Boy's camping utensil = weapon
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| Mon, 10-12-2009 - 12:25pm |
I think this school really went over the top on this one... "School officials concluded he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary faces 45 days in the district's reform school." Say WHAT??!!! Good grief!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/12/MNM21A4B2T.DTL
"Boy's camping utensil violates 'zero tolerance'
Ian Urbina, New York Times
Monday, October 12, 2009
(10-12) 04:00 PDT Newark, Del. -- Zachary Christie, 6, was so excited about joining the Cub Scouts that he brought a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school to use at lunch.
School officials concluded he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary faces 45 days in the district's reform school.
Spurred in part by the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings, many school districts around the country adopted zero-tolerance policies on possession of weapons on school grounds. More recently, there has been growing debate over whether the policies have gone too far.
But, based on the code of conduct for the Christina School District, where Zachary is a first-grader, school officials had no choice. They had to suspend him because, "regardless of possessor's intent," knives are banned.
Critics contend that zero-tolerance policies like those in the district have led to sharp increases in suspensions and expulsions, often putting children on the streets or in other places where their behavior only worsens, and that the policies undermine the use of common sense by school officials in handling minor infractions.
For Delaware, Zachary's case is especially frustrating because last year state lawmakers tried to make disciplinary rules more flexible by giving local boards authority to, "on a case-by-case basis, modify the terms of the expulsion."
The law was introduced after a third-grade girl was expelled for a year because her grandmother sent a birthday cake to school, and a knife to cut it. The teacher called the principal - but not before using the knife to cut and serve the cake.
Education experts say that zero-tolerance policies initially allowed authorities more leeway in punishing students, but were applied in a discriminatory fashion. Many studies indicate that African-Americans were several times more likely to be suspended or expelled than other students for the same offenses.
Other school districts are also trying to address problems they say have stemmed in part from overly strict zero-tolerance policies.
In Baltimore, around 10,000 students, roughly 12 percent of enrollment, were suspended during the 2006-07 school year, mostly for disruption and insubordination, according to a report by the Open Society Institute-Baltimore. School officials there are re-writing the disciplinary code, to route students to counseling rather than suspension.
In Milwaukee, where school officials reported that 40 percent of ninth-graders had been suspended in the 2006-07 school year, the superintendent has encouraged teachers not to overreact to student misconduct."
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I agree with you, although she mentioned she was not aware of him taking it to school... He is only 6 years old, she should check him all over before he goes to school every day.
where do we stop? we have become such a paranoid society, how do we ever expect these kids to become responsible, well-adjusted adults?
As a parent, you have to be two, three steps ahead of your child. At all times. The parents should have told the boy to never take it to school. It should have gone in a special place and taken out only for camping or home.
We can't wrap our children in cotton. We have to let them experience life. But we can never let our guard down.
~He is only 6 years old, she should check him all over before he goes to school every day.~
Out of curiosity, do you check your kids all over before they head out the door for school?
If so, how old are they and at what age do you plan to stop searching them, their backpacks, lunches, pockets, etc.?
I don't think that I ever checked the pockets of my kids on their way out.
Jumping in here. Both of my boy's tried to sneak toys to school. I did check pockets and back packs. With the younger one, I told the teacher to just throw away any toy's that were found. This finally stopped him.
Older son was/is hyper. He will soon be 35 yr.s old. Still can not sit still
Well, you put it differently. And you sound like I did when I was a freshman in high school and sure I knew all there was to know about everything. LOL
I stand by my statement. Although all kids are not violent, some are. Watching the nightly news will tell you that. Rules are there to protect the majority. The rule concerning weapons at school may seem unfair but so are rules for adults sometimes. And at no time will everyone have the same opinion. You are welcome to yours and I'm welcome to mine.
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