Just when you think you've heard it all, a story comes out in the press that makes you just shake your head in wonder.
As reported by FoxBaltimore.com, 7-year-old Josh Welch was suspended for two days after shaping a pastry he was eating into what his teacher thought looked like a gun.
According to Josh, he was trying to shape the pastry into a mountain and his teacher appeared to be upset when she saw the pastry.
Josh told FOX45, "It was already a rectangle and I just kept on biting it and biting it and tore off the top and it kinda looked like a gun but it wasn't."
Josh suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. According to Web MD, symptoms of ADHD include inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.
Josh's dad feels that the school overreacted and said, "I would almost call it insanity," when talking about his son's suspension.
This is another in a series of kids suspended from school because of fake guns. Zero tolerance is what the schools call it, but it seems like madness to many parents.
As reported by NYDailyNews.com, a 5-year-old girl in Pennsylvania was suspended January 10 after talking about her pink Hello Kitty bubble gun while waiting for the school bus.
The kindergarten student told a friend, "I'm going to shoot you and I will shoot myself and we'll all play together." The girl's comments were reported to the school, prompting a search of the girl's backpack, coat and the girl herself.
Although the girl didn't have the bubble gun with her, the school categorized her actions as "a terrorist threat." The family is fighting against the suspension and the inclusion of the incident on the girl's permanent school record.
In Maryland, two 6-year-old boys were suspended from two different schools after playing cops and robbers during recess. The boys used their fingers to make imaginary guns while playing.
The incidents, in Talbot County and Montgomery County, both took place in January, according to CBS News in Baltimore.
A brief published by the National Education Association in 2011 suggests that the nonpunitive alternatives to zero tolerance actually works better than suspending kids.
The brief, written by Christopher Boccanfuso, PhD. and Megan Kuhfeld, B.S., examined research and compiled information from individual schools using nonpunitive alternatives instead of a blanket zero tolerance approach.
Like many adults, my siblings and I grew up playing cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers and other gun games. We knew they were games and knew the guns weren't real.
Our kids all grew up playing with toy guns and water gun fights were a staple at many of our family gatherings over the years.
As adults, my siblings and I joined in the water gun battles with our kids, leading to hours of fun and many happy memories.
In their attempt to make kids fear guns instead of the criminals who use guns for violent purposes, schools get an F from me and many other adults.
The approach many schools are using of zero tolerance for bubble guns, fingers pointed as guns, and imaginary guns simply creates criminals from elementary students who are playing as children have played for generations.
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