We watched the process of the Soviet Union's self-destruction. Now the European countries are self-destructing. Each in its own time."

Moscow Times via Watching America.

http://watchingamerica.com/WA/.....-underway/

[Suthenboy]

I don't remember who said it but someone around here predicted that in 50 years Norway will either be a Muslim country or there will be a statue of Anders Breivik in every town.

I am guessing the latter.

[GILMORE?]

Norway, if i recall, is still ~80% Native, 12% "Euro-Foreign" (poles, swedes, Lithuanians, Danes, other Europeans), and ~8% "other", which isn't even particularly concentrated with Muslim-brownish folk.... the Middle Eastern muslim pop being like ~2%

yes, the furriners are the only ones having population growth.

but by the @#$*@$ time that 2% multiplies to .... i dunno, 12%? they're going to have fucked a lot of hot Norwegian women/men (i sure would), and lived in Norway for so long that they're not going to be feeling especially whatever-they-were-when-their-forebears-migrated.

Otherwise-intelligent people seem to me to have a major blind spot for things like "generational change"

...in exactly the same way that Progs seem to have brain-collapse when it comes to things like "systemic adaptation to climate change" ....or how poor people aren't nearly as "poor" as they were 50 years ago despite the 'growing inequality' screeching...

...basically, Norway will still be Norway in 50 years. but you can be damn sure in 50 years, there will be some exact-same asshole saying, "IN 50 MORE YEARS THIS COUNTRY IS GOING TO BE SOMALIA"

[kbolino]

The problem though with "generational change" is that it can go many different ways. If you take a hard-working immigrant population with aspirational attitudes and mix it with a self-serving native population with entitled attitudes, the result can be a violent subculture full of resentment. They don't identify with their parents, up to and including viewing them as traitors to their own culture, and they don't identify with the natives, up to and including viewing them as cultural oppressors. They are civilized affectations (literate, educated, technologically proficient) but barbaric attitudes.

[GILMORE?]

"The problem though with "generational change" is that it can go many different ways."

'many ways' within a spectrum of basic demographic reality

Yes, it can go 'good' or 'bad' in subtle ways you might want to over-emphasise...

...but as i said = there is simply no way the 2-4% muslim population in Norway is going to go to more than 10-12% in 50 years, and retain some kind of passionate Muslim-Middle-Eastern-ness that makes them somehow "worse" than they are now (which is effectively meaningless)

You could point to the UK and say "but look how disaffected the moozies are there!"

yes, and they're still a tiny minority with small impact on the wider country at all.

compare that to Norway... and Norway aint even getting to UK levels for another *2 generations*.. and that's assuming them fucking like rabbits only with one another, and Norway also importing in more moozies by the bushel.

For the muslim-doomsday to pan out, it needs to both be the "worst case scenario" in terms of integration and assimilation, the "worst case scenario" in terms of immigration, and everyone 2-3 generations down the pipe needs to be MORE religious than the people who left their home countries.

The basic math does not support the argument. It treats the most Long-shot, worst-case scenario as an "Inevitability"

I'm not saying Europe isn't guaranteed to have some cultural problems in absorbing lots of muslims. Just that norway is probably the last one to worry about

[Pan Zagloba]

UK had 50 years of Muslim immigration, and so far result is London bombings, Roterham child rape ring, Rochdale child rape ring, Darby child rape ring, Oxford child rape ring, few more child rape rings, something like four time more Britons in ISIS than in British Armed Forces... And that is all worse than 30 years ago. Predicting that as recently as 15 years ago would have had you declared a horrible racist. Generational change in UK meant more radicalized, more religious, more savage Muslim population than the first generation coming in.
Same thing happened in France with Arabs, and in Germany with Turks. Assimilation isn't happening, possibly because Europeans suck at it. Norway and Sweden are going in the same direction. My money is on resurgence of nationalism all over the continent and horrible shittiness to minorities. For which somehow Americans will be at fault, in the end.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Assimilation isn't happening, possibly because Europeans suck at it.

Possibly? Even though they had almost 2000 years in which to do so, they couldn't even successfully assimilate Jews!

[Pan Zagloba]

Well it's you people. They try banishing you, they try killing you, they try banishing you again...No pleasing you!

(preceding sarcasm brought to you by 2500 years of human history filtered through Slavic sense of tragedy through humor)

And it's not even lack of assimilation that's the primary issue. In UK, Indians and Sikhs are far more successful than Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, they cause far fewer problems, yet are perfectly capable of maintaining their cultural identity. Also, if fucking food is what you want, they deliver.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well, now I want biryani.

[Pan Zagloba]

Screw you, now you reminded me and I want one too, but it's too late.

[GILMORE?]

"UK had 50 years of Muslim immigration, and so far result is London bombings, [insert list of "rape rings"]

OMG i had no idea.

if you strip the scare-headers off what you're describing, you're saying that despite 50 years of importing moozies, *all they've managed* is one minor terror act, and a couple of tabloid rape crimes?

