A 5-year-old kindergarten student was suspended on Monday for bringing a clear, plastic, princess-themed bubble gun to class at her elementary school in Colorado.
The student received a one-day suspension at Southeast Elementary in Brighton. The girl’s mother said she didn’t know her daughter placed the $5 Frozen-themed bubble gun into her book bag before school.
"I apologized right away and said that I am so sorry she did that," she told KMGH-TV. "I appreciate that they’re trying to keep our kids safe, I really do. But there needs to be some common sense. It blows bubbles.”
When the student brandished the toy during recess, school officials invoked their zero tolerance policy and phoned her mother, telling her to pick up her daughter.
“What bugs me is this is going to be something they can refer to if we have any issues in the future, which I don’t foresee," she told the station, "it’s always going to be lingering there, in her school file.”
Still, the school district stood by the suspension.
"This suspension is consistent with our district policy as well as how southeast has handled similar situations," the school said in a statement. "Where students have brought items such as Nerf guns to school and also received one-day suspensions.”
Advocates for smarter gun control laws ultimately blasted the school's decision to punish the student.
“It’s absurd to send a 5-year-old home for a bubble-maker,” Nathan Woodliff, ACLU Colorado's executive director, told the station. “This is a silly example of a very real problem."
