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More than 20 Louisiana middle school students were suspended and are facing expulsion after participating in a TikTok challenge where they made hand gestures imitating guns.
"I haven’t seen the video, so I myself have not been able to identify my own child. I understand that it was something done on school grounds, I understand all of that. I think there should be some sort of discipline. But I just think this is really harsh," one unidentified mother told KATC.
More than 20 L.J. Alleman Middle School students were suspended after participating in two videos in December, according to the attorney representing some of the families, Pat Magee.
'DEVIOUS' TIKTOK TREND HAS SCHOOLS WARNING STUDENTS DESTROYING PROPERTY: 'CHARGES MAY BE FILED'
The videos show the kids making finger guns and using their cellphones to imitate guns in a TikTok challenge for Nardo Wick's song "Who Want Smoke," local media reported.
The TikTok logo is seen on an iPhone 11 Pro max in this photo illustration in Warsaw, Poland on September 29, 2020. The TikTok app will be banned from US app stores from Sunday unless president Donald Trump approves a last-minute deal between US tech firm Oracle and TikTok owner ByteDance. US authorities say the Chinese video sharing app threaten national security and could pass on user data to China. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Parents at the Lafayette school say their children have faced emotional turmoil as they navigate the disciple process.
"I want to say this on a hill loud and proud, I believe that LPSS is trying to make an example of these kids and make it look like they handled a threat that didn’t even exist," Stacy Charles, whose eighth-grade daughter is among the students targeted for discipline, told the Advocate.
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School administrators called parents on Dec. 16 and informed them the students would be cited under discipline code 70, which addresses the crime of violent assault and battery.
"It was not assault. It was not battery. It was not violent, and the code that’s being used and the level of the infraction associated with that code is completely unwarranted, unfair and horrible," one mother said.
L.J. Alleman Middle school in Lafayette (Google Maps) (Google Maps)
Magee said the school changed the discipline from code 70 to one that includes offenses not covered by other codes of discipline under the district’s guidelines, according to KATC on Monday.
"They’re making the rules up as they go along … They made some mistakes, as any organization would because this is all new, but the problem is now they don’t want to say that this was wrong. We’re handling these children wrongly, and let’s step back, take a breath and figure out how to fix this for the good of all the kids," Magee told the Advocate.
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One unidentified mother said her child was accepted to a local high school, but that the discipline now prevents her from attending.
"Later on that day I received the acceptance letter from the Lafayette High Academy saying she wasn’t eligible due to discipline. So this is throwing a wrench in our plans for her and I think it’s unfair," the mother said.
Magee said that there should be punishment, but that it should be on a student-to-student basis.
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"We’re not saying there needs to be an absence of punishment. No, but the punishment needs to fit the behavior. That’s why you have a rubric, and when you misuse the rubrics by saying, ‘It’s any other serious offense.’ Then you know they don’t really have a cause of action to justify what they’re doing. They’re making it up as they go along," Magee said.
A Lafayette Parish School System spokesperson told Fox News on Tuesday: "LPSS does not publicly share information regarding internal investigations or disciplinary actions of our students or staff. This information is shared only with the affected parties."
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