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PALMER, Mass. — After review of surveillance video, a boy who brought a tiny toy gun on a school bus will not be disciplined.
On May 24, a 6-year-old boy brought a toy gun just larger than a quarter onto a school bus in Palmer, Mass. Another student, who saw the toy, yelled to the bus driver.
The school sent a letter home about the disturbance with the students along with a picture of the gun. The school initially told the boy's mother, Mieke Crane, that the boy would be required to write an apology to the driver and attend detention. Crane said the school was also weighing whether or not her son would face bus suspension.
"I could see if it was you know, an air soft gun or some sort of pistol or live bullets or something. This is just a toy," Crane told WGGB in Massachusetts.
Tuesday, Crane said the school had decided the boy would not be disciplined after they reviewed surveillance video. No children appeared to be in distress after the child yelled to the bus driver.
At 6-years-old, I don't really think he understood the zero tolerance policy and related it to this as the same.
–Mieke Crane, mother
"At 6-years-old, I don't really think he understood the zero tolerance policy and related it to this as the same," Crane said.
The boy had already written the apology to the bus driver, but will not face further discipline. The student who yelled about the gun was also required to apologize.
In 2006, a West Jordan boy was expelled from school after bringing an airsoft gun onto a school bus.
Last year, a boy with Down syndrome slipped out of his home after midnight with a toy gun, and officers who only saw a dark figure with a gun reacted according to their training. In 2007, four teens were arrested in West Valley after they staged a drive-by shooting with a toy gun.
Though the Massachusetts' boy's gun was not true-to-life, officers say real-looking toy guns can cause alarm, especially as criminals will paint orange tips on their real weapons to disguise them as toys.
Top image: Old Mill Pond Elementary School
