Kid Twirls a Pencil in Class, N.J. Threatens to Take Him from His Dad and Requires Blood and Urine Testing

In April, Ethan Chaplin was twirling his
pencil in class when
another kid—a bully, according to Chaplin—called out: “He’s
making gun motions, send him to juvie!”

The 13-year-old was yanked out of school and thereby commenced
his 15 minutes of fame as sites like
Huffington Post, as well as local
cable
news stations, took up his cause arguing that a suspension for
pencil twirling was zero tolerance run amok.

The Vernon Township school district’s interim superintendent
claimed Ethan had never been suspended, but conceded he had been
out of school for two days,
telling the New Jersey Herald: 

“The story that we expelled or suspended a student is partially
not true … We did exclude” the student from attending until a
proper psychological evaluation was done, interim Vernon
Superintendent Charles Maranzano [said.]…

If a student “demonstrates odd behaviors, non-conforming
behaviors, it causes us to take a closer look,” he told the
newspaper. “If a student gestures or demonstrates behavior that
could be construed as a threat to others in a classroom… then
that’s also a trigger for us.”

Ethan was back in class quickly, but too often these zero
tolerance cases have second- and third-order effects. In Ethan’s
case, long after they thought the incident was resolved, his dad
received some
very scary paperwork from the state of New Jersey threatening
to revoke his custody rights:

Ethan’s father [Michael] received startling communication from
New Jersey’s Department of Child Protection and Permanency and
Department of Children and Families.

“I received a letter from them saying they had found an incident
of abuse or neglect regarding Ethan because I refused to take him
for psychological evaluation,” Michael said.

Panicked by the letter, Ethan’s parents took him in for the
evaluation, where he was required to give blood and urine
samples.

No troubling psychological conditions were found (unless they’ve
recently added “being an annoying fidget” to the DSM) but
now the Chaplin family will likely endure a period of uncertainty
and perhaps even home visits from social workers with the power to
take away Ethan at any time.

Meanwhile, 13-year-olds may be idiots sometimes, but they’re not
dumb. Remember, the whole incident was triggered by a kid savvy
enough to know that raising the specter of even a fake gun is a
powerful weapon in the bullying wars.