A fifth grade honor student is the latest victim of Zero Tolerance policies.
Ten-year-old Hailie Whatley was sitting on a bench with two other fifth-graders outside of Webster Elementary School about two weeks ago during a break from test taking.
The honor student was trying to figure out a way to cheer up a crying classmate sitting next to her, the girl’s mother said.
Within hours, however, the Webster girl was sitting in the principal’s office facing accusations that she threatened to kill the girl.
According to Marty Whatley, her daughter Hailie was hoping to encourage her schoolmate with a role-playing game she called “Civil War.” Designating herself a Confederate soldier, Hailie picked up an Oak leaf and pointed it like a gun at the other girl, the so-called “Yankee soldier.”
As a result, Whately was suspended for a day. Which is actually remarkably lenient for a ZT infraction.
I’m not sure which is worse — that such play could deserve a suspension, or that (according to the principal) “The (girl who reported the incident) felt very threatened by the situation,” and that this somehow lends credence to the punishment.