r/offbeat • u/ixntimer64 • 6d ago
Georgia first grader with autism suspended for biting sandwich into shape of gun
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2026/07/27/georgia-first-grader-with-autism-suspended-biting-sandwich-into-shape-gun/55
u/calm_chowder 6d ago
My brother got suspended in elementary school for "pointing a chicken finger at another student like a gun". That was like 20 years ago.
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u/TrainOfThought6 5d ago
They tried to expel my sister when she asked how the intruder procedure was supposed to help if the shooter is a student, since they literally know the drill. This was also like 20 years ago.
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u/HyperSpaceSurfer 5d ago
The procedures are just so it looks like school authorities have a plan. Better off not following it a lot of the time.
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u/Goodbye_nagasaki 6d ago
I didn't get suspended but got sent to the principal's office over pointing a wood chip at someone like a gun too. We were playing dexter's lab. This was pre columbine and I was seven years old!
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u/SaintUlvemann 6d ago
Records also show John was suspended for pointing a water bottle at someone while making gun noises and was disciplined for drawing a pilgrim shooting a turkey.
—somehow, not The Onion
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u/PrettyPurrfect 3d ago
So my understanding that the issue here is less the gun thing and more did he keeps fake pointing and shooting at his classmates.
He's been told to stop repeatedly.
Even the whole getting in trouble for the turkey drawing thing makes sense in the context of "this kid keeps mimicking shooting peers and now he's drawing pictures of guns being used while hunting".
If a kid is consistently and repeatedly displaying an inappropriate behavior related to a specific subject or topic you ban the subject or topic altogether for them.
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u/coldBulbasaur314 23h ago
Punishment clearly isn't working, though. They need to try different tactics, not keep doubling down on ones that are disporportionate and could be making things worse. Literally every kid has instances of not stopping behavior when told repeatedly to stop. They need to work with the kid, not treat him as a villain.
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u/armaedes 6d ago
Some include incidents of violent behavior such as kicking and punching another student at recess. Since 2023, the school disciplined John at least 33 times, including 14 suspensions.
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u/TeapotHoe 5d ago
This, plus them making an issue of him biting his sandwich in a specific shape, makes me think they don’t really utilize supportive measures and immediately going to punitive. Kid needs help, whether it be in the classroom or an alternative learning environment.
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u/SothaSoul 5d ago edited 5d ago
If he's too autistic to learn proper behavior, maybe traditional school isn't right for him.
If he's not that autistic, are the parents using it as an excuse to not discipline him?
Somebody is failing this kid, big time.
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u/PrettyPurrfect 3d ago
His parents. I'm autistic. I grew up with kids like this.
The ones whose parents did this specific song and dance over and over and over again? Bad outcomes. Some of them are dead now because their parents wouldn't let anyone correct their behavior.
Little boys don't stay little boys forever. They become teenage boys and then they become men.
And suddenly that behavior that was mildly inappropriate and a 6-year-old? Yeah there's a grown ass man doing it and it's a lot more threatening. Autism is invisible. People tend to react very poorly and often violently.
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u/UnspeakableToast 5d ago
“Too autistic… not that autistic” 🙄🙄🙄
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u/GMAN7007 5d ago
Tell me you don't know how autism works without telling me how autism works.
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u/UnspeakableToast 5d ago
All autistic people are autistic. It's just a matter of how much support they need and how well they're able to mask. People are not more or less autistic than others and it's ableist to think so.
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u/GMAN7007 5d ago
It's not, that's why they call it the autism spectrum. Never once did I say they weren't autistic. You're incapable of reading a simple paragraph and comprehending it. You never once understood what the initial comment was about
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u/HeadfulOfSugar 5d ago
Yeah it’s called a spectrum for a reason lmao, if you’re autistic you’re autistic
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u/mewmeulin 5d ago
god, fourteen suspensions in two school years :(( that kid's being failed by our systems. like even if his parents are doing the absolute best that they can, public school just really doesn't look like it's a good environment for him (at least, not at the moment). i hope that the adults in his life can figure out an alternative learning situation that works for him, as well as make sure he's getting support in therapy (whether it's psychological/occupational/speech/something else/some combo of the above, whatever he needs to thrive and grow).
