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Seventh graders Aidan Clark and Khalid Caraballo were suspended, and the Virginia Beach Public School System recommended that they be expelled for at least one year. Both students were offered the option of attending an alternative school. Caraballo will attend that school, but Clarkʼs father said he will be homeschooled instead.
The excuse behind the expulsion was that they shot friends with them waiting at the bus stop, but the students say they never left Caraballoʼs private property (70 yards from said bus stop). The students were suspended for possession, handling, and use of a firearm. Again, this happened on one of the boysʼ private property. “We see the bus come. We put the gun down,” Khalid said. “We did not take the airsoft gun to the bus stop. We did not take the gun to school.” Even school principal Matthew Delaney doesn’t disagree, saying “children were firing pellet guns at each other, and at people near the bus stop.” The operative word here being “near.”
There was also never any question that the guns were real. This nonsensical hullabaloo was started when a neighbor called 911. She said in the call, “This is not a real one, but it makes people uncomfortable. I know that it makes me (uncomfortable), as a mom, to see a boy pointing a gun.” What makes me uncomfortable is that these boys could have their futures so damaged over nothing. Caraballo said “It’s terrible. I won’t get the chance to go to a good college. It’s on your school record. The school said I had possession of a firearm. They aren’t going to ask me any questions. They are going to think it was a real gun, and I was trying to hurt someone. They will say ‘oh, we can’t accept you.’”
The gun in question is an Airsoft Zombie Hunter. It is widely available and designed specifically as a toy (although it may be harmful to actual zombies, which I presume were not present at the bus stop).
So, these children will forever have to explain why they were expelled from school, which will be hard to do, since it makes no sense. We’re talking about two boys being punished by a school (where they weren’t present at the time) for shooting guns which aren’t real. It’s pretty much inexplicable. Let’s save the zero tolerance nonsense for things that happen at school and are actually dangerous and let kids be kids. After all, we might kids like Caraballo and Clark on our side if it comes to a zombie apocalypse.
