School Calls Cops on 12-Year-Old Boy Who Held Toy Gun During Zoom Class
Isaiah Elliott also received a five-day suspension, but plans to transfer.
![Screen Shot 2020-09-07 at 2.21.07 PM | Screenshot via KDVR](https://d2eehagpk5cl65.cloudfront.net/img/c800x450-w800-q80/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-2.21.07-PM-800x450.png)
Isaiah Elliott, a 12-year-old boy who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is fond of his neon green Nerf gun—which has the words "ZOMBIE HUNTER" written on it.
Last week, during a virtual classroom session, Elliott briefly picked up his toy gun, causing it to appear on screen for just a few seconds. This was noticed by his teacher, who promptly alerted the authorities. As a result, the police paid a visit to Elliott's home and the school suspended him for five days.
The teacher was fairly certain the gun was a toy, according to local news station KDVR. But instead of checking with the parents to assuage any doubts, the school went straight to the cops.
In a statement, the district explained that all school board policies would be enforced regardless of whether "we are in-person learning or distance learning."
"We take the safety of all our students and staff very seriously," said the district. "Safety is always our number one priority."
This explanation—we are just enforcing the policy equally—might make make more sense if the policy itself was logical, but deploying the police to deal with a nerf gun would have been ridiculous even if the incident took place in a physical classroom. The fact that the other students were, in this case, even further removed from the nonexistent danger just makes the situation even more ridiculous.
"For them to go as extreme as suspending him for five days, sending the police out, having the police threaten to press charges against him because they want to compare the virtual environment to the actual in-school environment is insane," said Dani Elliott, the boy's mother.
Another kid, an 11-year-old whose airsoft gun briefly appeared on screen during a Zoom class, was similarly suspended. There are many reasons to oppose virtual learning as the new default for American public K-12 education: Perhaps most importantly, it neglects school's vital role as a form of daycare. But the opportunity for the state to invite itself into the home and make trouble for hard-working parents and innocent children is also a serious concern.
There's one more wrinkle here: Unbeknownst to parents, Elliott's school had been recording the Zoom session. The school did say it would abandon this practice, though it makes little difference to Elliott's parents: They wisely decided to transfer him to a private or charter school.
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In a statement, the district explained that all school board policies would be enforced regardless of whether “we are in-person learning or distance learning.”
Also, no peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. We have students with allergies.
Damn it; don’t go giving them ideas!
MAY have students with peanut allergies.
true
Well, if they did not when they were born, their hyper-paranoid parents gave them one.
We’re reinstating Michelle’s lunch program. Expect a visit from our Healthy Eating Diversity Officers.
Another day, another government school system in the hands of brain-dead apparatchiki.
-jcr
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“We take the safety of all our students and staff very seriously,” said the district. “Safety is always our number one priority.”
I call bullshit.
Everybody knows sending the cops to a residence containing a black male is a death sentence.
Telling the cops the subject is armed doesn’t help.
Uh, it was a residence containing a black male who was known to be armed.
Yup. This was a Tamir Rice waiting to happen.
Fuck this teacher with a crooked stick.
Yep.
But I bet she blacked out her Facebook profile and votes democrat, so she’s absolved of all her racism.
Well, as a resident of Colorado, this story validates my decision to homeschool.
Is this story really a resident of Colorado? I mean, I can see how it originated in Colorado, but in what sense does itreside there.
Isn’t SWAT’ing illegal in CO?
Government employees are exempt.
Civil remedies?
Nice toy Isaiah! When I was your age my older brother had a BB gun and later a .22 He was a better shot than I. Neither one of us ever shot at anybody. Later we had a Model 94 Winchester 30 – 30. I served about 3 years in the Army and for a time was a training cadre with several types of firearms.
Kids, cover your cameras. If your teachers object, tell them to get a fucking warrant.
-jcr
Agree. Or use a desktop without one. I’m typing this comment on a 2012 desktop. Sorry, teacher. I’m too poor to afford a camera!
And the parents should be recording these zoom lessons, so we can see the kind of crap they’re teaching.
