WHAT?! This is ridiculous! Leave the poor fourth graders alone and come down here to take care of the kids with knives in their lockers at my school!

I don't think it's ridiculous. That kind of stuff should NOT be brought to school and that kind of activity should NOT be done on a school bus. But kids will do that kind of stuff - it's up to the parents to make sure they don't. What the heck was her mom doing letting her bring that stuff on the bus?

You have to consider that if those items are handled poorly kids can get hurt. Imagine an obnoxious kid takes the hammer away and she tried to get it back, all while the bus is in motion. They couldget hurt in a lot of different ways, or the bus driver could get seriously distracted, which is also very dangerous. I agree with the suspension.

I think it is a little ridiculous to punish a naive kid for it - case by case is important. The younger children won't always see rocks and tools as weapons, and the schools are aware pretty early on which ones seem to need a little more caution.

And aren't there tons of legal things they could be fighting over that would distract the driver? I have no problem with taking them and talking to everyone about how dangerous things can be and then having the parents pick them up... and it it continued suspending... but this is just lame.

In my town there were 4th graders 'plotting' to kill the principal (creepy, huh?) and they were lifetime expelled (the punishment for that type of thing, which is serious). So now they are 9 year olds with no future hope for education - once someone is expelled from a school it is hard to get into any school and we're a small town in AZ without other options that will take them... the parents would have to move to get their kids into school, and they aren't the type of parents that even really see that option.

Case by case...

I could see where she needed to be punished, so that she understood that bringing those things to school is not acceptable, but SUSPENDED? Come on. When I was in kindergarten I hit a girl with a brick (not maliciously! I invented this new game where we threw the brick up in the air and ran away and watched it fall, it was fun for 10 minutes until I hit someone by accident) and I didn't get recess for a week.

Seriously? They must be joking. She did it to show them her new hobby, and now she has a permanent black mark on her school record. This is going way TOO FAR.

There's a difference between teaching the girl that bringing hammers to school (and using them on a moving bus) isn't smart and suspending her.

I definitely did the exact same thing in middle school. It was show and tell!

I agree with HipMom here. This punishment was just and fair. Her mother should have known better. I hope she learns her lesson and moves on. The only things I see here that are "unbelievable" are 1) the fact her mother let her pack those items and get on the bus and 2) that this is a news story...every takes their "injustice" to the media these days to try and wiggle their way out of it. Suck it up and move on, people.

I think the punishment doesn't really fit the crime... maybe a reprimand and a chat with the principal, but... suspension? She wanted to split open some rocks, for goodness' sake!

This was excessive. The girl meant no harm, the items were not used improperly (I presume) and no one was hurt.

This warranted confiscation of the items, a phone call to the parents, a chat with the principal and loss of recess for the day.

Definitely punish, definitely get the parents involved and hold them responsible, definitely don't suspend her.

I agree with duck duck goose, I don't think a suspension was in order (it sounded like the girl just really wanted to show her friends her new hobby....not hit somebody in the head with a hammer!), but her parents shouldn't be letting their child take a hammer and a screwdriver to school. They should have had a chat with her parents, with her, and taken the items away when they saw what she was doing, and made sure that she understood everything.