(PI) – Maggie Gaines understands why her daughter’s teacher at Valley Forge Elementary School went to the principal after the 6-year-old pointed her finger at the teacher like a gun and said, “I shoot you.” What she doesn’t understand is why she and her husband had to end up on a conference call with the Tredyffrin Township police the next day, giving their names and ages to an officer.  “‘You don’t understand, this is insane,’” Gaines recalls saying.

Gaines was told that her daughter, Margot, who has Down syndrome, had triggered a threat assessment by the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District — and that, under district policy, school officials had to call the police.  “They feel they need to contact the police to find out if a student might have something else in the community they might not know about,” said Gaines, who lives in Wayne. “All right, but my daughter is 6, and in kindergarten. Are you trying to tell me you think she’s out running around the rough streets of Tredyffrin doing something?” READ MORE