School suspends fourth grader for bringing Nerf gun to show and tell

Fourth-grader Ramsey McDonald and his classmates at Miller Elementary School in Georgia got a typical beginning-of-the-year icebreaker assignment last week: Bring in some favorite toys and tell your peers about them.

Ramsey told his dad, Scott McDonald, that he was planning to bring an iPad, along with a few other toys. "Ok," said dad, and didn't think anything more about it, until the school called him on Tuesday.

"They told me my son brought a weapon to school," McDonald told WMAZ. "I asked them what it was, and they said it was a plastic Nerf gun."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The school originally suspended Ramsey for three days, but then it reduced the punishment to three days of in-school suspension, instead.

"He told me he didn't know they would think it was a weapon, or he wouldn't have brought it," McDonald said.