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School Calls Cops on 6-Year-Old With Down Syndrome Over Finger Guns

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3 years ago

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  • In November, a six-year-old with down syndrome pointed a finger gun at her teacher and pretended to shoot.
  • A “threat assessment” team was assigned to review the incident, and even though no threat was determined, the police were called per the school district’s policy.
  • The child’s mother, Maggie Gaines, is now working to get the district to revise and clarify the policy so that this kind of incident doesn’t happen again.

Finger Gun Incident

A school district in Tredyffrin, Pennsylvania is reviewing a student discipline policy after the police were called on a six-year-old with down syndrome who pointed a finger gun at her teacher.

Margot Gaines is a kindergartner at Valley Forge Elementary School. In November 2019, the child grew frustrated and pretended to shoot her teacher with her finger, saying “I shoot you,”— an action that has launched the community into an ongoing discussion. 

Maggie Gaines, Margot’s mother, has noted that because of her mental disability, Margot often struggles with transitions between activities, and this is why she responded with the finger gun.

“I  imagine the utterance was not unlike the instances when I’ve told her it’s time for bed and she says, ‘I hate bed. I hate mommy.’ As most parents can attest, I have learned not to take offense,” Gaines said. “For I know that a short time later she is usually cuddled up to me, while we read bedtime stories and exchange kisses and cuddles before saying good-night.” 

Margot was sent to see the principal, and a “threat assessment” team comprised of school and district personnel intervened. It was quickly determined that there was no safety threat and even that no disciplinary action was needed. But district policy was reworked in 2018 in the wake of a middle school student receiving anti-Semitic threats and more national school shootings, according to local news outlet SAVVY Main Line. Because of this protocol, administrators said they still needed to alert law enforcement.

“I was fine with everything up until they said ‘and we have to call the police,’” Maggie Gaines, Margot’s mother, told CBS Philadelphia. “And I said you absolutely do not have to call the police. You know, this is ridiculous.”

Local police wrote up an incident report, which differs from a criminal record and can’t be released to the public. But nevertheless, it still has Margot’s name on it in connection to a threat to shoot a teacher, and this worries her mother.

“I don’t know how that information will be used,” Maggie Gaines told SAVVY Main Line.  

Response from Family 

Maggie Gaines refused to let the incident go unaddressed, asserting that school officials misinterpreted their own policy with her daughter and took it a step too far. Gaines is now pushing for a revision and clarification of Policy 5401, which deals with threat assessment. 

On Jan. 21, at a Tredyffrin/Easttown School District Committee meeting, she offered a statement with her stance on the issue. 

“I am well aware that we live in a time when parents are concerned for their children’s safety in school. When I think of incidents at Parkland High School or Sandy Hook Elementary School, I too am haunted and disgusted,” Gaines said. “But I also think our society and our schools across the country have overreacted with respect to perceived threats, resulting in even finger guns wielded by kindergartners being viewed as cause to alert authorities.”   

“I find this application of the threat assessment policy to be out of line with its intended purpose, which is to identify and help troubled students who may harm others in the future and to prevent that from happening,” Gaines said. 

Gaines also pointed out that students with intellectual disabilities, like her daughter, are disproportionately disciplined in school, citing a 2018 report published by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.  

Reactions From Others

The Gaines family has managed to rally the community as well and even involve higher elected officials. 

At the January meeting, Kate Murphy, a former school board member and player in the creation of district policy, expressed her concern for the handling of the incident. 

“Many of our changes and revisions were driven by events that occurred in our middle schools or high school, not in our elementary schools,” Murphy said. “It wasn’t my intent to notify the police, or create a ‘record’ with local law enforcement when an elementary-aged child made what our trained threat assessment team determined to be a ‘transient threat.’”

The situation was also addressed by Pennsylvania Sen. Andrew Dinniman, who was contacted by the Gaines family. Dinniman wrote a letter to the Superintendent of the school district, which he also made public in a Facebook post. 

