Student Issued 10-Day Suspension For “Liking” Instagram Photo Of An Airsoft Gun

By Lily Dane

Gun paranoia remains at ridiculous levels in US schools. This case is disturbing not only for the gun hysteria, but for the social media spying aspect.

A middle school student in Trenton, Ohio, narrowly dodged a lengthy suspension and possible expulsion from school because he did something people do every day: he “liked” a photo on Instagram.

Zachary Bowlin, a seventh grader at Edgewood Middle School, was slapped with a 10-day suspension after the school somehow found out the boy liked this photo of an airsoft gun on the social media platform:

gun

Image credit: Fox19

“I liked it, scrolling down Instagram at night about 7, 8 o’clock I liked it,” Zachary said.

“I don’t think I did anything wrong. [The] next morning, they called me down and, like, patted me down and checked me for weapons. Then, they told me I was getting expelled or suspended or whatever,” he told NBC4.

Marty Bowlin, Zachary’s father, said, “I was livid, I mean, I’m sitting here thinking ‘you just suspended him for ten days for liking a picture of a gun on a social media site. He never shared, he never commented, he never made a threatening post… anything on the site, just liked it.”

“My wife called and said he’d been pulled in to the office, and he was being suspended because he liked a picture on Instagram that his friend posted .. of a weapon, of an airsoft gun,” Mr. Bowlin told WLWT5. “It was 10 days suspension with the possibility of expulsion. I’m like, ‘For liking a gun? Did he make a comment or threat or anything?’ And it’s like, ‘No. He just liked a picture.’ I’m like, ‘Well, this can’t happen.’”

Mr. Bowlin said his son’s decision to like the photo of the gun, which included the caption “Ready,” was harmless.

“The young man that posted it and my son, and probably four or five other kids, play airsoft in our field,” he explained. “So I pretty much knew what it was about. So I really wasn’t concerned.”

“I mean, I figured he’d cleaned his gun and was ready, wanting to play and stuff,” Zachary added.

On Friday, the school sent an email to parents that said:

Yesterday evening school officials were made aware to an alleged threat of a student bringing a gun to school. We act on any potential threat to student safety swiftly and with the utmost importance. This morning, the alleged threat was addressed and we can assure you that all students at Edgewood Middle School are safe and school will continue as normal. Thank you

An…alleged threat?

Can you imagine how alarmed parents felt – understandably – after receiving such an email?

It reads as if a student actually said they were planning to bring a real gun to school to shoot the place up.

Edgewood City Schools Superintendent Russ Fussnecker explained why the school issued a suspension and possible expulsion for Zachary, reports WLWT5:

When you’re dealing with school districts nowadays and there are pictures of guns, regardless of the kind of gun it is, it’s a gun. And there are certain images or words, I can’t determine if that’s playful or real. And until I can get to an investigation, I have to look into it, those students have to be removed.

I’m here for all students. And at the end of the day, and I’ve said it time and time again, parents will forgive us for certain things. They’re not going to forgive us if their kid doesn’t come home. They’re just not. And it’s difficult to even think about it, but it happened 10 minutes up the street almost.

I cannot just turn my head and act as if, well, I think it may have been playful and take the chance that something happens. I can’t take a chance.

Some of the students were so uncomfortable with the Instagram photo that they stayed home from school, Fussnecker said. How the school found out about the photo has not been revealed, but it seems likely that some of the students who were afraid reported it.

Fussnecker met with the Bowlins on Friday afternoon, the suspension was revoked, and the boy was allowed to return to school today without penalty.

“He was a very reasonable man, and they seemed to see it our way,” Mr. Bowlin said.

The student who posted the photo remains on suspension, and his family is reportedly meeting with school officials this week.

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Contributed by Lily Dane of The Daily Sheeple.

Lily Dane is a staff writer for The Daily Sheeple. Her goal is to help people to “Wake the Flock Up!”


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23 Comments on "Student Issued 10-Day Suspension For “Liking” Instagram Photo Of An Airsoft Gun"

  1. Get the kid off social media. Problem solved and his life will improve.

  2. They are watching you

  3. Close the indoctrination centers

  4. This is where there need to be lawsuits to protect 1st amendment rights and sue for slander & falsely creating panic. That will wake them up.

  5. NJguy - Proudly Deplorable | May 9, 2017 at 8:47 am |

    Sue them, sue them, sue them.

  6. The psychopathic hysteria deliberately manufactured in this Orwellian politically correct state is clearly aimed at indoctrinating the next generation of sheep to accept the full force of central power and government abuse meted out to ensure perpetual slavery of a willfully ignorant non challenging public. I can only now reminisce about a calmer and reasoned time of my 1950’s childhood in a neighborhood of kids playfully armed with all manner of weapons, machine guns, rifles, knives, etc…amazingly against the insane logic and total absence of reason today, none of us grew up to become serial killers, murder or harm anyone. In fact, most of my former gun toting childhood friends are now activists in peace, non-aggression and non-intervention on a personal and global scale and contrary to the narrative of our times, many are responsible gun owners. Why do you think that is the case?

  7. but if liked a picture of a transgender he would have been student principle for the day

  8. It’s time to tell School Authorities to, ” Get Stuffed!” I was bought up with Guns, Knives, and everything Wholesome. My sons wish they had the same upbringing, but you know what? The Schools they went to, gave them a Cry Baby Education. The children aren’t taught Objectivism, or even Rational Thought. No, Now the children are taught to follow some Government paid, ” Pied Piper.” Collectivism is in. The Teachers Mindset. They are part of the problem with Schooling and Society. Independant thinking is not a crime and neither is liking something or somebody.

    • I am now far beyond the age where I would have “school age” children. I am also a former government school teacher. As it is now, if I were to have children, I would not allow them to go anywhere near a government school, or even a great number of so-called private schools, let alone go there for schooling. I would fear that the unbridled stupidity that prevails in those prison like establishments would be transmitted to them by extra sensory perception or transmitted by some other form of mind control device emitted by the mindless morons that now promote the true purpose of compulsory schooling. That purpose is, and always has been, “to ensure that ONLY the children of the RULING class are educated. All others are to be trained to be wage slaves for their corporate masters, cannon fodder for the rulers military adventures, or welfare serfs subsidised to produce dependent and subservient offspring who won’t question anything that the rulers do to them.

  9. Now that they’ve sissified the Males, the Uncles, Fathers, Sons, Brothers, we’re ready for a takeover.

  10. This incident illustrates one of three reasons why the Second Amendment’s optional “right” is ultimately doomed.

    Time to get back to the much more potent biblical responsibility to bear arms in defense of ourselves, our famlies, and others, per Psalm 149:6-9, 1 Timothy 5:8, etc. Ask yourself, where did the pre-Second Amendment American’s get their authority to bear arms? You’ll find it in the passages just mentioned.

    For more, see blog article “The Second Amendment is Doomed.” Click on my name, then our website. Go to our Blog and search on title.

    • The Founding Fathers may have referred to them as “God-given” rights. Some of them did.

      However, none of them ever referred to any “Bible-given” rights. Now did they? Could it be because the Bible was written by MEN, not God?

  11. How about suspending the school system from ten days’ worth of tax funding?

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