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John Hollenhorst ReportingA West Jordan boy has been kicked out of school for a year because he had a toy gun in his backpack on a school bus. His father calls the punishment "overkill". School officials say look-alike toy guns are an increasingly serious problem.
If I pulled this out in a public place, some people, and maybe some cops, might get a little rattled. It looks fairly real, but it's a toy, the highly popular Air Soft Gun. They're starting to turn up in schools.
If you're a kid, chances are you already know about Air Soft guns. It's the hot thing lately, neighborhood combat with fake small-arms fire. They shoot small plastic balls. The pellets don't break the skin, but they do leave welts.
Kyle Esplin, Sandy: "Kind of felt like you were being pinched."
Police say Air Soft guns are increasing in popularity and realism.
Lt. Kyle Shepherd, West Jordan Police Dept.: "A lot of them, they're very hard to distinguish between whether they're real or not."
On a Jordan District school bus recently, Asher Hartt had an Air Soft gun in his backpack and gave a fellow student a peek.
Asher Hartt, Student, Oak Crest Elementary School: "And some other kids saw it and started yelling, ‘air-soft gun!'"
But a false rumor got to the front of the bus.
Asher Hartt: "We were in the very back and by the time it hit the front, someone thought it was a real gun."
The bus driver contacted dispatch. Police came with real guns, ready for the worst. Asher got expelled for a year. His father says the toy gun was transparent clear plastic and didn't even look real.
Rafher Hartt, Asher's Father: "Clearly it's overkill. This could be detrimental, in my opinion, to the lifetime of a child."
School officials say new federal and state laws leave them no choice, a one-year expulsion, even for a toy gun.
Dr. Susan Chilton, Jordan School District: "A fake gun can easily be misunderstood."
The worry is not the Soft Air pellets. It's the potential for a tragic mistake by bystanders or police who arrive thinking a toy gun is real.
Lt. Kyle Shepherd, West Jordan Police Dept."That's very fast decision making and so it becomes more and more dangerous."
Dr. Susan Chilton, Jordan School District: "It's important for parents to recognize it is serious. And it should not be considered something that's light. It would not be light if a child's life was lost."
The law does allow for an appeal and a possibly lighter punishment from the School Board. Asher's father thinks there are mitigating circumstances. He's proposed a 30 day suspension and 30 days community service. He wants to help get out the word that guns and schools don't mix, even toy guns.
