BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Some parents in Glynn County are upset after hearing a 9-year-old girl was suspended for holding a banana like a gun during lunch.
She received a one day suspension for the banana incident, but she’s back in the classroom now.
However, the decision to suspend her still isn’t sitting right with her parents.
“I started freaking out," said Ryan Jachimowicz. "I thought, ‘What did she do?’ I’ve raised my daughter better than to be suspended."
Jachimowicz could’ve never guessed what his daughter was being suspended for.
“They told me the story, and I started laughing," said Jachimowicz. "That was my initial response was laughter. They weren’t laughing back.”
The disciplinary slip shows his daughter was being suspended after “several students were using bananas as guns at lunch.”
“The little boy had pointed a banana at some other little boy and said, ‘Pew pew.’ My daughter picked up her banana, I guess in self defense, and said ‘Pew pew, you’re under arrest.’ The rest is history," said Jachimowicz.
Jachimowicz says the district told him his daughter violated the student incivility section of the code of conduct – which covers disrespect to staff members or other students.
A spokesperson with Glynn County Schools responded to a request for more information, saying in a statement:
In compliance with FERPA, we are unable to discuss specific student disciplinary matters. Sharing such information would violate FERPA by disclosing details from a student’s educational records.
Jachimowicz feels an explanation to her daughter of what she did wrong and a phone call home would’ve sufficed.
“Tell them what they did wrong," said Jachimowicz. "Tell them not to do it again. Keep track of that. If they do it again after you told them once, now it’s time to take something.”
Jachimowicz feels that if this is how strictly the zero tolerance policy on violence will be enforced, he’d like to see more notification for parents and students.