School Suspends Kid for Laying Out Soda Cans in Shape of a Gun

Presenting political zealotry as a false concern for safety is abhorrent and dangerously irresponsible.

A few days ago 13 year-old Riley Grunden was suspended from Liberty Middle School in Mountain View, Missouri because he made a gun out of Dr. Pepper cans and it upset someone at school who complained about it to the superintendent.

Note that the kid didn’t fashion an actual working firearm out of soda cans or make any sort of threat to the school, a student, or anyone, but rather laid out cans on a bed in the shape of a gun. Like so:

For this Grunden will have two marks on his permanent record, one for “cyberbullying” and another for “making a school threat,” even though zero threats were made and no bullying took place.

Said the school in a statement:

“We have enough information to believe the video has caused fear to at least one student and understandably so. The safety and well-being of our students is our top priority and we responded swiftly to address the concerns.”

Lana Tharp, Mountainview-Birch Tree R-III Superintendent

“Caused fear to at least one student?” The accused deserves to know who and why. I talked about this story today on my program:

It doesn’t help that the anti-gun brigade has spent the last decade shaking kids down over Nerf guns, finger guns (so many), and Pop Tarts, driving fear over toys and conflating drug and gang violence with uncommon school shootings.