Parenting

REPORT IMMEDIATELY!

Kids that young have shot people.

absolutely report that. how is this even a question? a child threatened to bring a GUN to school and kill people. it doesn't matter how young or what other crazy shit they've said. don't take a chance on this. please. you have no idea if they actually have access to a gun or not. report that asap.

He brought a gun to the school once, and he accidentally pressed the button that makes it shoot and almost killed people, so his girlfriend Kate is mad at him.

He says he’s gonna bring his gun to the school one day and kill everyone with it. He’ll spare my daughter because ‘you’re the smart kid. We need smart people to tell us what to do’

Yeah maybe start with that

Most of this seems like it could be troublesome but developmental and not really concerning. Then the last two points went from 10 to 100 real quick. This needs to be reported to the school administration, period. There are people whose job it is to figure out the truth of the situation as best they can, but they need to know where they're needed.

Even if your wife is right and the child is joking, this is not something it's ok to joke about. Part of being in school is socialising and learning what is and isn't ok to say

Everything up to the “I’m going to bring a gun to school and kill everyone” sounded like more over-the-top than usual 6-7 year old bullshitting but still reasonably within that realm. The girlfriend stuff could be a sign of too-early exposure to sexual imagery, but talking about kissing is pretty innocent.

The gun thing is definitely concerning and should be addressed by the school and a mental health professional. Best case scenario, it’s more big talk and the kid has it made really clear that mass shootings are not something to joke about.

In addition to what everyone has said, you should probably prep your daughter for this kid feeling betrayed by her. Presumably, he told the gun stuff to her privately, or the school would already be on it. When he finds out that she told you and then you told the school, he may not take it well, and start treating her differently, and she should probably be aware of that ahead-of-time. Ideally, whatever's troubling him can be dealt with, and he'll come back from it, but it could be that whatever friendship they may have had won't recover.

Also, if you haven't already, you should reinforce that she absolutely did the right thing by bringing this to you.

Report to teacher, principal. Better safe than sorry. Don't want to read about lots of dead kids and that nobody bothered to report.

Kids, especially 1st and 2nd graders lie a lot. But they need to be taught that joking about gun violence, and especially harming or killing others is not OK. The school needs to be alerted. He probably needs a short suspension and disciplinary action at home. Don't keep that to your self.

We are immigrants who didn’t grow up here, so we have no idea what’s normal and what’s not.

I'm not sure where you're from or where you are, but considering how this is escalating, I don't think it matters.

I would actually take this to the school administration - principal and counselor(s) - and not to the specific teacher. A second grade teacher may not have the experience necessary to handle it properly, but the administration would. And you don't have to bring it as "I want you to do something about this." Present it as "This is definitely something you should be aware of," at least in your first conversation with them.

I’d bet money on the “girlfriend” being his babysitter that he has a crush on.

When I was a teacher, I had a student make some outlandish and utterly preposterous statement about a gun. He was doing it for the attention as it appears this kid is, as well. I had to report it despite knowing there was nothing to it. The kid got connected with the help he needed for what he was dealing with.

Did you hear these directly or from your daughter? It doesn't really matter. Either way, go to the school guidance department instead of the teacher. He's probably dealing with some heavy adjustments from wherever he immigrated from and they ought to be equipped to connect him with a therapist who can help him process those feelings in a more prosocial manner.