“As a state senator, an educator, and a parent, I am concerned when I hear that such important decisions appear to be guided blindly by written policy or legal interpretation without those in positions of authority using their judgment, experience, and commonsense to weigh in,” Dinniman wrote.

“Furthermore, I am alarmed that a school seems to be acting as an extension of the police department in promulgating data and records on children as young as kindergarteners,” he added.

The school district issued a statement to CBS Philadelphia, saying they have agreed to review the policy in question. Multiple meetings have been held in which the topic has been discussed, and more are scheduled in the coming weeks.  

“When developing the current practice, the District worked collaboratively with parents, law enforcement and private safety/mental health agencies and legal consultants to ensure our safety measures reflected considerable input from both our local community and experts in the field of school safety,” it said.

Maggie Gaines also clarified that she in no way meant to attack the administrators at her daughter’s school, calling them “amazing professionals” who she “respect[s] tremendously.” 

“They were told to follow a policy and a protocol, which they did,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “The real issue here is a bad policy that unnecessarily escalates even the most minor childhood issues to the police to create an incident report.”

“And my community needs to stand up and make sure the TESD School Board and Administration changes it to ensure it doesn’t happen again to my daughter or any other children in our district again,” Gaines added. 

See what others are saying: (CNN) (CBS Philadelphia) (Washington Post)

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Survey and Census Data Shows Record Number of Americans are Struggling Financially

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2 weeks ago

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May 23, 2023

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Americans are choosing not to pursue medical treatment more and more frequently as they encounter money troubles.

A recent federal survey shows that a record number of Americans were worse off financially in 2022 than a year prior.

Coupled with recent census data showing pervasive poverty across much of the country, Americans are forced to make difficult decisions, like foregoing expensive healthcare. 

According to a recent Federal Reserve Bureau survey, 35% of adults say they were worse off in 2022 than 2021, which is the highest share ever recorded since the question was raised in 2014. 

Additionally, half of adults reported their budget was majorly affected by rising prices across the country, and that number is even higher among minority communities and parents living with their children.

According to recent census data, more than 10% of the counties in the U.S. are experiencing persistent poverty, meaning the area has had a poverty rate of 20% or higher between 1989 and 2019. 

16 states report at least 10% of their population living in persistent poverty. But most of the suffering counties were found in the South — which accounts for over half the people living in persistent poverty, despite making up less than 40% of the population. 

These financial realities have placed many Americans in the unfortunate situation of choosing between medical treatment and survival. The Federal Reserve study found that the share of Americans who skipped medical treatment because of the cost has drastically increased since 2020. 

The reflection of this can be found in the overall health of households in different income brackets. 75% of households with an income of $25,000 or less report being in good health – compared to the 91% of households with $100,000 or more income. 

See what others are saying: (Axios) (The Hill) (Federal Reserve)

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Montana Governor Signs TikTok Ban

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3 weeks ago

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May 18, 2023

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The ban will likely face legal challenges before it is officially enacted next year. 

First Statewide Ban of TikTok

Montana became the first state to ban TikTok on Wednesday after Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) signed legislation aimed at protecting “Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party.”

The ban will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, though the law will likely face a handful of legal challenges before that date. 

Under the law, citizens of the state will not be held liable for using the app, but companies that offer the app on their platforms, like Apple and Google, will face a $10,000 fine per day of violations. TikTok would also be subject to the hefty daily fine. 

Questions remain about how tech companies will practically enforce this law. During a hearing earlier this year, a representative from TechNet said that these platforms don’t have the ability to “geofence” apps by state.

Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics, told the Associated Press that app stores could have the capability to enforce the restriction, but it would be difficult to carry out and there would be a variety of loopholes by tools like VPNs.

Montana’s law comes as U.S. politicians have taken aim at TikTok over its alleged ties to the CCP. Earlier this year, the White House directed federal agencies to remove TikTok from government devices. Conservatives, in particular, have been increasingly working to restrict the app.

