Meet 8-year-old Asher Palmer, who was tossed out of his special-needs Manhattan school for threatening other kids with a toy “gun’’ — which he made out of rolled-up paper.
“Asher is exactly the type of student Lang [School] is supposed to be serving. Why they did this doesn’t make sense,’’ his outraged mom, Melina Spadone, told The Post.
She was incensed that Principal Micaela Bracamonte told other staffers in an email that Asher “had a model for physically aggressive behavior in his immediate family.’’
Spadone thinks Bracamonte was referring to her husband because he served in the military during the Kuwait war. If that was the reason for the comment, she said, “I find it offensive and inappropriate.’’
As far as the toy gun is concerned, she said Asher, a first-year student, made it out of a piece of paper after discussing military weapons with his dad. His teachers told him not to point it at anyone, and he obeyed for a while.
The school claimed Asher also said he’d “kill’’ a girl in a separate incident — a typical argument between youngsters. While her son may have made the threat, Spadone said, people use the word “kill’’ all the time, and it shouldn’t be taken literally.
Spadone, who lives in Hell’s Kitchen, said the private school in lower Manhattan is supposed to help with social-behavioral issues of kids like Asher, who has been diagnosed with ADHD and problems communicating.
She blamed Asher’s expulsion on irrational fear following the Newtown, Conn., school massacre carried out by 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who had psychological problems, including Asperger’s.
Asher’s mom and dad, Mark Palmer, who are finalizing their divorce, paid $119,500 in tuition and other costs — including the price of a one-on-one teacher — for five months before they learned of the school’s decision.
Palmer works for a private equity firm.
Spadone emailed the principal, “I am stunned … We did not invest $120,000 toward Asher’s success for a five-month period. It was understood, and, in fact, contractually agreed, that Asher would be returning next year.’’
In her June 12 email to the boy’s teachers and psychologist, obtained by The Post, Bracamonte said, “I don’t see it tenable at this stage that Asher receive a warning for the specific behavior we’ve agreed on targeting — i.e. use of pretend guns on fellow students and mention of killing.’’
She added that the boy “had a concrete plan for killing [a female student] that he would not retract after discussion with our psych staff … that he was physically and verbally aggressive at a whole new level only last week … He might well present a risk to the emotional and possibly (though remotely so) physical safety and well-being of his classmates.’’
She recommended that Asher be home-schooled next year and expressed the hope that in the future, “he can return to school … I heartily hope that Lang will be one of the schools you consider at that point.”
Spadone said her son enjoyed school, and Asher himself told The Post, “I like being with my friends.”
A parent with a son in the same class said the two kids get along “just fine,” adding, “They take the subway together. They play games together. I don’t feel my son is threatened by him.’’
Bracamonte declined to comment.