Illinois serves as home for a lot of people who don't understand guns. They fear that which they don't understand. Some folks not only fear guns, but hate them and those who have them.
Such is the case at A Place 2 Grow in Troy, Illinois near Collinsville.
A Place 2 Grow suspended a 4-year-old for bringing in a spent .22 shell casing, and then notified the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The young boy named Hunter Jackson had picked up the shell casing while out with his police officer grandfather learning about gun safety a couple of days before. The shiny case proved a neat reminder of some great times for the boy, so he picked it up so he could show his friends. That's where A Place 2 Grow managed to rain on Hunter's parade.
His mom posted this on Facebook and from there, it's gone viral.
I never thought this could happen to us. You see stuff on the news like this, but….Today, I picked up my happy little 4 yr old from preschool, at A Place to Grow, in Troy. My arrival was met with a stone faced teacher, who told me that Hunter brought a "shotgun bullet" to school.
😨 I was horrified. My kid? Who just spent the weekend learning gun safety?
Well….when I was escorted to the office for a sit down. I was handed a tiny .22 empty brass casing. Not a "shotgun bullet". He found it on the ground, expelled from a 22 Rifle over the weekend, while Hunter was target practicing with his Police Officer Grandpa. He was so excited, and snuck it to school to show his friends. We had no idea about it.
I was handed a piece of paper. No words, just eyebrows raised in disgust at my son, explaining that his behavior warranted a 7 school day suspension. Which I still was expected to pay tuition for, of course. And a threat that if his enthusiasm for guns continued, he'd be permanently expelled.
See, here's the thing. This was a teaching moment. He never hurt anyone, or threatened anyone. This could literally happen to ANY CHILD who happened to find one on the ground and thought it was cool. He does not have access to ANY weapon in our home. This could have been handled by explaining appropriate behavior at school.
He's 4. This doesn't hurt him, or teach him, or help him. Just his parents, who do not condone bringing these kinds of things to school. Ever. Had we known, we of course would have stopped it. But every time he or another child mentions a gun (like every boy I grew up with did) they punish him.
Let's take a look at "A Place 2 Grow". The first thing I noticed was the "texting" shorthand in the name – which should scare the hell out of any parent considering the place for a daycare for their kid(s). Nothing like fostering non-standard use of the English language right out of the gate.
The head honcho there is Sarah Jarmin, who according to her LinkedIn profile is in her first year of a 4-year college program for a Bachelor in Education.
Her experience in education? Just what she gleaned from working for eleven years at AG Edwards and as a first year college dropout studying pre-vet studies twenty years ago.
Her touted skills?
She's clearly lacking in leadership, training, public relations and community outreach. In fact, if she was training people in all of the above, her handling of this incident with a 4-year-old sure looks a lot like a great way NOT to handle things. Maybe she can employ some event planning with her small business entrepreneurship to fundraise herself to make up for the money lost from adults who don't want to take their children to a daycare run by inept children.
Her husband apparently serves as "Vice-President" of the place. He reportedly has never been to college at all. But he knows how to dial DCFS. Good to know.
If you would like to leave a review of this facility, you can do so here:
Comments are closed.