As long as cowboys and cops have captured the imagination of kids, the finger gun—thumb up, index finger out—has been a trusty sidearm in the minds of American school children.
But in a nation shocked and on-guard after a series of school shootings, that innocent gesture prompted a swift response from the principal of the Blackstone Elementary School in Boston, officials said yesterday.
The students in a second-grade classroom were responding to a visiting drama teacher and play-acting to show different emotions in a class last week, Boston School Department spokeswoman Tracey Lynch said.
When asked to show anger, one child raised a hand, fingers pointed in the shape of a gun. Three more copied.
The teachers told the children that the gesture was not an appropriate response to anger. One educator reported the incident to Principal Mildred Ruiz-Allen.
Before class was over, Ruiz-Allen visited the children to talk to the kids and stress that the finger gun—and what it might represent—was not appropriate outside of the classroom drama lesson.
"When she heard about it, the principal went to the class before it was out and met with the kids to talk about what was appropriate and what was not," said Lynch. "She wanted the kids to be able to distinguish between play acting and know the gesture was not suitable outside of their lesson."
[Ed: The same week, four kindergartners in Sayreville, New Jersey, were suspended for playing cops and robbers, also using their fingers as guns.]
