A Pop-Tart school gun bill, designed to ease serious penalties and school suspensions for children who make pastries and other items into the shape of a gun, passed its first hurdle in Florida.
According to USA Today, the proposed law, which was cleared by a state House panel on Wednesday, would make it illegal for public schools to discipline students who support the Second Amendment.
If passed, the bill would prohibit school districts from suspending their students for "brandishing a partially consumed pastry or other food item" bitten into the shape of a gun or supposed weapon or "possessing a toy firearm or weapon made of plastic snap-together building blocks."
Rep. Dennis Baxley, a Republican from Ocala, Fla., told USA Today that the bill is meant to "bar overreactions under zero-tolerance policies." These policies are designed to target school violence and end shootings like those at Sandy Hook, Conn., and Columbine, Colo.
According to FOX News, last year, eight-year-old Jordan Bennett was suspended from his central Florida public school for playing cops and robbers and using his thumb and forefinger to mimic a gun. Last March, a seven-year-old Maryland elementary school student was suspended after he nibbled a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun.
Baxley proposed the phrase "Pop-Tart bill" after several cases of suspension were reported involving the breakfast treat. Last May, a boy chewed the pastry into the shape of a pistol, earning him a suspension from school, but also a lifetime membership from the National Rifle Association.
The proposed Florida bill received unanimous support on the House K-12 Subcommittee, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
"This is addressing a zero-tolerance policy that often will not allow people to use common sense because their hands are tied," commented Florida elementary school teacher Castor Dentel.
The bill would also allow schools to punish kids if playing disrupts learning or puts another student in danger. The bill would also prevent students who wear clothes that depict guns from facing disciplinary action.
"Simulating a firearm or weapon while playing or wearing clothing or accessories that depict a firearm or weapon or express an opinion regarding a right guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is not grounds for disciplinary action," the bill stated.
Similar legislation to the pop-tart school gun bill has been proposed in Maryland, but has not yet become a law.
