Tennessee School Expels 10-Year-Old for Making a Finger Gun

A Tennessee 10-year-old was expelled from school for a full year after he pointed his finger in the shape of a gun and made mock "machine gun" noises, according to a ProPublica investigation. 

The boy was expelled as part of a "zero tolerance" law in Tennessee that mandates any student who makes a threat of "mass violence" be expelled for at least one year. While the law, originally signed in 2023—following a shooting by a former student at a private school in Nashville—was recently amended to direct schools to expel students only for "valid" threats, the provisions of the law are still vague, and schools have considerable enforcement leeway.

In the process, expulsions for threats have considerably increased in many school districts. ProPublica reported that during the 2023–24 school year, Metro Nashville public schools expelled 42 students for making any threats, including 16 threats of mass violence. The prior year, only 22 students were expelled, despite the district investigating a similar number of alleged threats.