How sensitive and coddled have we become if this is a cause for concern?
More than 20 Louisiana middle school students were suspended and are facing expulsion after participating in a TikTok challenge where they made hand gestures imitating guns.
"I haven’t seen the video, so I myself have not been able to identify my own child. I understand that it was something done on school grounds, I understand all of that. I think there should be some sort of discipline. But I just think this is really harsh," one unidentified mother told KATC.
More than 20 L.J. Alleman Middle School students were suspended after participating in two videos in December, according to the attorney representing some of the families, Pat Magee.
The videos show the kids making finger guns and using their cellphones to imitate guns in a TikTok challenge for Nardo Wick's song "Who Want Smoke," local media reported.
Parents at the Lafayette school say their children have faced emotional turmoil as they navigate the disciple process.
"I want to say this on a hill loud and proud, I believe that LPSS is trying to make an example of these kids and make it look like they handled a threat that didn’t even exist," Stacy Charles, whose eighth-grade daughter is among the students targeted for discipline, told the Advocate.
School administrators called parents on Dec. 16 and informed them the students would be cited under discipline code 70, which addresses the crime of violent assault and battery.