Boy Accused Of Assault With Rubber Band

[Doglips]

Boy Accused Of Assault With Rubber Band
13-Year-Old Suspended 10 Days

POSTED: 5:39 pm EST February 22, 2005
UPDATED: 6:51 pm EST February 22, 2005

A 13-year-old student in Orange County, Fla., was suspended for 10 days and could be banned from school over an alleged assault with a rubber band, according to a Local 6 News report.


Robert Gomez, a seventh-grader at Liberty Middle School, said he picked up a rubber band at school and slipped it on his wrist.

Gomez said when his science teacher demanded the rubber band, the student said he tossed it on her desk.

After the incident, Gomez received a 10-day suspension for threatening his teacher with what administrators say was a weapon, Local 6 News reported.

"They said if he would have aimed it a little more and he would have gotten it closer to her face he would have hit her in the eye," mother Jenette Rojas said.

Rojas said she was shocked to learn that her son was being punished for a Level 4 offense -- the highest Level at the school. Other violations that also receive level 4 punishment include arson, assault and battery, bomb threats and explosives, according to the Code of Student Conduct.

The district said a Level 4 offense includes the use of any object or instrument used to make a threat or inflict harm, including a rubber band.

Rojas plans to fight the ruling but her son still faces expulsion.

"It's ridiculous, it's a rubber band," Rojas said.

The school's principal could not comment because the case is still under investigation.

A district spokesman said there is still a series of meetings the district will have before Gomez is officially expelled.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.


Copyright 2005 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and Local6.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Big Dog]

Doncha just love "Zero Tolerance"?

[Dallas]

How many of us on this board would have probably been suspended for offensive rubber band use back in the day, if they used todays standards? I wonder if this was the teachers idea to file a complaint or the principal or some administrator? Any way you cut it the teacher had to have raised a fuss to get the ball rolling. I wonder what the "real" story is?

[gunssb]

wow! while in elementary I was an expert at sling-shooting pieces of chalk at people (making you stand outside class was the standard punishment)...

whatever happened to detention ? or spending few hours under the stern gaze of the principal while being lectured on how to be a good boy

[BattleRifleG3]

I had a rubber band shot point blank into my eye about ten years ago at church camp. Hurt terriby for at least a day or two.

The rest of the camp was great.

[Shaun]

I would have been locked up I used to put paper clips opened up on bands and shoot them at peoples back or at the wall

[Gunnie Ed]

Originally Posted by Shaun

I would have been locked up I used to put paper clips opened up on bands and shoot them at peoples back or at the wall

i did that, too. infact, most of my friends did. some of 'em could hit lizards with 'em.


i remember, back in ninth grade, i had these friends. we were all pretty crazy, at least that's what the Broward County School board told us. anyway, one day, we were standing in line to go into class to watch Shindler's List, and one of my friends, Gary, started being his usual dumb self. i kneed him in the butt, he shut up, and the Teacher, Mr. Deutch, sent me to Behavioral Training Class(BTC). even when Gary himself said that he deserved it.

basically, BTC is where they sit you down in a chair, in a small room, and make you write what you did, why you did it, how it was inappropriate, and what you should have done instead. i was never good at that, since i never used any sort of violence i didn't feel was appropriate. and as i'm honest to a fault(like those people who plead innocent at the salem witch trials), they would keep me there until i wrote what they wanted me to. even going so far as to berate me for being "passive agressive." often they would threaten to keep me there long after school was out.

if you love your kids, home school them.

[hounddawg]

Quite right! Let him be an example! We cannot tolerate this vicious behavour in an establishment of learning, else the next thing you know, kids would be using all kinds of dangerous weapons on their teachers. Weapons like pea-shooters, paper jets, plastic vomit, mini-slingshots, yo-yo's, whoopee cusions, itching powder, rubber knives, water pistols..........

Gomez Rojas is not a budding young Einstein. He has yet to learn: If your'e going to be hanged for a lamb, you may as well be hanged for a sheep. Perhaps next time he will use a strip of inner-tube for an elastic, and spend some time working on his aim.

[Big Dog]

Being the UberLeftists that they are, they are teaching the kids early to fear and obey AUTHORITY. Make them good little Democrat Conformists. Identify the free-thinkers early, so they can be further indoctrinated (brain-washed).

More than once, I would walk out on a particularly stupid, overbearing teacher. Got failed in a couple classes. I'd find another teacher who wanted to TEACH, not CONTROL, and I'd make straight A's.
Too many bad ones nowadays though.
Working here in the Florida Dept. of Education, I was amazed at how many employees do home-school their kids. They know the system sucks.

[Doglips]

I would have been serveing some serious hard time IF they had this zero tollarance when I was a kid.....I just would hate to be in jail/prison...."what'ca in for boy...snarl I had 2 count them 2 rubber bands in my hand while in school....so back off bubba Im a hard core walking weapon of mass destruction "

[Sniper[MI]]

Originally Posted by Big Dog

Doncha just love "Zero Tolerance"?

Zero Tolerance=Zero Thought=Zero sum individuals=a liberals paradise of mindless sheep!

[PAPA G]

does all this stuff happen only in Florida??? must be the infusion of NorEaster libs or something!!!

neighbors son got pummeled in school. seems school policy here even if the non agressor kid gets suspended along with the agressor kid, even if the non agressor keeps his hands in his pockets, and is used for a punching bag. that sucks IMO.

[Big Dog]

Back in the day, I thumped a couple bullies, and they didn't bother me again. One good thing about being "The Big Kid" on the block.
But I'd do it away from prying teacher/admin eyes.

[hounddawg]

Originally Posted by Big Dog

I'd find another teacher who wanted to TEACH, not CONTROL, and I'd make straight A's.

Right you are, Boyo, but where? Seems a nice, cushy, holiday-rich kind of job to me anymore...

I used to have a History teacher by the name of Hughes, who was as mad as a hatter, but he could teach. He did things like dress up in a Napoleontic-era uniform and give his lectures punctuated by drum-rolls (he had a drum slung over his shoulder). Once he dragged a musket into class and defended his desk while explaining the Battle of Blood River. Fired the thing too. Today he would be locked up before he reached his classroom, but I'll tell you one thing, nobody failed History in his class:right:

[Big Dog]

Yep, back then we had many good teachers, along with the (thankfully few) dingbats.
My Chemistry teacher, Mr. Green, had been a helicopter pilot in Nam - he was a blast, but wouldn't talk about his experiences - still painful in the early seventies. We loved the guy!
My Physics teacher and I would get into far-reaching discussions (sometimes arguments) on the nature of the universe, Black Holes, atomic structure, you name it. Here was a PHD talking on an equal level with (not down to . . . ) a seventeen year old kid! Not many would do that.
Both these guys made their classes fun, and we strove to learn - not just skate thru.

My UberLib Social Studies dingbats were a different matter.

My Librarians were great too, and made sure we had all the popular gun magazines on the racks. I worked three semesters as a Library Aide (only got credit for two - I liked it so much). Today I'm my team's Documentation Guru - good learning stays with you!

[Apollyon67]

I guess the firearm in the back window of the pick-up and the swiss army knife in my pocket would have me expelled for sure then. Funny that the teachers would ask me to fix things in the classroom knowing I had the knife to take care of it.

[Troy]

now open