Catholic School Suspends Six-Year-Old For Playing With Imaginary Bow And Arrow

A six-year-old Catholic school student was playing Power Rangers with a group of friends last Thursday when he was suspended for three days after pretending to shoot an imaginary bow and arrow.

“I don’t see anything wrong with the way he was playing,” Matthew Miele, the father of the first grader, told WCPO.

The boy’s mother, Martha Miele, says she was stunned when Our Lady of Lourdes Principal Joe Crachiolo informed her of her son’s actions.

“I didn’t really understand. I had him on the phone for a good amount of time so he could really explain to me what he was trying to tell me,” Martha told WLWT5. “My question to him was ‘Is this really necessary? Does this really need to be a three-day suspension under the circumstances that he was playing and he’s 6 years old?’”

The Miele family says the school refused to reverse their position despite sending an email meeting Principal Crachiolo the following day.

Crachiolo emphasizedin a letter later sent to the family the school’s zero tolerance policy for “real” or “pretend” violence.

“I have no tolerance for any real, pretend, or imitated violence,” the principal wrote. “The punishment is an out of school suspension.”

Zero tolerance policies found throughout the nation’s education system have penalized students for pointing their fingers like a gun, chewing food into the shape of a gun and even possessing a “Nerf bullet.” A 10-year-old Pennsylvania boy was also suspended for firing an imaginary bow in 2013.

Meanwhile in Russia, kids learn how to disassemble and reassemble an AK-47 in record time.