Fourth grader punished for 2-inch Lego gun

I understand that with so many incidents of school violence over the years, schools have to be more cautious than ever. But there might be such a thing as too cautious, like when a fourth-grader almost gets suspended for having a Lego policeman wielding a toy gun.

A 9-year-old New Dorp boy learned there is no wiggle room in the Department of Education’s “no toy gun” policy — even if the toy gun is just two inches long.

Patrick Timoney, a fourth-grader at PS 52, South Beach, was nearly suspended yesterday after playing with LEGOs during his lunch period because one of the action figures was carrying a toy machine gun.

He and his friends had planned a playdate with their respective toys, and were sitting around the cafeteria table when the principal walked in and saw the action figure carrying the fake gun.

While the action figure was a standard LEGO policeman figure, the brand of the gun could not be determined.

“She took him into her office in the middle of the lunch period and he was crying,” said the boy’s mother, Laura Timoney. “He was afraid.”

I’m not sure what’s more disconcerting…that this would happen in the first place or that one of the concerns that the principal walked away with was establishing what brand of gun the cheap little Lego cop had.

Fortunately, the principal checked in with the local Department of Education’s security administrator who suggested the toy be taken away for a day but that no further action was needed. It’s like the Lego cop is in a TV police drama. Bureaucracy and red-tape from the higher ups is keeping him from doing what he was born to do: Keep the cafeteria clean of the Lego robbers while occasionally getting sticky from his child owner’s hands on chocolate milk day.

[Staten Island Advance]

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