No shit. My daughter’s assignment in English the other day was to write a four word essay about herself. That’s not a typo. Four.
Just thought I’d add, that same day – I’m not shitting you – PE had her do one jumping jack.
You can’t make this shit up.
The teachers calling the cops on children being children are likely women, but I can see effete cucks who quiver in fear at the sight of anything that remotely resembles a gun getting triggered.
End government schools.
Almost definitely a woman. And I bet she votes democrat and blacked out her profile for BLM.
Typical of the white left
We have virtual school, led by someone claiming to do virtual teaching–and virtual surveillance–responding to a virtual student holding a virtual gun. (Note: you can substitute the word “Nerf” for each instance of “virtual” in the above statement and it is still true.)
So the Nerf administration called the actual(?) cops and also gave the kid a Nerf suspension. How exactly is that enforced? Does he have to stay away from home for 5 days?
Hilarious!
Actually hadn’t thought about that….what does a suspension mean right now? Other than something to put in his file and use against him in the future.
Isn’t that what school is all about these days. Putting B.S. in a kids “permanent file” just to prove you are the one with “authoritay!” I’m beginning to think that most school officials were either bullies in school and still are or were heavily bullied in school and need to prove their power over today’s small children.
He’s not allowed to log in to the class session. Less work for the teacher. I think we begin to see the real impetus behind this asshattery.
This will become part of his permanent file, a file that will follow him for the rest of his life!
#Rock ‘n’ roll high school
In a statement, the district explained that all school board policies would be enforced regardless of whether “we are in-person learning or distance learning.”
“We don’t trust our employees to have even the slightest bit of judgment so we’re enforcing our insane policy equally. Who’s to say he didn’t have an actual green weapon that could shoot death rays into cyberspace? We’re trusting the cops to be able to correctly whether 12 year olds are using alien technology.”
If I’m the boys father? I go beat the shit out of the teacher. This is getting out of hand.
America. Get your shit together.
Start by firing that son of a bitch criminal Fauci.
The teacher’s name is “his teacher.”
That’s it?
Where can I send this boy a nerf gun? My boys loved nerf guns! This is ridiculous! When my son was 9 he was talking about one of his father’s xbox games (can’t remember the name of the game) and he mentioned the word RPG to his friend within earshot of a teacher. He was outside after school ended and waiting for me to pick him up in the pickup area. They wanted to suspend him but ended up making him spend 2 weeks detention in the principal’s office during all recess’s. Needless to say, I homeschooled him for most of the “detention”.
Nice idea!
I would have sued.
Teachers have qi too
Mistaking role playing game for rocket propelled grenade?
WTF? You can’t even mention weapons in school?
Did he get suspended for talking about role-playing games or rocket-propelled grenades? I find it completely plausible that a public school would be stupid enough to suspend a kid for mentioning either.
So another reason to end QI for all government employees, if the teacher and principle thought they might get sued they would be less likely to report BS like this.
I hope the boy’s mother remembers to wear a mask when she visits the snitch and bitch-slaps her. She should also be sure to wash her hands throughly after doing so, no telling where that idiot’s face had been.
-jcr
They wisely decided to transfer him to a private or charter school.
If only those tax dollars transferred with him.
Single payer education now!
Want to bet that the teacher is a Democrat?
Once again, the police receive an idiotic call and respond anyway.
If the school/teacher didn’t notify 911/the police that the “gun” was a Nerf gun, the teacher/caller should be held criminally liable. If the caller did notify them, well, the police can’t pass up a chance to screw with someone. Either way, another bad job by the police.
Well, I posted too soon…there is more to the story.
From Fox31 in Colorado:
“According to the sheriff’s report, that boy did point the toy gun at the computer screen and pulled the trigger, but it’s unclear if the boy knew he was being recorded or could be seen by his teacher.”
Also unclear is the right to bear Nerf. A twenty-eighth amendment may be needed. We can call it the “Pulling out the heads of public sector union employees Amendment.”
Also,
The Elliotts said their son was traumatized by deputies telling the 12-year-old his behavior could’ve led to criminal charges and might in the future if he were to do something similar again.