And rather than be completely panicking about it, the brits make movies like "Four Lions" laughing at domestic muslim 'extremists'?

Color me underwhelmed.

Even france has the Banleiu riots. You can do far better. I think its probably more "noteworthy" that the US has a muslim population of larger numbers (though more assimilated and more dispersed)... and they've managed almost *nothing* despite the US being at "war" with 'radical islam' for almost 15 years.

[Pan Zagloba]

7/7 isn't minor terror act. Glasgow airport and decapitation of Lee Rigby are minor acts. Nor is 1400 under-16s raped in one city alone 'couple tabloid rape crimes'. I don't have the stomach to try adding up the total of the rapes from other crime rings, but no, it's a problem, and it's a problem with a specific group. If, say, Poles racked up that kind of record, I'd be asking the same question.
Now US, yup, has much better success. As does Canada, for that matter. The terror attacks in both places did happen in last 15 years, but I buy 'self-radicalized' theory on those. I think it helps to have more stingy welfare policy, more stingy family reunification policy and stricter immigration criteria.
UK had a really stupid immigration policy for a long time, but that still doesn't explain why Pakistanis now are worse than Pakistanis in first gen. Nor why their record of both integration (as I said, forget assimilation) and prospering is so much worse than that of Hindus. If it's just "racism," one would think it'd hit both groups equally. Not like racist focus on religion over actual race. And hell, Muslims in Raj were more reliable and pro-British than Hindus.

[GILMORE?]

" it's a problem, and it's a problem with a specific groups"

Yes, and if you saw the original comments re: norway, I noted the UK has had more problems relative to peers.

I think you misunderstand the basic point i was making in the context of "doom predictions for Norway"...

...which is that if the worst-assumption mindset re: islamic immigration were actually true, the level of crime / disaffection you see in the current state of affairs in places like the UK is unbelievably *minor*

i.e. they DID import all the awful people that so terrify.... and have had them for decades, generations... and with all that? they're still so many anecdotes. Not exactly civilizational collapse.

that doesn't diminish these individual crimes, but still notes that they needed to be listed on one hand. They are outliers, if notable outliers.

the idea that places like Norway will end up "worse", with lower base-rates of immigration, far lower total populations of immigrants, etc. is ridiculous.

[Pan Zagloba]

Eh, I was thinking the same ten years ago. Now? I figure, if you have a country lots of people want to get to (and Norway does), pick groups that behave better. If, in UK, Poles had rape rings and high welfare, and Bangladeshis did all the jobs locals won't, I'd say, full steam ahead on getting more Bangladeshis.

Now, this fresh new batch of newcomers will behave like they have in other places (group in few locations, demand everything, give nothing), which will make the country worse than it was, and people are gonna go far-right in response. Will it be an overreaction? Probably. Will it happen regardless? Yes.
Lesson to learn - use interest instead of guilt when picking who you let into the country and you'll be better off.

[Troy muy grande boner]

The security man noticed my Swiss Army pocket knife and told me I couldn't enter with it. Either he confiscated it or whatever.

America, you are the biggest coward on the planet. Please shoot yourself. Oh, I see you are working on that.

[Yahu Wahu]

Given the tendency of the most restrictive gun control laws to be imposed in majority-minority neighborhoods (think stop & frisk in NYC or Chicago's war on guns)

Maybe the majority-minority should vote the assholes responsible for "imposing" those laws out of office. Since they are the majority it shouldn't be too hard.

[kbolino]

We have this thing called the "Bill of Rights" which is supposed to trump even the will of a majority of this country's population, never mind a plurality of a minority of quite possibly fradulent ballots allegedly cast by a small fraction of said population.

[kbolino]

a plurality of a minority of quite possibly fradulent ballots allegedly cast by a minority of a small fraction of said population

[Akira]

Semi-OT: Just a reminder that psychopaths murdering tons of people in public is not strictly a US thing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daegu_subway_fire

[Pan Zagloba]

Jesus, and (far as I know, my brain is probably all decrepit and shit) first time I heard of it. Does it count as mass murdering if it snowballed past expectations?
I mean, Tokyo nerve gas, sure. Guy setting fire to see what happens, without doing anything particular to ensure maximum numbers, though...

[twoskinsoneman]

"Firearms training in high school would go a long way in fighting hoplophobia"
Are you purposely being dense? There is a full court press targeting gun culture in schools and you're talking like it's an accident that could be avoided if they realized it was happening.

[d3x / dt3]

I think he was pointing out that the current pants-wetting around guns isn't working at all.

[9/30/15 New Woodchipper]

Being a long time reader and first time poster, just thinking out loud here. You're at a high school, you see a student pull a gun from their waistband and put it in their backpack, what do you do?