All News Archives Businesses Classifieds Jobs Cars Homes Bars & Clubs Restaurants Events Boats Help Wednesday, October 24 Font: Regular Medium Large Print Story Email Story Expunge suspension for sketch, mom says By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, 609-463-6713 Published: Monday, October 22, 2007 DENNIS TOWNSHIP - Kyle McDevitt walked from the front door of the house to a red bicycle in the gravel driveway, apparently unconcerned about the half-dozen journalists on the lawn talking to his family about him. The 7-year-old lifted the bicycle off the ground Sunday and hopped on it. As he rode down the street with friends, his mother reminded him to strap on his blue helmet. Then Shirley McDevitt told reporters at a news conference in front of a relative's home that she wants her son's permanent school record expunged. He was suspended Thursday after drawing a stick figure shooting another stick figure, McDevitt said. One smiling figure had the name "me" written above it. The other smiling figure had a schoolmate's name on it. Kyle Walker told his mother it was a water gun and that he and the boy were friends. After stepping inside the house for dinner, Kyle said to a reporter he wasn't nervous about all the attention. He is studying maps in Social Studies in the second grade at the Dennis Township Primary School. He has an older brother. He said he wasn't worried about going to school and what the other children might think after his one-day suspension received national attention. He spoke more in nods than in words, with a finger in his mouth. Family members said he was obviously nervous but was too young to understand how his pencil sketch could draw so much attention. "He knows why they're here," his mother said of the media. "I don't know that he knows why it's so serious." He cried the night he was suspended, she said, because he thought he was going to miss a school field trip. McDevitt said the Dennis Township School District overreacted by suspending her son for a day last week. Now she says she doesn't want that mark on her son's permanent record, and she wants the school to remove it. She said she worries the blemish could hurt him later in his school life. "When a child draws at that age, they're not drawing with thought," said McDevitt, of Belleplain. McDevitt said she was told he was suspended because of the school's zero-tolerance policy for guns. The drawing was discovered, she said, after the schoolmate brought the drawing home and his parents expressed their concerns to the school, she said. The school district declined comment on the incident Friday. Superintendent of Schools George Papp could not be reached at his home Sunday afternoon. To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press: BIanieri@pressofac.com Links by inform.com
Kyle McDevitt, a seven-year-old, second grade boy at Dennis Township Primary School in New Jersey, was suspended for one day after drawing an image of one stick figure person shooting another.

The drawing depicted two stick figures, one labeled as 'me' by McDevitt and the other was labeled with the name of another student, with McDevitt smiling while shooting the other student. While on a school bus, the child gave the drawing to another student who took it home and showed it to his parents. The parents then filed a complaint with the school's district.

According to the boy's mother, Shirley McDevitt, the gun was a squirt gun filled with water. She also said that the boys are friends with each other. She has asked school officials to "expunge" her son's permanent school record of the incident.

"When a child draws at that age, they're not drawing with thought," stated McDevitt.

She also stated that officials for the school district said that the boy was suspended because of the schools policy on "zero-tolerance" for guns.

Other sketches are reported to have been drawn such as a skateboarder, a cyclops and a ghost.