When my kid was in preschool, one of the parents approached me while we were waiting to pick up our kids. "Uh, I, um, just wanted to let you know your daughter told my child she was going to kill her." I think I made a choking sound. It's not exactly what you want to hear as a parent. However, my kid has yet to torture small animals or obsessively watch Columbine footage--she was just in the process of learning that words have power. And of course, preschoolers do not generally carry out such threats. And either do first graders, like the one who was suspended from a Little Butte school for drawing a stick figure shooting another stick figure and threatening to shoot other students.
Now, there's a few things that go into this case. First, the boy said the drawing was inspired by a Simpsons episode where a character displays a drawing of a kid getting shot. But he also told two girls he was going to shoot them in the head, which naturally disturbed them. The boy's dad sounds like a reasonable guy (he understands why other parents are upset) and he is fairly pissed at the school for the suspension, saying he felt the disciplinary action was too severe and that "I'm not sure how this is going to affect how my kid is perceived. They
may view him as a violent kid or a terrorist, or whatever."
You know, I don't think kids ought to be given the green light to threaten each other (unless it's my kid), but I do sense school shooting paranoia in this. The problem is that lots of kids are fascinated by violent things (as are adults) and I know many who have drawn scenes of carnage or said some dark stuff. The vast majority of kids are just being ordinary and then there's a tiny, tiny, tiny few who will act on those impulses. Let those among you who have not not said, "Bang bang, you're dead" cast the first stone.
