An 8-year-old Florida boy was suspended from school for pretending to use his finger as a gun.
Bonnie Bennett told WKMG-TV that her son was suspended Friday from Harmony Community School in Osceola County after playing cops and robbers with another student.
“There was nothing in his hand,” Bennett said. "He used his thumb and index finger. It was a game. He made no threatening advances or threats to harm anyone. No words were said.”
Bennett said she wouldn’t have been upset if the boy had been punished some other way, but she’s concerned that the suspension will cause her son to be classified as a “violent offender.”
School officials declined to comment on specifics of the case, but they said the boy’s actions violated the code of student conduct.
The other boy was sent home, Bennett said her son told her.
Bennett said she hopes to convince the school’s principal to remove the suspension from her son’s record.
“I'm prepared to go to court if I have to because this is wrong,” Bennett said. “It's wrong for my son and any other child if they're faced with the same thing because of a game.”
The shooter who murdered three young students and three faculty at the private Covenant Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee "personalized" the guns used in the attack, say Nashville police, who released photos of the weapons, according to The Daily Beast.
The killer was identified by police as 28-year-old Audrey Hale — a former student at the Covenant School who recently began using "he/him" pronouns and goes by the name "Aiden" on some social media platforms.
"An AR-style rifle, a pistol, and a handgun were all included in a number of pieces of evidence released by police Monday night, including CCTV footage showing the suspect, who was identified by the Metro Nashville Police Department as Nashville resident Audrey Hale," reported Matt Young. "The photos show Hale had personalized the guns, with one of the firearms seen clearly with the name 'Aiden' on it ... The guns are also decorated with stickers."
"A release from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said writings recovered from Hale revealed that her attack was calculated and planned, while a search warrant executed at Hale’s home resulted in the seizure of a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun, and other evidence," said the report.
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This comes after another report that Hale had messaged a friend minutes before the attack began, saying, “You’ll probably hear about me on the news after I die.”
Police have not yet publicly identified a motivation, but have said that Hale left behind a "manifesto" that also included another possible target.
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) says there's nothing the 535 elected officials in the House and Senate can do to reduce gun violence and gun deaths.
"We're not gonna fix it," Congressman Burchett said on the steps of the Capitol.
"I don't see any role that we could do other than mess things up, honestly," he said in response to Monday's school mass shooting in Nashville, where three nine-year olds and three adults were shot to death by a shooter with two AR-15 style assault rifles and a handgun.
Instead of Congress enacting stricter gun laws, background checks, and a ban on assault weapons, Congressman Burchett said, "you've got to change people's hearts," as he called for a Christian revival.
"As a Christian, we talk about the church. I've said this many times, I think we really need a revival in this country."
Monday's shooting at the Covenant Presbyterian Elementary School was the 130th mass shooting this year in America, bringing the death toll from all gun violence across all causes to 9989, including 403 children 17 or younger, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Congressman Burchett is a member of the far-right Republican Study Committee, which has strong ties to the National Rifle Association (NRA).
On Monday, Burchett released a statement saying, "Kelly and I are praying for everyone at The Covenant School, especially the families of the shooting victims. No one should have to go through that kind of horrific event or lose a loved one like that. I'm so thankful to those brave folks who brought down the shooter and took care of the students and their families."
Earlier this month Rep. Burchett was one of 26 House Republicans on the Oversight Committee who refused to sign a simple two-sentence statement denouncing white supremacy.
Former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro attempted to stall a judge's order last week to hand over roughly 200 to 250 documents that are rightfully the property of the National Archives.
But Senior U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has just rejected his stall tactic by ruling he must comply with the Presidential Records Act, reports POLITICO's Kyle Cheney.
In particular, the judge smacked down claims made by Navarro that the case against him was supposedly unprecedented.
"If this is a case of first impression, as he contends in seeking a stay ... it is only because, unlike his many thousands of public servant predecessors, Dr. Navarro is apparently the first to steadfastly refuse to comply," wrote Kollar-Kotelly.
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This comes after the Justice Department dismantled Navarro's argument in a blistering filing.
"Defendant argues that the United States, and thus the public, is only 'minimally affected' by Dr. Navarro retaining the presidential records he admittedly has until 'Dr. Navarro's rights are ensured as protected,'" said that failing. "But Defendant has never explained how his rights are affected by returning the records, and the public interest plainly lies in ensuring that the historical record of the prior administration is complete."
In addition to the records issue, Navarro was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress last June for his blanket refusal to cooperate with House investigators probing the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Investigators had subpoenaed him, citing reports that Navarro worked with Trump strategist Steve Bannon to "develop and implement a plan to delay Congress’s certification, and ultimately change the outcome, of ... the November 2020 presidential election.”
Navarro filed a motion to dismiss that case in January, arguing he was protected by virtue of executive privilege. District Judge Amit Mehta denied the motion, as Navarro did not provide any evidence to support that assertion.
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