Maryland Lawmakers React to 'Pop-Tart Terrorist'

A 7-year-old boy at Park Elementary School in Anne Arundel County was recently suspended for two days for chewing a strawberry-filled breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun, pointing it and saying “bang, bang.”

The Washington Post was one of a number of media outlets that reported the incident, which captured national attention with political commentator George Will naming the child the Pop-Tart Terrorist.

The Post also reports that in the almost three months since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, two Washington, DC-area children have been suspended for pointing their fingers like guns. It also reported that a 10-year-old in Alexandria was arrested for displaying a toy gun and a 5-year-old girl in Pennsylvania was suspended for talking about shooting her Hello Kitty bubble gun.

Late last week, Maryland Sen. J.B. Jennings (R-Baltimore) introduced Senate Bill 1058, The Reasonable School Discipline Act of 2013, according to the Post.

The bill would disallow the suspension or expulsion of students who make “a hand shape or gesture resembling a gun” or bring to school "any other object that resembles a gun but serves another purpose.” The bill’s language does make exceptions for cases in which students use the items in “a direct act of violence against another student.”

Jennings told the Star Democrat, ”These kids can't comprehend what they are doing or the ramifications of their actions," and “we really need to evaluate how kids are being punished.”

The bill did not pass Maryland's General Assembly.