One day last week at school Jessie Sansone's 4-year-old daughter drew a picture of a man with a gun. The teacher didn't like it, so she called Family and Social Services. If you think that's an outrageous overreaction, just wait.
According to the Calgary Herald, when Jessie went to pick up his daughter and his other children at the end of the day, he was handcuffed, arrested, and strip searched, as they looked for this gun. They did actually find one after they went and searched the family's home in Ontario ... only it turned out to be a toy. Yes, the only gun in the entire house was a toy gun.
Unbelievable.
It's outrageous on so many fronts, the first of which is that it was a complete violation of civil liberties even if the gun had been real. It's not illegal to have a gun in one's home. Maybe her dad is a hunter; maybe it's for protection and licensed. She didn't draw anyone shooting someone dead or committing another crime; she just drew a man with a gun. According to the Toronto Sun, the girl even told authorities it depicted her dad "getting the bad guys and monsters."
As I read various reports about the incident, I kept waiting for there to be more to this story, but nope -- it was all about this one drawing. For that, this man was treated like a criminal, and his pregnant wife and four children were dragged into the whole mess as well, as they had to go to the station for questioning. How incredibly confusing for those children.
It's outrageous that the school and social workers were so quick to involve police. How about calling in the parents, voicing concern, and hearing what they had to say first? My son has drawn a lot of crazy things in his school days, and we certainly don't have rocket launchers or nunchucks lying about anywhere but his imagination. If parents can arrested for what their children draw, we all should be scared.
And what a way to encourage creativity and a passion for self expression in preschoolers: arrest their parents if you don't like what they draw. The 4-year-old's words to her father after he was released were heartbreaking, "Daddy, are you mad at me?"
Yes, protecting our children must be our first priority, but this is just an abuse of power. It serves as a frightening example of over-protection that certainly did much more harm than good.
Do you find this father's arrest outrageous? What things have your children drawn that authorities might question?
Image via albastrica mititica/Flickr
Ashley Is a Widow Who Stays Strong...
This Hot Dad Wants to Vacuum Your Rug
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
KStew Refuses to Shower
Comments 544
I would be pulling my child out of that school. That was way over the top!
Makes me a little scared about when my kids start school; my husband is a soldier and a hunter.
i had a nightmare in the 8th grade that my family was murdered, a week later my english teacher wanted us to right an essay on a nightmare we'd had for halloween week.. so i wrote about the murder dream... cps threatened to take me and my brother away but my parents put me in therapy (which i never said a word during) and it was dropped.. my parents never hurt me or let me watch horror movies, the authorities have way to much power over parents....
The moral of the story? Don't live in Canada.
When my oldest son was in 1st grade I said to the teacher, "I'll only believe half of what I hear about you, and then I'll call and check with you, if you will do the same thing." Kids draw, imagine, story tell...What is appalling is that the adults in the situation had no common sense. The teacher made it her business by being concerned...someone from school needed to call home first, authorities only if warrranted.
If they hadn't called the cops and it turned out that the kid was telling the truth what would people be saying? Accusing the school of negligence perhaps? If he did have a gun and was using it as a vigilante or one or more of the kids was shot in the home I'm sure people would be up in arms saying that the school should have acted on the information.