Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Have a butter knife, get kicked out of school

A girl accidentally takes a butter knife to school. The school finds out about it and suspends her. They have a zero tolerance for weapons. Butter knifes? You have got to be kidding.

Years ago I use to watch martial art movies with a friend of mine. He liked to joke that in the hands of a ninja master any object could be a deadly weapon.

I wonder how soon public schools will take the zero tolerance for weapons all the way to the extreme. No more books, you could hit someone with a book. No more pencils, you might stab someone. No more chalk, someone might choke.

With the kind of logic that says expend a teenager who accidentally brings a butter knife, I think you can say any object could be a weapon.

I wonder how many students will start bringing butter knifes to school.

And I wonder how soon this girl's parents will start homeschooling.

(Hat tip: OpinionJournal)


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

9 comments:

Matthew K. Tabor said...

When I read of stories like this I can't help but remember how sometimes I'd get to school and realize I had .410 or .22 shells in my pockets. I also had an Old Timer pocketknife in my backpack for cutting string, boxes, etc.

I'd probably have served a year in juvenile detention before the 9th grade if I were in school now.

Anonymous said...

Henry,
There was a story on the news here yesterday (but I don't know where it happened) about a second grade boy who was suspended under zero tolerance policies for DRAWING A PICTURE of a gun.

You just have to shake your head and wonder what this world is coming to, don't you?

Anonymous said...

Hmm...I think I'm going to start packing a butter knife in my kid's lunch.

Henry Cate said...

Matthew - I remember hearing about an incident down in Texas. I think it was back in the 1950s or 1960s. A school got a new teacher. She told the students she was going to teach them how to draw the next day. The next day several of the students showed up with hand guns.

Karen - The really sad thing is I've heard several different incidents of students being suspended for drawing a picture of a gun. I think there have been two in Arizona in just the last three months.

Anonymous - Let me know how that goes. :-)

locomotivebreath1901 said...

The squirt gun picture.

This 'incident' took place in Dennis Township, NJ and involved a seven y.o. student on a bus.

From FOX news: "A photocopy of the picture...showed two stick figures with one pointing a crude-looking gun at the other.

The second grade student drew other pictures, including a skateboarder, King Tut, a ghost, a tree and a Cyclops."

Boys will be boys, but school boards & administrators will be idiots. I guess it is easier to suspend a seven y.o. than to teach some simple rules, like 'you shall not murder'. God forbid.

Anonymous said...

Henry, and anyone else, pray for us. I'm desperate to get my children out of our failing school system, but alas, my spouse does not agree.

May God's will be done.

Henry Cate said...

Anonymous - good luck. Depending on your husband's concerns you might have him read the first hundred pages of "Inside American Education" by Thomas Sowell.

Anonymous said...

I posted about this very incident on my blog.

I just found a news item which says her expulsion has been overturned, but she'll be on probation for the rest of the year. Personally, given that she did nothing wrong, I'd say that even probation is too much to stand for.

Henry Cate said...

I agree. She did nothing wrong. She should not be on probation.