Last Friday I got a call from my son's elementary school guidance counselor. When I answered my phone, she asked if I had a few minutes. That's never a good sign. She told me that there had been some incidents between my son (3rd grade) and a 5th grader on his morning bus. The bus driver had no idea of any problems intil Friday morning. The 5th grader had told my son on Thursday, "Why don't you bring some duct tape to school and put it over your mouth?!" So, Friday morning he saw my duct tape. He snuck it to the bus and proceeded to tear off a piece and put it over his own mouth. This made the 5th grader very happy, "Yes!!" she said. The bus driver had no idea anything was going on until a friend of my son's tried to take the tape off.
The guidance counselor said there wouldn't be any consequences "this time" and told me she had had a talk with my son about what would have happened if he had put the tape over his nose and mouth. He's in 3rd grade, I think he knows that covering both your nose and mouth might impede your breathing. She seemed very concerned about this whole situation. Meanwhile, the duct tape had been confiscated and I had to go to the school Monday to pick it up.