Cops Called On 6-Year-Old TESD Student Who Made 'Finger Guns'

BERWYN, PA — A local family says police were called on their daughter after she made "finger guns" at Valley Forge Elementary School in the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District.

According to Maggie Gaines, authorities were called on her daughter, 6-year-old Margot who has Down Syndrome, after she made finger gun motions toward a teacher and said "I shoot you," even though the act was wholly without malice, back in November.

Gaines penned a letter to the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District Policy Committee recently, outlining the issues with the district's threat assessment policy.

The incident should have ended after school administration determined the action was not an actual threat of violence, rather it was a transient threat, which the policy described as "all threats that do not reflect a genuine intent to harm others.

But it continued — per district policy — with the police being called.

"Violations of this Policy and the accompanying Administrative Regulation shall be reported to local law enforcement in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding in effect between the District and the local law enforcement agency," the policy reads.

You can read the full policy here.

"Our daughter Margot is a kindergartener at Valley Forge Elementary School," Gaines wrote in her letter. "And she now has a record with the Tredyffrin police department, because the district alleged she had made a threat to her teacher."

She said police told her daughter's "record" would not be expunged.

Gaines and her family want the district to clarify its threat assessment policy in order to prevent similar issues from affecting other students.

"We ask that the policy require school officials to consider the age and developmental appropriateness of any action they take or record, as well as a student's disability, rather than blindly following a policy that, I believe, even they know, goes too far," she wrote.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, a district spokesperson said the district "utilizes this evidence-based model to identify, evaluate, and respond to student threats."