--- title: School Punishes Blind 8-Year-Old by Replacing Cane with Pool Noodle description: Administrators have since apologized canonical: https://time.com/3639778/blind-boy-cane-noodle-dakota-nafzinger/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-18T15:32:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:15:26.924Z og:title: School Punishes Blind 8-Year-Old By Replacing His Cane With a Pool Noodle og:description: Administrators have since apologized og:url: https://time.com/3639778/blind-boy-cane-noodle-dakota-nafzinger/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: School Punishes Blind 8-Year-Old By Replacing His Cane With a Pool Noodle twitter:description: Administrators have since apologized twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # School Punishes Blind 8-Year-Old By Replacing His Cane With a Pool Noodle by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Dec 18, 2014 3:32 PM UTC by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Dec 18, 2014 3:32 PM UTC Administrators at a Missouri elementary school [punished](http://wtkr.com/2014/12/17/school-punishes-blind-child-by-taking-away-cane-replacing-it-with-a-pool-noodle/) a blind student for misbehaving on the bus Monday by confiscating his cane and replacing it with a pool noodle so he wouldn’t “fidget.” North Kansas City School District spokeswoman Michelle Cronk confirmed that the cane—which was “school property” provided to 8-year-old Dakota Nafzinger upon enrollment—was taken after he reportedly used it to strike someone on the bus, a [local Fox affiliate reports](http://wtkr.com/2014/12/17/school-punishes-blind-child-by-taking-away-cane-replacing-it-with-a-pool-noodle/). Dakota’s father said that his son, who was born blind, sometimes lifts his cane, which might have been misinterpreted as a violent act. The Nafzingers say the school gave Dakota a pool noodle to humiliate him for misbehaving. “Why would you do that?” Dakota’s mother asked Fox. “Why would you take the one thing that he’s supposed to use all the time? That’s his eyes.” Dakota said he was told he would use the noodle for two weeks. Gracemor Elementary School posted an apology on its Facebook page Wednesday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3639778/blind-boy-cane-noodle-dakota-nafzinger/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3639778/blind-boy-cane-noodle-dakota-nafzinger/"},"headline":"School Punishes Blind 8-Year-Old By Replacing His Cane With a Pool Noodle","datePublished":"2014-12-18T15:32:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:15:26.924Z","description":"Administrators have since apologized","url":"https://time.com/3639778/blind-boy-cane-noodle-dakota-nafzinger/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Education","Bizarre","Blind"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3639778/blind-boy-cane-noodle-dakota-nafzinger/","name":"School Punishes Blind 8-Year-Old By Replacing His Cane With a Pool Noodle"}}]}] ```