Imagine having your child suspended for two years because he took a toy gun to school. Sounds absurd, right? Well, it’s real life in Broward County, Florida.
Samuel Burgos has fond memories of his friends at school, but he only gets to see them in pictures now.
The 8-year-old boy hasn’t been in school for a year and will likely miss another year if the Broward County School Board has its way.
Burgos was suspended from school in November after a teacher found a toy gun in his backpack. But when the boy went to register to go back to Pembroke Pines Charter School, he was told he will be expelled for this school year, too, as part of the county’s zero tolerance weapons policy.
…School board officials said the rules are quite clear and that the toy gun constituted a weapon. A school board report on the incident mentions that Samuel showed the toy gun to another student and it was capable of firing projectiles.
That’s all it takes for it to be considered a weapon.
“This is in his backpack and it’s a toy. It’s not a real gun. It’s a toy,” said Magdiel Burgos, twirling a plastic gun.
The school board said they would admit Samuel into a correctional school for problem children who have been expelled located in Hallandale Beach.
…”I can’t sit here and allow them to send my kid to a school where students have committed actual crimes,” Burgos said. “He hasn’t committed a crime.”
