By Joel Christie 05:52 02 Jul 2014, updated 13:44 02 Jul 2014
- Second-grader Josh Welch, 7, tried to bite his breakfast tart into a mountain shape but his teacher thought it resembled a gun
- The school claimed he said it was a gun but the boy denies this
- Park Elementary School principal Sandra Blondell suspended Josh for two days in March 2013
- New investigation found she acted properly
- Boy's family say they are taking the case further to have the suspension rescinded
An investigation has found that an elementary school principal in Baltimore who suspended a seven-year-old boy for chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun acted properly in her decision.
However the boy's family has lawyered up, and are threatening to take the case further.
Josh Welch, a second-grader at Park Elementary School, said he was trying to nibble his strawberry breakfast snack into a mountain in March 2013.
But when it started to take shape he reportedly told his classmates: 'Look, I made a gun.'
Principal Sandra Blondell then removed Josh from school for two days.
Andrew Nussbaum, a lawyer who serves as a hearing examiner for several school systems surrounding Washington, submitted a 30-page report on Monday agreeing that Blondell was within her rights.
'As much as the parents want this case to be about a 'gun,' it is, rather, a case about classroom disruption from a student who has had a long history of disruptive behavior,' Nussbaum wrote in his opinion, according to CBS News.
'Had the student chewed his cereal bar into the shape of a cat and ran around the room, disrupting the classroom and making 'meow' cat sounds, the result would have been exactly the same.
Robin Ficker, an attorney for the Welch family, said that Josh may have had 'minor' disciplinary problems, but suspending him was taking the issue too far.
'It seems to me that schools need, with all their expertise and experience, they need to know how to deal with seven-year-old second-graders without putting them out of the educational setting,' Ficker told CBS.
'They need to deal with them rather than just throwing in the towel.
'If they can't deal with 7-year-olds, how can they deal with 17-year-olds?'
Ficker said that he intends to file exceptions to Nussbaum's report to the local school asking them to rescind the suspension.
If they don't, he will file to the state school board.
If that fails, they will take the case to court.
'I don't see why this child should be branded in this way,' Ficker said.
'It seems we have a lot of school personnel and they are unwilling to admit they went too far on that particular day.'
Josh, who has since turned 8, finished the school year after his suspension and was transferred to another school.
Josh, who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and enjoys art classes, told Fox 45 at the time of his suspension that his actions were innocent.
A student used food to make an inappropriate gesture. Read More at: http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/featured/stories/7yearold-suspended-teacher-says-he-shaped-pastry-into-gun-635.shtml#.UTI8FKpvh9FA student used food to make an inappropriate gesture. Read More at: http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/featured/stories/7yearold-suspended-teacher-says-he-shaped-pastry-into-gun-635.shtml#.UTI8FKpvh9F'It was already a rectangle and I just kept on biting it and biting it and tore off the top and it kinda looked like a gun but it wasn't.
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'All I was trying to do was turn it into a mountain but, it didn't look like a mountain really and it turned out to be a gun kinda,' the seven-year-old recalled.
The boy's dad found the incident ridiculous.
'I would almost call it insanity. I mean with all the potential issues that could be dealt with at school, real threats, bullies, whatever the real issue is, it's a pastry.., Ya know?' he said.
The boy's father said the school claimed Josh had said 'Bang! Bang!' while holding the pastry, according to Fox News.
Josh denies that his food art was ever meant to be a gun.
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