Florence student suspended over picture of gun

[amigocabal]

Florence student suspended over picture of gun

FLORENCE, AZ - A high school student in Florence said he has been suspended because of a picture of a gun.

Daniel McClaine Jr., a freshman at Poston Butte High School, said he saved the picture as his desktop background on his school-issued computer.

A teacher noticed it and turned him in.

The picture shows an AK-47 on top of a flag.

McClaine said the school initially suspended him for three days Friday.

Since the laptop belongs to the school, the district policy states students are prohibited from “sending or displaying offensive messages or pictures,” and cannot access, send, create or forward pictures that are considered “harassing, threatening, or illegal.”

McClaine said he read the guidelines but does not consider the picture threatening to anyone.

“This gun wallpaper does not show anything that’s violent. It's not showing anybody getting shot in any way. It's just a picture of a gun. It's nothing -- nobody getting shot, nobody getting it pointed at them, it's nothing,” said McClaine.

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Herein lies the problem, which is creative interpretations of broadly-worded rules.

A similarly-worded rule probably exists in the U.S. military, including the service academies. However, a picture is considered “offensive”, “harassing, threatening or illegal” only if it brings discredit upon the armed forces, and/or is prejudicial to discipline and good order. There is no way that a “photo of an AK 47 against an American flag backdrop” on a military-issued laptop would be considered prejudicial to discipline and good order per se. The only way a serviceman can get in trouble for having “photo of an AK 47 against an American flag backdrop” is if there existed an explicit order or regulation prohibiting such.

To be sure, there is conduct that is prejudicial to discipline and good order in a military context, which is tolerated in a civilian context.

But if an act is not prejudicial to discipline and good order in a military context, it should not be considered “offensive, harassing, or threatening” in a civilian context like a regular public school.

[Sea Skimmer]

Using a picture like that as a background right now was stupid, but not suspension worthy. I wonder what the school would have done if it was the Mozambican Flag.

[Dominarch's Hope]

Isnt the AK-47 on the flag of Mozambique?

[Gil Hamilton]

The AK-47 is on a lot of flags, both for various nations and organizations (for example, I think Hezbollah's flag has one on it).

I'm surprised that this happened in Florence, AZ of all places. It's not exactly a liberal place, particularly since I think much of the town exists to support the prisons that are there and is in one of the rural ends of the Phoenix Metro Area.