High schooler arrested, booted from graduation because an Airsoft was in his car parked on campus

[alp227]

Weston Healy, an Eagle Scout and 18-year-old senior at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, Calif., was arrested and suspended from school two weeks ago for bringing an Airsoft Rifle to school. Healy, who has a 4.17 GPA and is active in sports, his Mormon Church, and boy scouts, also was booted from the Gunn graduation ceremony. According to a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, "Healy had put the gun in the car to take to his mother's house to compare with an airsoft gun bought for his brother. The buddy asked to inspect the weapon and was holding it when they drove into the lot." Then: "A city employee saw the rifle and called police. Within minutes, the campus was locked down."

Scott Herhold, author of the column quoted earlier, opposes prosecution of Healy. He considers this incident the post-Columbine "zero-tolerance package".

This is the harm of zero tolerance policies. Good students who make minor slip-ups face unfitting consequences.

[Pavulon]

1. No that is the harm of stupidity. Airsoft are replicas close enough

to get you killed for pointing them. They have ZERO place on a school campus.

[daylan b]

12. Not exactly zero.

Me and a friend took one to school in the early 80s as part of Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket presentations.

It's hard to comprehend how much times have changed.

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. If the kid has a car, then why didn't he leave the gun in his trunk.

If he was stupid enough to actually pull the gun out of his car on campus, then I can't really feel a lot of sympathy for him.

[davidinalameda]

8. pretty much

If I saw a rifle on the front seat of someone's car, I think I'd call the police too especially if it was on a school campus

[petronius]

19. It sounds like it was spotted when the friend was moving it from the

cabin to the trunk when they parked on campus.

I don't fault the school for reacting the way they did, but as far as further punishment I'd really want to see any established rules or laws that might apply. When we're talking about fines, suspensions, prosecutions, or whatever, a mere "it was stupid and he should have known better" isn't enough...

[flvegan]

3. "...holding it when they drove into the lot." Hello, stupid!

I damn near got shot by campus police for my paintball gun 20 years ago.

[eShirl]

4. honestly, you'd think he would know better

growing up in the age of insane zero tolerance like he has

[depakid]

7. Being active in the Mormon church doubles the reason for knowing better

[Warren Stupidity]

5. gungeon

[donco6]

6. Replicas are a real problem.

Especially when kids paint the orange end black. That can get you shot.

[provis99]

9. the "Gunn" High school? How ironic.

[obxhead]

10. While I disagree with zero tolerance policies, this obviously

intelligent student did a very stupid thing. Failure to know a law or recklessly disobey it is not a free pass.

[dflprincess]

11. 17 or 18 year olds, even smart ones, don't always have a lot of common sense

The brain isn't fully developed until we're about 25 and the last part to finish maturing is the part that says "Now that would be a dumb thing to do." (Think about when your car insurance rates dropped).

Zero tolerance doesn't have to mean the adults show zero common sense.

[obxhead]

15. agreed.

Again, against zero tolerance and 3 strike laws completely. They needlessly destroy lives. Fact is this hard working kid will wear this crime for a long time to come.

Zero tolerance for an air pistol, destroyed life. Robbing millions of people blind, a slap on the wrist and a raise for the effort when out of jail. Not a fair system in any respect.

[PavePusher]

33. Considering how little get tought in schools these days...

you expect a high-schooler to be well-versed in firearms law?

Note that an AIRSOFT is NOT a FIREARM...

[PavePusher]

40. Like spelling... "taught"... sigh. self-face-palm. n/t

[TheWraith]

45. So people should be punished for every rule, no matter how obnoxiously stupid?

By that standard, schools are in the right when they strip-search 13 year old girls on the suspicion that they possess Tylenol. Don't laugh--it's happened. More than once. When you take human reasoning and thought out of the decision-making process the way these policies do, what you end up teaching kids is that they live on a police state.

[harkadog]

13. If this had been about some over-the-counter drug he brought to school

Most people would be all in support of the kid and condemning the school for zero tolerance. But since it is about a gun, and not even a real one, posters become intolerant, authoritarian and jumping to the support of the school idiots.

[proteus_lives]

16. Very true.

It's one of DU's sad sides.

[krabigirl]

27. Yep..completely agree with you.

[LeftyMom]

14. He's an adult and apparently pretty bright. He knows better than to bring a weapon to school.

As a senior he's probably brought home no fewer than four rule and policy packets to read and sign (and I'm betting a parent had to read and sign as well) so if he doesn't know what the rules are by now, and common sense didn't kick in either, tough shit.

[proteus_lives]

17. It's not a weapon, it's a replica.

Hard to believe DUers support zero tolerance idiocy.

[LeftyMom]

20. It shoots projectiles and is capable of penetrating the skin or eye. It serves no other function.

It's a weapon. Not a very capable weapon, but a weapon.

[proteus_lives]

21. Wow, really?

You've obviously never been to a costume party.

Airsoft guns are also popular in cosplay and LARPs.

It's a freaking BB gun.

Zero tolerance is not preferable to thinking.

[LeftyMom]

22. Every LARP I've ever heard of had strict rules regarding anything that resembled a weapon.

For that matter, so did every school I've ever attended. I fucking hate zero tolerance policies as much as anybody, because they preclude careful judgment of circumstances, but this is not a case of zero tolerance run amok. This is a student with a weapon on campus, which resulted in a police lockdown of the school- in a knee jerk zero tolerance situation he'd have been arrested, prosecuted and expelled. Merely losing out on his participation in the graduation ceremony is a comparatively minor punishment, and with this little school remaining, just about the mildest punishment of any consequence available to school administrators.

[Occulus]

25. So... you hate zero tolerance policies,

but not really. Thanks for the clarification on that one, Blanche.....