“He was in tears when the cops came. He was just in tears. He was scared. We all were scared. I literally was scared for his life,” said Curtis Elliot, fearful that deputies might overreact to having the school principal tell them a young Black boy was potentially armed with a gun.
Yep, “play with Nerf again and you could go to jail, punk,” said Harry Callahan/Clint Eastwood wannabes, who added “if you’re lucky.”
Unfortunately, the Fox31 story didn’t mention if the deputies feared for their lives.
“According to the sheriff’s report, that boy did point the toy gun at the computer screen and pulled the trigger…”
Wow. My heart goes out to this poor teacher, that must have been very alarming.
Dude 2 is…interesting.
Staring down the barrel of a gun.
* staring down the barrel of a nerf gun.
** staring down the barrel of a nerf gun held by an elementary school student.
*** staring down the barrel of a nerf gun held by an elementary school student who is in his own home.
**** staring down the barrel of a nerf gun held by an elementary school student who is in his own home far away from school.
***** staring down the barrel of a nerf gun held by an elementary school student who is in his own home far away from school and connecting by remote video.
Yeah she had to be in fear for her life. The child must be made to pay for her psychological torment.
I am 100% in opposition of everything that happened here, but can we also require honest reporting (by Reason AND the boy’s mother) rather than sensational twists to try and make an already egregious overreach by the school seem more ridiculous than it already is? I’ve seen the word Nerf used over and over. A BB gun is not a Nerf gun, and everyone with eyes and a brain knows that. The intellectual dishonesty never ceases.
SKDC is correct. The “gun” is a “1911-style spring airsoft gun,” not a Nerf gun. It is designed to shoot plastic pellets called BBs, but not metal BBs. Nerf guns are not dangerous. Airsoft BBs are dangers to the eyes, but are mostly still toys.
Isaiah Elliott’s mother did call it a Nerf gun, but I wouldn’t ascribe that to intellectual dishonesty. Isaiah has a number of Nerf guns and most likely knows the difference between his Nerfs and Airsofts. To his mother they probably just look the same. The media, including Reason, believed Isaiah’s mother, etc.
According to the KDVR report, police told him that “his behavior could’ve led to criminal charges and might in the future if he were to do something similar again.” So let’s not forget this is ALSO a problem unless there is something we are completely missing. Sure Karen teachers calling cops on kids is an issue, but police need to be held to account when they let such calls result in ridiculous threats like that.
The teacher, administrators, and police are all being absurd here.
I need to be careful: he looks black, but we’re talking about guns here.
Is this a case of “he shouldn’t have been there carrying that!” like a black guy killed by cops, or like a white guy protecting the streets with an assault rifle?
I’m going to play it safe and say the school’s being racist.
Hey duck, there were black guys patrolling the streets in ktown during the riots too. There were pictures on the Kenosha guard page. One guy named rock (Rok?) was questioned by the cops and allowed to continue patrolling, though he bitched about being profiled on Facebook.
I was on my porch with my ar for a minute when the rumor mill said they were heading my way (unironically, I didn’t want to get shot by the cops so I stayed on my property).
“Safety is always our number one priority.”
Not *education*, eh? Very well, then abolish the school and be absolutely safe.
My son is the second child mentioned in this story. We will not change schools and bow to their bullshit. We don’t care about the suspension, they weren’t teaching anything this week anyhow. We do care that it’s on his permanent record. This is largely the responsibility of this vice principal Adam Seaman. He needs to know that this is BS. Please help send him that message. Here’s his work email: adam.seaman@jeffco.k12.co.us
Please let him know what you think of his decision.
That’s unfortunate about the permanent record.
I reckon Adam may have come across the comments here. If not, someone should send him the link.
Good luck and give the bastards hell.
Thanks Justin,
Their Front Office Main Line phone number is: (719) 391-3470
From their website:
https://grandmountain.wsd3.org/information/contact-us
Justin,
Do you know the name of Isaiah’s teacher “who promptly alerted the authorities”?
Thanks!
I would encourage everyone to contact the school and ask to speak to them about this.
Their Front Office Main Line phone number is: (719) 391-3470
You can find their school website by doing a duckduckgo search for “grand mountain school widefield”.