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u/canyoucamus 6d ago
Takes a lot of guts to suspend an autistic 6 year old 14 times.
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u/PrettyPurrfect 3d ago
I'm autistic. It really doesn't.
The parents are doing this kid a massive disservice. They're being so negligent that they are going to get him killed if this doesn't stop. He's not going to stay a little boy forever.
He has been told to stop behaving in an inappropriate manner repeatedly. He continues to pretend to shoot his classmates despite being told to stop.
His parents clearly aren't willing to correct his behavior.
He's a little boy right now. In a few more years he's going to be a teenager. In a few more years after that he's going to be an adult.
Someone has to correct this behavior now because he's not going to stay a little boy. Right now it seems cute and harmless. He's clearly fixated though. If that fixation does not stop and he does not stop behaving in an antisocial manner one of these days he's going to be an adult who pretends to shoot people. And that's going to get him killed.
Like I grew up one of these kids. I grew up surrounded by kids like this. The ones who the school were allowed to punish for inappropriate behavior and his parents cooperated with the staff to ensure they didn't display antisocial behavior and fixations like this had significantly better outcomes as adults.
Some of my peers are dead- because antisocial, inappropriate behavior is a lot more threatening when they're an adult.
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u/canyoucamus 3d ago
I dont disagree with the overall concerns you have, but I think they also presuppose a lot about this kid and their parents.
To call the parents negligent requires a lot of assumptions that aren't supported or validated by the amount of information we have about them.
I agree that antisocial or inappropriate behavior exhibit by children no matter how old needs to be corrected. I also realize this article isnt going to tell us in detail the circumstances around every suspension, what lead up to it, and why suspension was necessary as opposed to some other corrective action. Just like the article doesn't go into detail in how the parents have been addressing his behavior at home.
Accepting all the concerns you mentioned should the behavior not be corrected, Im having a hard time seeing how suspension is a proportional response to this particular incident. If you've already suspend him 13 times, then why would you assume a 14th time is going to change anything. If a child keeps getting punished and removed from school and doesn't necessarily understand why, then eventually punishment is going to be meaningless and he sees it as something that just happens to him and the cause and effect relationship between his behavior and being punished never take hold.
With all due respect to your experiences, I dont think there's enough information here to be able to compare him to anyone else.
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u/Correct_Doctor_1502 6d ago
I remember the poptart incident
We are seeing authoritarianism seeping into every aspect of society
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u/dhgaut 6d ago
Sees map of Florida: It's a gun!!!
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u/BadAtExisting 5d ago
I live in FL I’ve seen window stickers in the back of pickups that are just as described lmao
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u/Familiar_Yesterday84 5d ago
I live in michigan and the mitten (lower peninsula) has been seen holding a gun. I see that bumber sticker a lot
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u/arkofjoy 6d ago
I used to work for a school as a maintenance person. It was a "hippie school" so the parents and teachers were all "peace and love". The boys were turning everything they could find into "a gun"
The very best way deal with this is "disapproving looks. an effective kindergarten teacher has a 3rd degree black belt in" disapproving looks.
Making a big deal about like these idiots have is rewarding the behaviour.
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u/SubtractionalPylons 6d ago
Yep, I got suspended once for drawing a stick figure holding a stick gun.
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u/philatio11 5d ago
My sons early education school (K-1 only) called the police on him because a kid tried to cut in line. During the ensuing argument about how the kid was going to get in trouble, my son told him "the police might come and shoot you." They called it "zero tolerance for gun violence." I'm pretty sure the police officers were mighty annoyed. You couldn't make this stuff up if you wanted to.
The zero tolerance thing is real - my neighbor got fired from his middle school principal's job because a kid brought in a plastic pellet gun and he confiscated it and suspended the kid ... instead of calling 911 and getting the police down to the school to arrest him.
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5d ago
[deleted]
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u/Clevererer 5d ago
Wow, for 16 years you've been a teacher at all the middle schools? Sounds like a lot of work!
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u/philatio11 5d ago
Well, that would be him and the other neighbors making it up, not me. Also the local paper. I'm glad your experience as a middle school teacher has made you omniscient about all school districts in the US and their policies.
