UPDATE: The boys have been expelled from school by a unanimous vote. Unbelievable.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – A seventh grade Virginia Beach student previously suspended for shooting an airsoft gun has been expelled, WAVY.com has learned.
During a hearing Tuesday morning, Aidan Clark and Khalid Caraballo were expelled in a unanimous vote. Clark was offered the option of attending an alternative school, but his father, Tim, told WAVY News’ Andy Fox he will be homeschooled.
Caraballo will attend an alternative school.
UPDATE: WAVY has corrected its story, which originally said that the boys had been expelled. They have been handed long-term suspensions until the end of the school year, which are reviewable in January. This is also unfair and wrong. The boys were on private property playing with toys that everyone at every step of of the way knew were toys. Their playtime at their own home is none of the school’s business.
The involved school administrators should be fired.
ORIGINAL STORY:
A suspended seventh grade Virginia Beach student will find out soon if he is expelled for the rest of the year for shooting an airsoft gun.
Like thousands of others in Hampton Roads, Khalid Caraballo plays with airsoft guns. Caraballo and his friend Aidan were suspended because they shot two other friends who were with them while playing with the guns as they waited for the school bus.
The two seventh graders say they never went to the bus stop; they fired the airsoft guns while on Caraballo’s private property.
Aidan’s father, Tim Clark, told WAVY.com what happened next lacks commons sense. The children were suspended for possession, handling and use of a firearm.
Video at the link, including audio of the idiotic 911 call. The boys played around with their plastic toys nowhere near the school or even a bus stop.
Someone needs to educate our “educators,” stat. First, what happens in a kid’s yard with the approval of his parents isn’t the school’s business unless laws are broken — and probably not even then, as schools are not arms of law enforcement except for truancy. Second, and some people who get the vapors whenever the g-word is used should probably sit down before reading the next few words, airsoft guns are not “firearms.” There is no fire involved. It’s air. I repeat: Airsoft guns are not firearms.
The adult who turned the kids in, by the way, knew that it was a toy. But it made her “uncomfortable,” so they decided to ruin a kid’s school year.
WAVY.com located the 911 caller and spoke to her. She confirmed Khalid was taking target practice using a zombie hunter airsoft gun to kill the zombies. There was also a net behind the target to catch the plastic pellets.
The caller also knew the gun wasn’t real and said so, “This is not a real one, but it makes people uncomfortable. I know that it makes me (uncomfortable), as a mom, to see a boy pointing a gun,” she told the 911 dispatcher.
The woman needs to be named and shamed for being a hysterical busybody. Her behavior is childish and extremely anti-male and anti-freedom. Literally every boy shoots airsoft guns at some point. They used to have wars with them here in our neighborhood that sprawled across probably three blocks and at least ten yards. As a grown man, I was totally jealous that airsoft guns weren’t around when I was a kid.
Free Khalid! Free Aidan! Name and shame the caller and the adults who are now threatening these kids for being kids.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member