“We take the safety of all our students and staff very seriously,” said the district. “Safety is always our number one priority.”
Hey, that remote-schooled kid could have snapped and fired soft nerf darts at no other students! Did you ever think of that?
That sure was a cunning stunt they pulled.
Remember….
Words are violence. And actual violence can be used to answer words. But that violence is not violence. No, that vilence is free speech.
Similarly, sending the police with real guns makes kids who are on a video chat safe from toy guns that are physically miles away and could never hurt them in any way. Because the word gun is the same in toy gun, imaginary gun and machine gun. And a virtual classroom that is in your own bedroom is the same as a school building classtoom because they both have the word classroom in them.
I dont really blame the teachers. I mean, look what happens. If you send police to a home because you saw a toy gun on video, the administration backs you… all the way out to the elected school board. The same goes for a teacher who sends a kid who brought GI Joe for show and tell, with his little molded plastic M-16. When the principle expels the kid because we have a zero tolerance policy here… everyone pretends that this is rational and backs him up.
Nobody runs the school board out of town on a rail.
So once again, Pogo was right.
And so was Orwell.
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Man, we can’t open these public schools fast enough!
Come on folks, force your school administrators to reopen these left-leaning, communist indoctrination camps now!
How do we force them?
We are now at the mercy of collective hysteria and have been for six months now.
“ How do we force them?”
Tell them that you’d prefer to have your child in public school, but have no choice but to enroll your child in a school that teaches The Bill of Rights and supports individual freedom and liberty.
Homeschool your kids, take them out of the domain of fools & tyrants.
Also, teach them early that guns aren’t toys.
Actual guns aren’t toys.
His Nerf gun, the only “gun” anyone is accused of having in this story, is literally a toy.
But it made the teacher “feel” threatened…and therefore, at that moment, it became a dangerous weapon capable of actual harm.
And the school administration, instead of having a sit-down with the teacher and reason this situation out, decided to back the teacher and let this silly fire continue to burn.
We can assume similar situations have happened thousands of times since on-line teaching began six months ago, the vast majority of which were dealt with in a reasonable manner, and therefore we didn’t hear about them.
Homeschool?
We’ve been trying for months to get them to open public schools!
Beyond Insanity on the part of the teacher and the school! ????
“In a statement, the district explained that all school board policies would be enforced regardless of whether “we are in-person learning or distance learning.””
Your “policies” don’t abrogate my natural rights. Send the policy enforcers to my home and I will sue the living hell out of you for Deprivation of Rights under Color of Law.
Yet another reason people have little respect for educators these days. They are idiots on a power trip with an innate ability to eliminate all common sense from their thought processes. This is why I sent my daughter to a Catholic school – and I’m an atheist.
So it seems that the obvious does in fact need to be stated.
Dear boys and girls, (yes, I am doing that on purpose)
When you are involved in any kind of virtual meeting with any level of government authority, but particularly teachers, only use a cell phone held at a low angle so nothing but the ceiling is visible in the background. If at all possible, include a ceiling light fixture that will put your facial expressions into deep shadow. Speak as little as possible, and either record the session (if the laws in your area allow one party recording) or keep specific time-marked notes. Immediately give a verbal summary of the interaction to your parent(s).
The new paradigm to evaluate and make a judgement on whether something is objectively aggressive, offensive, or otherwise harmful to an individual has been reduced to one thing: how does it make someone “feel”.
If one simply “feels” threatened, or abused, or a victim of aggression, that is now all the proof needed to show that such an offense was put forth…and judges, juries, and evidence be damned!
This is the twisted concept of “microaggressions”, a toxic cancer of a concept that is being allowed to take hold, and is now given space to exercise (think “safe spaces” on campuses).
The Adults in the room must stand up and speak out against such “Thought Police”.
The kid could have the same problem in a private virtual school. The teacher, administration and apparently the police don’t know how to think, they just jump to apply a rule whether it fits or not. This is the attitude of most authoritarian groups, Rules are Rules!
