Washington, United States
A mother in the United States denounced the regulation of her 6-year-old daughter’s school with Down’s Syndrome after the school called the police because the girl made the gesture of shooting her teacher with her hands.
“It was absurd to involve the police in an incident related to a kindergarten student who pointed her finger without malice,” he lamented. Maggie Gaines in a statement confirmed Wednesday to the AFP agency.
“I shoot you”
Little Margot, who attends primary school Valley forgeIn the suburbs of Philadelphia, he was in a bad mood when his teacher asked him to change the classroom.
The girl imitated with her hand a imaginary gun and told his teacher: “I shoot you”.
The principal of the school then applied the policy of the local school district, which instructs to systematically notify the police in case of a “threat“.
The result is that Margot was recorded in the police archives, although the recorded information was not publicly available, unlike criminal records.
School shootings
Maggie Gaines fears, however, that this incident report may harm her daughter in the future.
Although it recognizes and shares the trauma caused in the United States by recent shootings In schools, the mother believes that society and schools tend to “overreact” when assessing threats.
“The principal spoke with my daughter and quickly determined that she did not understand (her gesture) or the meaning of what she was saying and that she would not hurt her teacher or her classmates,” Gaines said.
The events in question date back to November, but the controversy broke out this week thanks to a report from the chain CBS in Philadelphia.
The school authorities of the Tredyffrin / Easttown district indicated that the current rules were the result of collaboration between parents, law enforcement authorities, safety organizations, mental health professionals and lawyers. However, they confirmed to CBS, they will review their security protocols.
Contacted by AFP, the school district did not offer its point of view immediately. In a Facebook post, Gaines insisted that his claim was not directed at school personnel.
“The real problem is an inappropriate regulation that unnecessarily triggers a chain reaction until reaching the police from the slightest concern with a child,” he wrote.
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