Louisiana AG Investigates BB Gun School Suspension

On today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co we’ve got a good news update to a story we first told you about yesterday: the case of 9-year old Ka Mauri Harrison, a Louisian 4th grader who was suspended from school and threatened with expulsion after briefly and accidentally displaying a BB gun during an online class session earlier this month.

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Ka Mauri Harrison, a fourth grader at Woodmere Elementary in Harvey, was taking a virtual class in his bedroom when his younger brother came into the room and tripped over a BB gun. The 9-year-old leaned away from his English test, grabbed the unloaded weapon and put it next to his chair, away from his brother but in view of the computer camera that showed the scene to his teacher and classmates.

By the end of the day, he was facing suspension from school — and possible expulsion.

As far as I know, Bearing Arms was the first outlet beyond local media to report on the story, but thankfully others have picked up on the ridiculous nature of the suspension, and now Louisiana’s Attorney General is launching an investigation into the school district’s handling of the matter.

Landry said he was alarmed by what he called multiple violations of the state and federal constitutions but also “blatant government overreach by the school system.”

“For anyone to conclude that a student’s home is now school property because of connectivity through video conferencing is absurd,” Landry said. “It is ludicrous for this All-American kid to be punished for taking responsible actions just as it is for his parents to be accused of neglect.”

Landry’s office did not specify which violations of either constitution that the school system may have violated.

“My office and I will take a deep dive into all the irreparable harm caused by this egregious incident and take appropriate actions,” Landry added.

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I’m not sure what actions the AG might be able to take here, but on today’s show we discuss some tips for parents who are concerned that their own kids might get in trouble for inadvertently displaying a BB, Airsoft, or Nerf gun while they’re online with their teachers.

I think that parents should be proactively contacting their local superintendents to ask what the district’s policy is in situations like this, and if they don’t like what they’re told, they should reach out to their local school board member and demand a change in policy. As Louisiana’s Attorney General put it, your home is not school property simply because it’s connected through a Zoom video conference, and it’s absurd to try to punish kids for violating a school’s firearm policy when the BB gun never left your home.

It would also be helpful to get other parents involved. School boards may be less inclined to act on the wishes of one family, but would find it harder to ignore dozens of families demanding answers and accountability to ensure that what happened to Ka Mauri Harrison won’t happen to their kids.

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Be sure to check out the entire show above, in which we also discuss the oral arguments in the Young vs. Hawaii case that took place in the Ninth Circuit on Thursday, an armed citizen story involving a woman in Arizona who defended herself against a knife-wielding intruder, and a police officer in Montana who was in the right place at the right time to rescue a woman from a burning vehicle.

 

 

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