[rotund1]

37. Oh, you hate zero-tolerance except when they zero tolerate stuff you hate.

Nice.

[benEzra]

30. Not even a BB gun. It shoots plastic balls. (n/t)

[Obamanaut]

26. Nearly anything can be a weapon. I once saw an inmate stabbed

in the neck with a pencil.

The prison system did not banish pencils as a result of this.

Common sense must prevail in school systems and elsewhere. Having a 'zero tolerance' policy suggests a lack of tolerance - for anything - including common sense.

[benEzra]

32. Less of a weapon than a #2 pencil.

Are pencils still allowed in schools these days, or are students writing with Nerf chalk now?

It was a toy, and a toy that he wasn't trying to threaten anyone with. Does it merit some consequences? Sure. Does it merit expulsion and arrest? No.

[Callisto32]

43. Consequences like this maybe:

Principal: I'll be taking this, come pick it up at the end of the day, and don't bring it back.

THAT is how my high-school principal would have handled this.

Thank God I live in a rural area where people don't wet their pants at the first sight of something that could conceivably be used as a weapon.

Of course, we also had an implement shed for of farming tools on long poles for the FFA......

[PavePusher]

34. Don't be a totalitarian...

especially on a Progressive website.

[rotund1]

38. What about an icepick? Most people have one but nobody buys big blocks of ice any more...

does it have any 'purpose' other than being a really nasty weapon?

[Callisto32]

42. Sitting on my coffee table:

A pair of small sewing scissors: Not a very capable weapon, but a weapon.

A heavy, ceramic coffee cup with a large handle: Not a very capable weapon, but a weapon.

A power cord, mouse cord, ipod cord (read: garrote(s)): Not a very capable weapon, but a weapon.


Shall I go on?

All of these things are, in my experience with airsoft, a heck of a lot more dangerous than airsoft... Maybe the school is zero tolerance-ing the wrong stuff. Pencils and heavy texts are far more dangerous.

[TheWraith]

46. No, it is not.

Do you know what airsoft guns are? I've sat there and watched kids shoot each other with them from point blank range with the result being nothing more than annoyance. They are completely unable to penetrate a person's skin, and no one in their right mind who knows anything about them would ever describe them as a weapon.

[Travis Coates]

36. DUers support zero tolerance idiocy.

Only as they relate to guns

[YllwFvr]

48. I can't believe how many people are calling it a weapon.

Ive played it a few times, sure some of the powerful ones can sting if it hits bare skin but cmon. Does that make it a weapon? Common sense, yeah its rare these days.

[proteus_lives]

18. More zero tolerance bullshit.

[Webster Green]

24. Not really.

Generally, I would agree about the zero tolerance bullshit, but this case is a little different.

Displaying a weapon in the parking lot was really idiotic. This is not the same as some poor student getting kicked out for carrying a nail clipper.

What we have here is a student with a perfect GPA acting like a dumb-ass.

[one-eyed fat man]

28. Dumb-ass aplenty!

"What we have here is a student with a perfect GPA acting like a dumb-ass."

....and school administrators with doctorates, incapable of pouring piss out of a boot with the instructions engraved on the heel, compounding the problem with their dumb-ass application of a dumb-ass zero-tolerance policy designed primarily to forestall dumb-ass lawyers from suing over reasoned applications of judgment.

[PavePusher]

35. What part of "This is not a weapon"...

do you not understand?

[pnwmom]

23. How is the school supposed to enforce gun laws if this boy is given a free pass?

His rifle wasn't locked in the trunk. It was clearly visible to someone driving by -- and I'm sure scared a lot of school people.

People get in trouble for mistakes all the time. This is one of those times.

[GreenStormCloud]

29. It wasn't a real rifle. Airsofts guns are TOYS. N/T

[benEzra]

31. For putting a toy that shoots plastic balls in the trunk of his car?

Poor judgement, certainly, and a mistake. This is only a step above a Nerf gun, in that it shoots plastic pellets instead of foam darts, but it's still a toy, and he was not intending to use it in a threatening manner; quite the contrary. The concept of having the punishment fit the crime seems to be getting lost here, just as when the honor student was expelled for taking ibuprofen for PMS or whatever.

[Callisto32]

44. Irrational fear is far more dangerous than an airsoft gun....

[rrneck]

39. Apparently it didn't occur to anyone

in charge to simply watch him put the object in the trunk of his car and see if he walked away from it. If he had started toward the school with it in hand, then I could understand the heebie jeebies and a call to the cops. But if they saw him put the realistic looking toy in the trunk and leave it there, simply wait for him to walk to the building and ask him what the fuck he thinks he's doing bringing something that looks like a rifle to school. They could even post somebody at the car and call the cops before they question him.

A lot of missed opportunities for a little common sense here.

[Ready4Change]

41. My pranks in 1980 would have me jailed today.

I pulled some pranks in high school in 1980 which drew laughs from the schools Principal, VP, and most teachers. One teacher freaked, and the others told her to chill.

If a student did those very same things today they'd be in handcuffs, tried, and sent off to jail, and would bear a criminal record for the rest of their lives.

What paranoia they face each day. Damn shame.

[Hoopla Phil]

47. When I was in high school it was not uncommon to see REAL shotguns and rifles

in racks in students trucks. How things have changed.

PS: We didn't have shootings either. The occasional fight, but people didn't settle things with the guns.

[Tejas]

49. Next step: surprise search of

all staff desks for porn/drugs.

[SteveM]

50. This kid was stupid. Zero-tolerance more stupider...

I'm not sure what kind of punishment could be delivered to a graduating kid, but what was done seems spiteful (bureaucracies are quite capable of being spiteful).

Zero-tolerance in mechanics means the thing don't work.