School officials have reduced the 10-day suspension for the Calvert County, Maryland kindergartener who brought a plastic, orange-tipped cowboy-style cap gun on the school bus last Wednesday because he “really, really” wanted his friend to see it.
The harsh punishment has now been reduced to three days.
School officials at Dowell Elementary School in the town of Lusby questioned the five-year-old for over two hours. The principal — Jennifer L. Young, according to Dowell Elementary’s website — eventually called the boy’s mother at 10:50 a.m. By that time, he had wet his pants. (RELATED: Kindergartener interrogated over cap gun until he pees his pants, then suspended 10 days)
Robin Ficker, the attorney representing the boy’s family, appealed the suspension on the family’s behalf on Thursday. At a disciplinary conference on Friday, he managed to convince school officials to reduce the suspension.
Ficker told The Daily Caller that the boy will return to school on Monday after spending the bulk of Wednesday and all of Thursday and Friday kicked out of school. However, the suspension remains on the boy’s permanent academic record because of school district red tape, at least for the time being.
“We’re partially satisfied with the outcome,” Ficker told TheDC.
Apparently, the principal can deliver suspensions but only the superintendent can expunge suspensions from permanent academic records.
According to Ficker, the five-year-old attended Friday’s two-hour meeting and acquitted himself calmly and reasonably.
“The best advocate for the boy was the boy,” Ficker said. “He showed through what he said that he had no malicious intent. He just wanted to show a cap gun to his friend.”
The 10-day suspension was officially for possessing a look-alike gun.
According to the Washington Post, the principal had told the kindergartener’s mother on Wednesday that things would have been even worse had the toy gun been loaded with caps. In that case, the school would have regarded the plaything as an explosive and called the police.
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