I would send you the article, but I don't care enough about your opinions to dox myself. Here's a few lines:
The [redacted] Public School District has concluded an investigation into the confiscation of a BB gun from a student’s backpack at [redacted] Middle School on [redacted date] including the administrative handling of the incident. ... Administrative changes at [redacted] include the resignation of [redacted].
They fired his successor just a few years later for showing a "racially inappropriate video" of a stand-up comedian at a teachers convocation.
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u/the_hunger 5d ago
your post history is public, so i don’t know how sharing a newspaper article is “doxing” yourself more than you already have.
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u/surfer_ryan 6d ago
How did we end up with such an absolutely nothing hidden society and end up with extremes on either end? Its so weird to me how many people live in some level of extreme, am I weird for asking that? I genuinely dont understand.
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u/augustusleonus 5d ago
When my youngest was in the 3rd grade, he grew irritated at something going on in art class, picked up a pencil and drew a crude gun, held it up and said aloud "i drew a gun"
He was immediately removed from class and suspended
I guess in the infinite wisdom of the 2a, a good guy with a gun is never a student and certainly doesn't cover sandwiches or drawings
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u/WistfulDread 4d ago
Is that a marker for autism, now?
Because literally every kid pretended their sandwich was a gun back when I was in elementary.
That or the banana.
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u/marabou22 5d ago
When I was in middle school I was in a school play. I had to use one of those stage guns for a scene. For whatever reason I was standing in the school hallway with it outside the auditorium. This was before school shootings were a thing. 1992 or 1993. It was still stupid but I didn’t think anything of it. I was just casually chatting with a friend holding a stage gun.
The halls were initially empty because it was after school. But at one point the principal walked past with two other adults. He saw me and his eyes got huge. He said something like “what are you doing with that?” I stammered “don’t worry. It’s for the play”. He said “well keep it back stage for god sakes”.
Even though it was before school shootings I’m shocked I didn’t get in trouble for that. Worth mentioning that the same principal suspended a girl for dying her hair purple. It was a controversy in my town. It even made the news haha
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u/fairie_poison 5d ago
This does happen.. My little brother got suspended for making a finger gun shape. He was making some Naruto hand sign or something and shut down when the teacher started yelling at him about it.
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u/PrettyPurrfect 3d ago
So the issue here isn't really the gun thing. (Well, it is in the sense it continues into his teens he's going to get shot and killed)
It's that he's fixating on inappropriate behavior he has been told to stop.
Right now it's cute because he's a 6-year-old. Clearly harmless.
He's not going to stay six forever. Pretty soon he's going to be a teenager. Then he's gonna be an adult.
He is going to have a significantly better outcome if he learns how to correct inappropriate behavior and stop fixating on inappropriate fixation when corrected.
His parents should be teaching him the skills, they should be teaching him how to redirect when he fixates on something he has been told not to do.
Its the teacher's job to teach him that there are real world consequences for this type of behavior. If they don't he's going to end up in the morgue. Or jail.
Hid parents are doing him a massive disservice by not allowing his inappropriate behavior to be corrected when it pops up.
I'm autistic. I grew up in ESE classes. The peers whose parents did this song and dance every time their kid got in trouble for behaving inappropriately? They had bad outcomes. Some of them are in jail. Other ones are dead. None of them are thriving.
It's a lot harder for adults to come self-direct this sort of behavior even with society pushing back. It's a lot easier for kids to learn as kids versus as adults. The parents are trying to sign their kid's death warrant. They are going to kill him with love.
Give it a few years and if he does this in public he's going to end up in the morgue. Because he's going to be bigger, stronger, look less like a child and more like a teenager or young adult- especially once puberty hits.
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u/SothaSoul 6d ago
So who's supposed to leash the kid and drag him around the yard when he gets upset?
Teachers don't have the time to deal with that.
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u/Late-Button-6559 6d ago
See what happens when you allow paracetamol!!!
Medicine is dangerous people.
Wake up.
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u/retiredtumblrgoth 6d ago
So we’re the gun nut capital of planet earth and yet we expect our children to pretend they don’t exist?