You’ve heard the story by now.
Danielle Elliott, a Colorado Springs mom, posted on Facebook about how school officials called the police on her 12-year-old son Isaiah for playing with a toy gun during one of his online learning classes.
“Due to him playing with a toy in the privacy of his own home,” Danielle is now stuck standing up for her traumatized son’s rights from those who violated his rights, she said on a special edition of Citizen Ed’s Facebook Live broadcasts.
“Numerous laws were broken,” Danielle said.
That’s right.
There was no warning to Isaiah’s parents that the discipline would be handed down. The vice principal admitted that she knew the “weapon” in Isaiah’s hands was a toy. And yet, there the cops were knocking on Danielle’s door to question her son anyway. And yet, there was a five-day suspension for Isaiah.
The story went viral thanks in part to the Elliott family’s Change.org petition and ongoing #IsaiahStrong social media campaign. From the petition:
Isaiah now has a record at the Sheriff’s department, an incident on his permanent school record citing “bringing weapons to school” and has been traumatized throughout this whole ordeal. Not only was this an extreme invasion of privacy and abuse of power but with today’s cultural climate, calling the police on an African American child for having a TOY gun could’ve easily been very detrimental.
Watch the rest of Danielle’s interview with Tracey Wiley here.
