Two 16-year-old Massachusetts teenagers were suspended for posing with airsoft rifles for a Homecoming photo—even though the photo was taken in one of their own homes.
The superintendent’s defense of his decision, and the busy-body parents who alerted the photo? “Whether they had reason to be afraid or not, the fact is they were, and it was created by this.”
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The students, Tito Velez and Jamie Pereira, had captioned the photo “Homecoming 2014,” which the school, Bristol Plymouth Regional Technical School, claims “scared students.”
The school’s superintendent Richard W. Gross told WHDH “What it’s about is a [couple of] students engaging in an activity that created a total destruction of the school day.”
“They’re juniors in High School,” said Gross, “and it’s proactive and they should know better and it scared students.”
Pereira said the photograph was not intended to be threatening, and reacted indignantly on Twitter:
Just so idiots can understand, we weren’t joking over a school shooting. Airsoft is a hobby we included in our pictures.
— Jamie Pereira (@Swimwithnemo) October 28, 2014
@mylittlememow @KourtneyWhite2 and in the comments we said they were airsoft guns so
— Jamie Pereira (@Swimwithnemo) October 28, 2014
Even though the teens say they frequently post airsoft photos on social media, concerned parents apparently called in to the school to complain.
