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Josh Welch, Second-Grader, Suspended For Making Pastry 'Gun' In Class

The Huffington Post     First Posted: 03/04/13 EST Updated: 03/04/13 EST

A Maryland second-grader has been suspended after officials claim he chewed his breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun and said "bang, bang."

According to Fox Baltimore station WBFF, Josh Welch was suspended for two days following the "gun" pastry incident that went down last week at Baltimore's Park Elementary School. The 7-year-old, who struggles with academics because of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) but excels in art, claims a different version of the story: He told WBFF he shaped his strawberry Pop Tart into a mountain.

Visit WBFF to read the full story.

Welch's father doesn't think the punishment was warranted. "I would almost call it insanity," he told the WBFF. "I mean with all the potential issues that could be dealt with at school, real threats, bullies, whatever the real issue is, it's a pastry."

The boy and his father appeared on CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien" on Monday morning to discuss the gun pastry suspension. Josh, who has one more day left of the punishment, insists he meant no harm.

"Well I do draw tanks in school, and I do draw a lot of stuff, and I do like guns, but I don't make guns out of food and stuff," the 7-year-old said on CNN. "When I'm trying to create stuff, like drawing, I do not try to draw inappropriate stuff."

Schools across the nation have made recent headlines for cracking down on the seemingly smallest discrepancies involving fake guns.

In January, Philadelphia fifth-grader Melody Valentin was searched and reprimanded by school officials after she was seen throwing out a piece of paper that allegedly resembled a gun.

A 5-year-old kindergarten student was suspended from Mount Carmel Area Elementary School in Mount Carmel, Penn., after she reportedly threatened to shoot a fellow classmate and herself with her Hello Kitty bubble gun.

 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fred Stender
03:35 AM on 03/07/2013
Insanity by teachers and school leaders, can we even call them leaders?

Effen take 2 weeks of their wages for this stupidity.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fred Stender
03:33 AM on 03/07/2013
Educators, may we simply call them propagandaists?

Pandering for their $60k pensions that are more than most people make?
02:44 AM on 03/07/2013
Well, we are going so far overboard on this garbage it is unreal. A simple little second grader who sees far worse on television every single day! But, TV has not been proven to influence kids, same with video games. Who said that? And who pushed it? This country is so freaking afraid of itself and soon I suppose we will have grade school kids in jail on felony charges for a little bit of imagination that any sensible person could see as harmless!
10:46 AM on 03/06/2013
Educators, What a Joke, like Barack Obama!
03:01 PM on 03/06/2013
Educators are a joke? Who taught you to read and write so that you could make stupid comments on the internet? Oh, BTW, not everything can be spun to attack President Obama!
04:09 PM on 03/06/2013
Majority of kids are taught how to read and write by their parents unless of course your a slow learner such as yourself.
04:08 PM on 03/06/2013
I agree apparently this particular educator is assuming the responsibility of what the school administration is supposed to be doing. Why even have administrators if the individual teachers are interpreting school policy to fit their own ridiculous agendas. They are starting to sound startling similar to the way TSA officials at the airport interpret "threats" such as little girls in wheelchairs.

www.nashvillecustomleathers.com
10:34 PM on 03/05/2013
Maybe he should have made an aborted baby