Earlier this summer, stunned suburban mom Courtney Sperry--a Navy veteran living in Baltimore County, Maryland--opened her front door to find armed police officers requesting permission to search her 11-year old son’s bedroom.
According to Sperry’s Facebook post, her son’s BB gun and archery display was spotted by a “concerned parent” during an online class. A teacher then got involved and took a screenshot of the boy’s bedroom with the display visible in the background.
The teacher sent the screenshot to the school safety officer, who called the police. Faster than you can say “virtual Zoom class,” officers showed up at Sperry’s door.
The youngster, who is working towards the rank of Eagle Scout, owns a Red Ryder BB Gun. The Red Ryder was stored on a rack in the boy’s bedroom, along with another BB gun, an Airsoft rifle, and his archery equipment. Sperry describes her son as “an outdoors, all-boy kind of kid.”
Citing her respect for law enforcement, she allowed the officers into her home without a warrant to assure them that nothing illegal, dangerous, or threatening was going on.
“The officers that responded were appalled (at having to respond to the call) and even commended the set-up that my son has for his toys and commended him also on his respect and understanding of the BB guns,” Sperry wrote.
Nevertheless, Sperry said during an interview on local news station WBFF, “I felt violated as a parent, for my child, who's standing there with police officers in his room, just to see the fear on his face.”
The Red Ryder BB gun was introduced about 80 years ago. It’s the same model made famous by the character Ralphie in the 1983 holiday classic film A Christmas Story.
“How many 11-year old boys have BB guns?” Sperry asked during the WBFF report.
The school refused to provide Sperry with the screenshot of her child’s bedroom taken by the teacher. She was told, “…it is not part of the student's record.”
“Screenshots are being taken of minor children in their bedrooms? How is this okay? I never consented to that,” Sperry asserts in her post.
Sperry asked the principal of the public school why she wasn’t contacted before police were called, and was told that was not their policy.
She subsequently spoke with her son’s teacher, got the principal and vice principal involved, and was told, “…just as he cannot bring guns to school, he cannot bring them to virtual meetings as well, and this is in the handbook.”
Maryland has no laws regulating BB guns in the home and considers them imitation firearms. The state’s own Maryland Archery in the Schools Program actually encourages bow and arrow target shooting for public school students.
So, for many it’s understandable that an outdoors-oriented youth might have archery equipment and BB guns in his room. However, any type of gun (real, replica, or imitation) is prohibited on public school grounds. The school claims that policy also extends to its students’ homes during online classes. Sperry however contends that the handbook she was provided doesn’t mention virtual learning.
What’s more, Sperry points out her son was not holding the BB guns or archery equipment during the Zoom class and never intentionally showed them online.
“In fact, he was oblivious that they could even be seen in the background," she said. "From the angle in which he was on video, it was not even evident which room of my home he was in.”
Sperry still finds the incident unsettling.
“I feel extremely violated and so does my son,” she posted.
It’s difficult to determine what’s more disturbing about the incident—the Orwellian act of a teacher taking a screenshot of a child’s bedroom during a virtual class, the nosey “concerned parent” whose complaint sparked the incident, or the way it was handled by the school, which sent police to the boy’s home instead of contacting his mother first.
Regardless, it’s an appalling example of government overreach via electronic access that should serve as a warning to every parent with a child attending classes online.
“What are the parameters? Where are the lines drawn?" Sperry said in the WBFF interview. "If my son is sitting in the kitchen island next to a butcher block [of knives], does that constitute a weapon? I mean, it’s not allowed at school, right? So, would my home then be searched, because he’s sitting next to a butcher block?”
Although the incident occurred June 1, it’s still a hot topic in local media with numerous outlets reporting the story. And Sperry is determined not to let the matter drop.
“Thank you for the continued support,” she said to those who left positive comments and shared her Facebook post almost 5,000 times. “This is far from over.”
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