The Rutherford County School Board met on Thursday night and one of the issues that parents brought to the forefront was the issue of a child taking toy guns to school in gift bags for students. The student, who is Muslim, was giving his classmates gifts in celebration of a Muslim holiday. The incident occurred in October at Barfield Elementary School. According to reports, the student was not punished for bringing the toy guns to school and that is what had some parents concerned.

On Thursday night, the school board looked into amending their policy on students bringing toy guns to school. Apparently, the district’s current policy does not specifically address toy weapons as some thought that it did. A change in policy would allow principals more power to suspend students who bring toy guns to school.

During the meeting, county school board members voted to add toy weapons to the schools zero-tolerance policy.

The change in policy will be further addressed and voted on November 29th. If approved a second time, it will immediately go into effect.

On a side note, the mother of the child who brought the toy guns to school has apologized to the school for the mistake.