Election Day Woes...

Wyatt got suspended for bringing a gun to school today...

What?  You thought I was talking about politics with that blog title?

Oh no, my little troubles are way more important than a national election.  Now lets get back to talking about me.

I am not sure where to start telling this story?  Should I start with the phone call from the principal and the horrified-heart-pounding drive over to school to collect my criminal son?  Should I start with the facts of how he ended up going to school with a gun in his back pack in the first place?

I just don't know.

I guess I start from the very beginning.

When two people love each other very much they decide to get married.  After being married for a little while they some times discover differences in opinion regarding second amendment rights and how to teach children about those rights.  Then they actually have children and those differences come up in discussion and gift choices--all the time.

A while ago Will bought Wyatt a toy gun.  It isn't a B-B gun, or an air-soft gun but it does look kind of real and shoots little plastic pellets.

I was not thrilled.

I worried about him shooting his eye out.  I worried about him playing with the toy in the sight of other adults and those other adults calling the police because a kid was playing with a gun.  I worried about our smaller children swallowing a fist full of plastic pellets thinking they were sprinkles.

I worried about a lot of stuff.

Last weekend we had all the cousins over to play.  Wyatt and Evan decided to go out into the hills near our house.  There is a cool rope swing and plenty of dirt out there (an 8 year old boys dream).  They wanted to take the toy gun.

I worried.

Will had a talk with them making sure they understood the rules:

No pointing the gun at each other.  If other kids are playing out in the hills you cannot bring the gun out.  No shooting people.  Then I made them carry the gun in a back pack so on one would see the gun...  (This whole ordeal may have been my fault...)

They went to the hills.  They safely played with the toy gun.  They came home.

Good.

Fast forward three days...I am sitting at home and I get a call from school.  It is the Principal and she starts by saying "This is the craziest thing I've ever encountered being a Principal."

Great.

Then she tells me Wyatt brought a toy gun to school and could I please come in to discuss the problem.

Sure.

I get Colter changed into his cutest baby clothes and make Adell put an adorable dress-up dress on over her clothes.  (See Principal we are a cute, innocent family...please don't expel my son.)  We are already "that family" we have five kids and 90 percent of the time we all look like we crawled out of a ditch some where.

On the drive over to school I am remembering every extreme school punishment I've ever read or heard about.  Children being expelled for bringing pocket knives to school, children being suspended for bringing a tiny Lego toy gun to school, and on and on.  I am stressing out about how to protect Wyatt's reputation and not cry all over the Principal's office as soon as I walk through the door.

Inside the Principal's office I get the whole story.  Wyatt discovered the gun in his back pack at lunch time.  He knew well enough to keep the gun in his back pack and NOT take it out.  He did start telling his friends: "Hey guys, I accidentally brought my gun to school..."  and then it became a game of Telephone.  Other kids heard there was a gun at school.  Finally, a different boy was accused of bringing a gun to school.  When Wyatt heard this he went to his teacher and told her about the gun.  She sent both boys to the Principal.

So, Wyatt did almost every thing right.  It wasn't his fault the gun was in his back pack.  I made him put it there and no one remembered to take it out when he and his cousin got back from the hills.  He didn't bring the toy to school to threaten or harass any one.  He should have kept the news of his mistake to himself or told his teacher right away.

Oh well.

Because other kids had heard some one brought a gun to school there had to be punishment.  So, Wyatt is suspended from school for one day.  I don't think this is a terrible punishment.  He gets to stay home with me and the little kids.  I wont let him watch TV or play video games but still...he gets to skip school.  If he does not have another weapons related incident this year the suspension will be cleared from his record.

Awesome.

I will say, I really appreciate our school's Principal.  I think she easily could have taken this to the extreme.  She could have insisted on expelling Wyatt.  The district has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to weapons.  Needless to say, I am very thankful for her understanding.  I hope she is still Principal when Colter brings a toy weapon to school...

Will emailed me this picture, one of his co-workers made it after hearing the story.

At least they think it is funny...