School Suspends Student Over BB Gun in His Own Bedroom, Provokes Widespread Backlash

NRA-ILA BB Gun
Ka Mauri Harrison was suspended in September because he had a BB gun in his room that a teacher noticed during a remote teaching session. IMG NRA-ILA

U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- Public education’s war on children who keep gun-like toys or sporting goods in their own homes claimed another in September with the suspension Ka Mauri Harrison, who was banished from school activities for six days after a teacher glimpsed, via video feed, a BB gun in the fourth grader’s bedroom. Fortunately, Ka Mauri’s parents are not backing down in their attempts to clear his record and his reputation, and their cause is attracting some notable allies.

According to a local news report, Ka Mauri’s saga began on Sept. 11, while he was taking an English test at home monitored over video feed by a teacher employed with Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish Public School System. Ka Mauri’s brother entered their shared bedroom and stumbled over a BB gun (which at the time was unloaded). Like any good brother and responsible air gun owner, Ka Mauri picked up the BB rifle to move it out of harm’s way, placing it next to the chair on which he was sitting.

A school behavior report, however, described the incident as follows: “Harrison left his seat momentarily, out of view of the teacher. When the student returned, he had what appeared to be a full-sized rifle in his possession.”  

No one claims that Ka Mauri intentionally brandished the BB gun in a threatening manner. According to his father, it appeared only momentarily onscreen, with a portion of its barrel visible after it had been moved.

Nevertheless, when Ka Mauri did not respond to his teacher’s calls over the computer (because he had muted the sound to concentrate on his test), he was disconnected from the class. The school later called his parents to notify them Ka Mauri had been summarily suspended and would be facing a disciplinary hearing, with the school recommending expulsion.

School officials characterized the incident as “a violation of weapons in the classroom setting and a violation of the internet usage policy.” A hearing officer sustained the six-day suspension during the disciplinary hearing for what the officer described as “displaying a facsimile weapon while receiving virtual instruction” (the school’s request for expulsion was declined).

Yet when the attorney Ka Mauri’s parents retained to represent their son inquired about the specific rule the 9-year-old had supposedly violated, the school referred her to its prohibition against weapons on campus. In other words, the school apparently maintains that it can enforce the same rules that apply to its own facilities against whatever location happens to be used for online distance learning.

Another local news story even indicated the school referenced possible criminal penalties for Ka Mauri’s behavior and humiliated the young boy by encouraging his classmates to “write letters about the incident.” That report also notes that the school referred Ka Mauri for a “social work assessment” and summarized the offense leading to his punishment in an official record as “Possesses weapons prohibited under federal law.”

There is no federal law, however, against possessing an air gun on school grounds, much less in one’s own home. Indeed, the manufacture and sale of air guns and certain replica guns is affirmatively protected under federal law.

Fortunately, the injustices perpetrated against Ka Mauri are not going unnoticed or unchallenged.

“It’s not ending here,” the family’s attorney, Chelsea Cusimano, told a reporter. “It’s our intent to explore further options.”

The case has also attracted the attention of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, who has launched an investigation into the incident. Landry issued a statement, saying, “I am alarmed by what appears to not only be multiple violations of both the State and Federal Constitutions, but also blatant government overreach by the school system.“ He continued, “For anyone to conclude that a student’s home is now school property because of connectivity through video conferencing is absurd … 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 concluded by promising that “[m]y office and I will take a deep dive into all the irreparable harm caused by this egregious incident and take appropriate actions.”

Also weighing in on Ka Mauri’s behalf was Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Dillard University, a historically black college in New Orleans. In a letter to the superintendent of Jefferson Parish Schools, Dr. Kimbrough noted that the school’s reaction to Ka Mauri’s behavior “begins to track him in a way that we both know disproportionately harms Black male children.” He went on to point out that neither of the cited policies supposedly violated appear to encompass the situation at hand, given that Ka Mauri was in his own home and was “clearly trying to be responsible.” Dr. Kimbrough’s letter urged the school district to reverse the sanctions levied against Ka Mauri and issue him a public apology.

We agree that Ka Mauri’s sanctions should be lifted, his record expunged, and a public apology issued.

We have reported for many years on how gun control advocates have leveraged the idea of “gun-free school zones” to ban not just actual firearms on school grounds but anything that even remotely suggests the idea of a firearm. This has included NRA or military-themed apparel, a screensaver depicting a firearm, a toy that generates soap bubblespointing with an extended index finger, and even food chewed into what was claimed to be a gun-like shape.

This persecution causes real harm to real young people. No offense has been too small, harmless, or inconsequential for school officials to brand students with an official record for violating policies against “weapons” or “guns” on school grounds, with all the potential for harming their future prospects that such a paper trail entails.

With the advent of virtual distance learning supposedly necessitated by the COVID-19 outbreak, these witch hunts have taken an ominous new turn, as school officials are getting an unprecedented glimpse into students’ homes via video feeds used for online classes. This has kicked off a new wave of punishments and even police activity stemming from the incidental appearance of toy or replica guns that were never used to threaten or intimidate others and that never even left the student’s own home.

These latest actions – which punish behavior occurring remotely and is therefore incapable of causing physical harm – betray the fact that schools aren’t just trying to keep kids safe from firearm-related violence; they’re trying to marginalize and stigmatize any student who shows any interest in guns. What Ka Mauri’s attorney called “robotic” enforcement of zero-tolerance polices against weapons is as much or more a matter of social engineering than of maintaining a safe educational environment.