“The Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well-documented,” Gov. Gianforte said in a Wednesday statement. 

Criticism of Montana Law

TikTok, however, has repeatedly denied that it gives user data to the government. The company released a statement claiming Montana’s law “infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people” in the state. 

“We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana,” the company said. 

The American Civil Liberties Union condemned Montana’s law for similar reasons. 

“This law tramples on our free speech rights under the guise of national security and lays the groundwork for excessive government control over the internet,” the ACLU tweeted. “Elected officials do not have the right to selectively censor entire social media apps based on their country of origin.”

Per the AP, there are 200,000 TikTok users in Montana, and another 6,000 businesses use the platform as well. Lawsuits are expected to be filed against the law in the near future.

See what others are saying: (Associated Press) (Fast Company) (CBS News)

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How a Disney-Loving Former Youth Pastor Landed on The FBI’s “Most Wanted” List

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1 month ago

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April 24, 2023

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 “Do what is best, not for yourself, for once. Think about everyone else,” Chris Burns’ 19-year-old son pleaded to his father via The Daily Beast. 

Multi-Million Dollar Scheme 

Former youth pastor turned financial advisor Chris Burns remains at large since going on the run in September of 2020 to avoid a Securities Exchange Commission investigation into his businesses.

Despite his fugitive status, the Justice Department recently indicted Burns with several more charges on top of the $12 million default judgment he received from the SEC. 

Burns allegedly sold false promissory notes to investors across Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida. The SEC claims he told the investors they were participating in a “peer to peer” lending program where businesses that needed capital would borrow money and then repay it with interest as high as 20%. Burns allegedly also reassured investors that the businesses had collateral so the investment was low-risk. 

The SEC says that Burns instead took that money for personal use. 

Burns’ History 

Burns began his adult life as a youth pastor back in 2007 before transitioning into financial planning a few years later.  By 2017, he launched his own radio show, The Chris Burns Show, which was funded by one of his companies, Dynamic Money – where every week Burns would “unpack how this week’s headlines practically impact your life, wallet, and future,” according to the description. He also frequently appeared on television and online, talking about finances and politics. 

The SEC alleges that he used his public appearances to elevate his status as a financial advisor and maximize his reach to investors.

His family told The Daily Beast that he became obsessed with success and he reportedly bought hand-made clothes, a million-dollar lakehouse, a boat, several cars, and took his family on several trips to Disney World. His eldest son and wife said that Burns was paying thousands of dollars a day for VIP tours and once paid for the neighbors to come along. 

Then in September 2020, he reportedly told his wife that he was being investigated by the Securities Exchange Commission but he told her not to worry. 

The day that he was supposed to turn over his business documents to the SEC, he disappeared, telling his wife he was just going to take a trip to North Carolina to tell his parents about the investigation. Then, the car was found abandoned in a parking lot with several cashier’s checks totaling $78,000

FBI’s Most Wanted

The default judgment in the SEC complaint orders Burns, if he’s ever found, to pay $12 million to his victims, as well as over $650,000 in a civil penalty. Additionally, a federal criminal complaint charged him with mail fraud. Burns is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. 

Last week, the Justice Department indicted him on several other charges including 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud. 

“Burns is charged for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from clients in an illegal investment fraud scheme,” Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “Financial crimes of this nature can cause significant disruptions to the lives of those who are victimized, and the FBI is dedicated to holding these criminals accountable.”

His family maintains that they knew nothing of Burns’ schemes. His wife reportedly returned over $300,000 that he had given to her. 

She and their eldest son, who is now 19, told The Daily Beast they just want Burns to turn himself in, take responsibility for his actions, and try to help the people he hurt. 

“Do what is best, not for yourself, for once. Think about everyone else,” Burns’ son said in a message to his father via The Daily Beast. 

See what others are saying: (The Daily Beast) (Fox 5) (Wealth Management)

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