A seventh-grader in Ohio recently received a 10-day suspension from school — because he liked a photo of a gun on Instagram.
It wasn’t even a real gun in the photo. It was an airsoft gun that Zachary Bowlin and his friends use to play airsoft in the backyard. The photo was captioned, “Ready,” and Zachary “liked” it because he assumed it meant that his friend was ready to play. The following day at school, he was called into the office, where he was patted down, searched for weapons and informed that he was being suspended.
A notice was sent home saying Zachary was being suspended for “liking a post on social media that indicated potential school violence.” Zachary’s father thinks the suspension is ridiculous and says, “He never shared, he never commented, he never made a threatening post…anything on the site, just liked it.”
The school defended its decision to enforce its “zero tolerance of violent, disruptive, harassing, intimidating, bullying or any other inappropriate behavior by its students.” However, after speaking with the boy’s parents, administrators agreed to lift the suspension. (WCMH-TV)
Fasho Thoughts:
- Are you surprised to learn that school officials are monitoring students’ social media activity?
- It’s good to know this school is taking the safety of its students very seriously, but they overreacted to this.
- They did the right thing by lifting the suspension after speaking to the boy’s parents.
Source: Radio One / Don Juan Fasho