True, but the people in charge of the private virtual school know that if they tolerate this kind of nonsense, parents will take their money to a school that isn’t run by crazy people.
More news:
“When Golda Barton dialed 911 on Friday, she hoped emergency responders could help hospitalize her 13-year-old son, who has Asperger syndrome and was having a mental crisis.
Instead, a Salt Lake City police officer repeatedly shot Linden Cameron after he ran away, leaving the boy in serious condition with injuries to his intestines, bladder, shoulder and ankles…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/08/linden-cameron-utah-autistic-shooting/
I took a look at the article. It was just a white boy. Nothing here to see. No need to riot.
“They wisely decided to transfer him to a private or charter school.”
Best possible ending to this story; but if only the school system loses the money that was allocated for him will they even consider changing their aberrant behavior.
Otherwise it’s zero tolerance and zero judgement. .
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What does this have to do with safety? Can you shoot people through Zoom now?
I’m curious what the rule actually says too. Is it really worded in such a way that it could be applied to students at home? I would have thought it was about having guns or pretend guns at the actual school.
Finally, why the hell don’t the police say “so what?” when they get calls like this. Oh, no, a kid has something he is allowed to have in a place where he is allowed to have it.
These teachers and the guidance they are getting is no different than the TSA or the local governments stopping retail from opening their restaurants. These people are morons and its because of liability. The hidden liability that they think is present.
Because the teacher doesn’t swat the kid by saying he was playing with a toy at home.
Then the police would just hang up and go write parking tickets.
The teacher says he pointed it at the screen, pulled the trigger and said “I’m coming to get you”
“Police shoot 13-year-old boy with autism several times after mother calls for help”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/08/linden-cameron-police-shooting-boy-autism-utah
ridiculous!
It seems like the one thing Americans love more than their guns is calling the cops on a kid.
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“policies would be enforced regardless of whether “we are in-person learning or distance learning.”
It would seem WE are finally “learning” how insane the wierdoes who control the “educatioin system” really are. First, a neon coloured plastic nerf gun is NO THREAT TO ANYONE except the administrators and orther Grand Poohbahs who erroneously think they OWN the children, their homes, and all their time.
the kid is at HOME. He has the Constitutional RIGHT to be secure in his person, house, papers, effects. Kicking him out of school harms his person, as does tarnishing his good name by this expulsion order, which likely will be on his record for the rest of his days. (I can imagine the furore thirty or more years on, when he gets “cancelled” as his nomination for SUpreme Court Justice moves ahead, and someone from “the opposition” finds this expulsion for “bringing a gun to school” when he was twelve……. no way will they accurately detail that it was a twenty dollar brightly coloured harmless toy plastic foam dart gun with a range of perhaps fifteen feet, and downrange
impact energy of perhaps 3 grammes per meter…….
These wanna be Nannies have about as much brains as one of those lightweight foam darts that have a max muzzle velocity of three metres per second.
No thins is communistic control of the masses, and is working perfecty according to the plan launched back aruond 1911 or so by the commies as an effecive means to take over the United States. And the unions are at the root of it these days.
Now, if the kid was holding a molotov cocktail and explained that he was planning on throwing it at a federal building, I’m sure the teachers would have let him be.
MAY have students with peanut allergies.
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The parents should sue the school for harassment. If you call the police on someone when they have NOT committed a crime, that falls well-within the definition of harassment.
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Better set those computers in one place with a backdrop. They’ve made it very clear they’re searching your home through those virtual classrooms.
I have several children taking classes at my job. They pick those laptops up and carry them around. If kids are doing that in your home, you can bet the same people are looking for an excuse to send the cops to your house
This just happened to me just now. My son was waving a toy gun, painted black, and the idiot teacher decided to call the cops on us. What a bunch of morons. I live in Edgewater NJ. I respect our LE but this was over the top. What are the teachers thinking about?
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All of this “online education” crap is precisely that — CRAP. The damn fanatical and unstable teachers in these cases of calling the cops when they see a kid in his home has a toy gun is despicable and very dangerous. The teachers should be removed from their position and sent to mental health therapy … the school should be sued for invasion of private property and harming the welfare of children!
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