National Rifle Association Institute For Legislative Action (NRA-ILA)

About NRA-ILA:

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org

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DC

I’m curious; was the teacher doing her distance learning from home when she saw this “violation?” I didn’t see that in any of the articles I read. My wife has taught many of her lessons from home during these Covid shutdowns. You see, one problem with these “no tolerance” school property prohibitions, is that it can go both ways. If the teacher, administrators, or staff worked from home at any time (not just during this incident), then prohibited items or behavior in their homes violates school policy as well. They have set the precedent for that ruling. Do they have… Read more »

RoyD

My younger daughter-in-law is an elementary school teacher and your thoughts ran through my head also. A goose/gander type of situation.
Though my DIL would not be concerned over non-criminal actions taking place at a students house.

Grigori

It is sickening that this child and his family are subjected to such blatant stupidity. I hope the wrongs against him are corrected, erased from his record, and a huge judgment or settlement made in his favor. Too bad the idiot teacher and halfwit hearing officer cannot be made to compensate the child from their own pockets.

Last edited 3 years ago by Grigori
Swany

I don’t even need to comment. You stated what I was thinking better than I could have.
This has to be one of the dumbest thing I have seen.

RayJN

Right the taxpayers should not be paying for their stupidity. The teacher should also lose her teaching credentials for the “social work assessment”, basically calling his classmate to harass and bully him.

Gdubb

Somehow, the public school system in the United States has become even more pathetic than it was 4 years ago. Why are liberals still running the public education schitt show?

Tionico

because we LET them. WHEN will that change?

alzada

Another example of a BRAIN WASHED teacher, indoctrinated in the current school system !!

MP71

Because they are instinctively attracted to government jobs that give them any sort of power.

Finnky

@MP71 – Combined with corrupting influence of power.

Red Falcon 1325

If the school and board of education for that state thinks the student’s home is part of their campus, maybe they should start paying the property taxes of all homes of their students.

Laddyboy

GOOD OP-ED! These ANTI-American COMMUNISTS need to be sued then DISMISSED from all PUBLIC OFFICES of any form!!!! This includes: Teachers, Politicians, Police and Judges!!! This NONSENSE MUST END!!!!!

Grim

Ka Mauri will now be able to afford a private school and a good college!

UncleT

I think this in home public schooling is more about documenting home life than virus protection.

Last edited 3 years ago by UncleT
Random71

Also to make the next generation normalized to receiving instructions and responding to rebukes from the screen.

Anyone else reminded of the calisthenics session in 1984….. The current batch of children (age dependent) are Winstons at best, perhaps half aware of the lies. Most will be Smythe or Winston’s neighbor, so programed that they trip themselves up, or unaware happy to bleat with the herd.
The next batch will be more compliant, more fully programmed, like Julia only driven away by natural urge.

It needs to end before its too late.

Last edited 3 years ago by Random71
PAF145

Tax payers wake up–your employees think they are incharge

GBR

Throughout most of the article I never thought of race as a component. Then I read the paragraph where a historically black college felt the need to interject. It was only at that point, it became obvious the kid was black. In my opinion race had nothing to do with the story, but ok.

Tionico

When I first read about this last week, his name told me the level or malanin in his skini. I was not wrong.

I’d like to know the level lf malaniin in the thin skin of the teacher ramroddingthis whole despicable affair.

GUNFUN

Looked it up. The poor kid is black, in case anybody is wondering if gun control is racist.

hoss

Holy shades of Nazism, Batman. Big brother is always watching.
If your like me, you don’t care!

Commiefornia Sucks

Lawsuit.

FL-GA

I wonder if the “school session” each day begins with the Pledge of Allegiance?

Boris Badenov

Now, I’m wondering how much, they’d be getting their knickers in a twist, if ….. kids used a NRA background on their Zoom classes.

Random71

While wearing a shirt with the riflemans’s creed on it to make the message perfectly clear.

JoeUSooner

Psychiatric evaluation, at state level, should be required in order to obtain a teaching certificate… in every state.

Any administrative school-district personnel (from Superintendent to site Principals to bus drivers) who advocate any unconstitutional action – and remember, all anti-gun regulations ARE unconstitutional – must be immediately terminated… with loss of all pay and retirement benefits. A second violation in any one school will result in the complete defunding of that school’s administrators. THAT would stop this anti-gun horse manure.

Tionico

I have two words about this entire situation. They are HOME SCHOOL That way YOU control WHO has access into your home, and into the minds and hearts of YOUR children. If this is typical of the sorts of perverted people who have access to your children when they go off in the Yellow Prison Busses each morning, then you need to end it. NOW. How precious ARE your children? Friend of mine has six chldren, they all are schooled at home… they live in a rural area, have some land, a decent sized home. Basement with daylight windows, some… Read more »

willyd

TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!

uncle dudley

I wonder how many kids are in the class that the teacher was watching take the test and how big of a screen she had in order to see all the students, or was she just able to see a few at a time.
This should have never been an issue yet the schools have gone beyond reason and the educated idiots in charge need to be replaced as that child was in his own home and not on school property.
This is what liberal ideas look like and it needs to stop.

Terry

Everything with the trigger is bad except liberals and their “triggers”

Tionico

from the details in this piece it is near certain that the teacher, using the vid feed to ‘monitor” the lad as he took a test, presumably on the supposition he would cheat on the test, thus no one else but the teacher could have seen the “offensive item”. But now, happily, EVERYONE knows how stupid the teacher is, and the admin backing that creature up in its folly. I’d be suing for false accusation, defamation, tarnishing his good reputatioin, mental anguish, shaming, and anything else this attorney can imagine to throw at her and the school admin who backed… Read more »

donfranko

The teacher, a government agent, conducted an illegal warrant-less search, the evidence of which was used to persecute, ooppss, I mean prosecute this child.

Finnky

@DonF – Observation of an object in plain sight, during course of ordinary interaction is not a “warrant-less search”. The fact they unreasonably persecute the child is sufficient. So let’s stick to the core of the issue and not risk obscuring the message. Gun ownership is not a crime.