A 10-Year-Old Pointed a Finger Gun. The Principal Kicked Him Out of His Tennessee School for a Year.

by Aliyya Swaby Republish ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.& Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. Reporting Highlights New Law About Threats: A 2023 Tennessee law requires a minimum yearlong expulsion for students who threaten mass violence. Some students were expelled for mildly disruptive behavior. More Frequent Expulsions: Expulsions for threats went up in some districts after the law passed, even when the total number of threats remained the same or decreased. Police Involvement: Some school administrators handed off the responsibility for dealing with minor incidents to police, resulting in students being arrested and charged. When Belle got a call last September that her 10-year-old had been sent to the vice principal’s office, she rushed over to the school. Her son Lee looked on anxiously as the vice principal explained the situation: The fifth grader had angrily pointed his finger in the shape of a gun. Belle scolded him for not thinking before he acted, agreeing with administrators at the East Tennessee public elementary school who felt that he had misbehaved. While Lee sat at home for a few days serving...