Idiocy of "zero-tolerance" policy in schools
Girl, 10, Arrested for Using Knife to Cut Food at School
Monday, December 17, 2007
A 10-year-old Florida girl faces felony weapons charges after bringing a small steak knife to school to cut up her lunch, according to a report on WFTV.com.
School officials say the Ocala 5th grader had brought a piece of steak for her lunch, and had brought a steak knife. According to the report, a couple of teachers took the utensil and called authorities, who arrested the girl and took her to the county's juvenile assessment center.
"She did not use it inappropriately. She did not threaten anyone with it. She didn't pull it out and brandish it. Nothing of that nature," explained Marion County School Spokesman Kevin Christian, who added that it made no difference what the knife was being used for, they had no choice but to call police.
"Anytime there's a weapon on campus, yes, we have to report it and we aggressively report it because we don't want to take any chances, regardless," Christian said.
The girl now faces a felony charge for possessing a weapon on school property and has been suspended from school for ten days. The parents of the girl could not be reached for comment, WFTV.com reported.
Steak knife? or TACTICAL knife? Since when are eating utensils considered WEAPONS? This is right up there with the absurdity of the high school senior denied graduation privileges because someone spotted a BUTTER knife on the floor of her car in the parking lot. Too bad our schools hire such IDIOTS as administrators that they cannot trust them to use their common sense for making discretionary decisions.
Monday, December 17, 2007
A 10-year-old Florida girl faces felony weapons charges after bringing a small steak knife to school to cut up her lunch, according to a report on WFTV.com.
School officials say the Ocala 5th grader had brought a piece of steak for her lunch, and had brought a steak knife. According to the report, a couple of teachers took the utensil and called authorities, who arrested the girl and took her to the county's juvenile assessment center.
"She did not use it inappropriately. She did not threaten anyone with it. She didn't pull it out and brandish it. Nothing of that nature," explained Marion County School Spokesman Kevin Christian, who added that it made no difference what the knife was being used for, they had no choice but to call police.
"Anytime there's a weapon on campus, yes, we have to report it and we aggressively report it because we don't want to take any chances, regardless," Christian said.
The girl now faces a felony charge for possessing a weapon on school property and has been suspended from school for ten days. The parents of the girl could not be reached for comment, WFTV.com reported.
Steak knife? or TACTICAL knife? Since when are eating utensils considered WEAPONS? This is right up there with the absurdity of the high school senior denied graduation privileges because someone spotted a BUTTER knife on the floor of her car in the parking lot. Too bad our schools hire such IDIOTS as administrators that they cannot trust them to use their common sense for making discretionary decisions.
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Our country is done, toast, gone, stick a fork in it, just don't use a knife to cut it. [:(][xx(][V][:(!][:(!] 0 -
Nope, I think you're down to sticking a spork in it. I know a guy who's wife assaulted him with a fork. She threw it at him, and it stuck in his thigh! It's definitely a weapon. 0 -
i guess we are to go back to the days we used our hands to tear the meat apart and eat it like in the cave days.
also i was told a few months back some kindergartner boys were playing cops and robbers and using there fingers as guns .
they were suspended[V][V]
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maybe we should just give the oatmeal and applesauce so they can just suck it down.
Oh wait...the containers will probably be considered a weapon too.0 -
It is a sorry state of affairs, gentlemen!
How many of you carried a pocketknife to school when you were younger? I did. I never even thought about using it as a weapon. It was a tool.0 -
so if i walk onto a school ground with my pocket knife in my pocket i could be charged with a weapon on school grounds.[:0][:0][:0]
again this is out of control0 -
quote:Originally posted by guntech59
It is a sorry state of affairs, gentlemen!
How many of you carried a pocketknife to school when you were younger? I did. I never even thought about using it as a weapon. It was a tool.
Of course, knife in my pocket. Trucks with rifle-racks WITH RIFLES parked in the parking lot, too. It was nothing to show off a new gun at lunch break, even to teachers or coaches.
We're so far down the crapper, there's no coming up for air.[:(][xx(][:(!][V]0 -
This is a PERFECT example of why when you serve on a jury you are seeking JUSTICE while looking at the law the application of the law and the defendant.
Our government is filled to the brim with bureaucrats that possess the common sense of a dried pile of yak dung.
FREE THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!0 -
i know a few kids that have been bullied, even if they don't fight back they get suspended, this is one area i do not punish my son, someone starts it he is allowed to finish it, as long as he never abuses it, it is a sad state we are in not just at school in the work place, last week my wife got wrote up for her first time ever, a gal in her office {hated by everyone} tried to give my wife some bs, she told her she was an jerk, her and everyone in the office got wrote up {but the a hole} i teased it was because they where all a bunch of biddies, and i can tell my boss f u and get by with it {every-time we see each other it's a challenge to see who can do it first} 0 -
The problem is that the parents have no say so in what the rules in school are these days.
Our school here has a ZERO TOLERANCE on weapons and drugs. They ended up suspending a boy for 7 days because he had a daily vitamin in his lunch bag and took it at lunch.
I agree...this country is circling the porcelain pool and there appears to be no way to keep us from going down the crapper. My small hometown (1000 people) has no ZERO TOLERANCE program...each issue is dealt with on a case by case basis.0 -
sorry to say but i think we are
DOOMED
DOOMED I SAY0 -
What did you say ??
Speak up.
Doug0 -
I agree with the "zero tolerance" policy. In this case it may have been a harmless little 5th grader. What if it had been an 8th grader on drugs? He or she could have started stabbing anyone within arms reach. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by pistoljim
I agree with the "zero tolerance" policy. In this case it may have been a harmless little 5th grader. What if it had been an 8th grader on drugs? He or she could have started stabbing anyone within arms reach.
The IDIOCY of zero tolerance comes with not encouraging or even ALLOWING school administrators the ability or opportunity to make an informed decision as to how to handle a situation on a case-by-case basis. There should be allowance made for one to discern the difference between "a harmless little 5th grader" and "an 8th grader on drugs." In earlier days (MY DAYS), no one was ever arrested at school for such ridiculous matters. AND NO ONE EVER KILLED OR ATTEMPTED TO KILL ANYONE AT SCHOOL EITHER! When people are robbed of their powers of THINKING by stupid, ZT policies, they soon DON'T THINK at all.0 -
I hate to keep having to repeat myself, but when are these lefty loonies going to realize that zero tolerance = zero brains? 0 -
Zero-tolerance of drunk drivers? Fine. Zero-tolerance of schoolyard bullying? Okay. Zero-tolerance of rapists, murderers and other criminals? No problem. Zero-tolerance of knives, which can have good or bad impacts or uses on a case-by-case basis? Quite ridiculous, I must agree. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by pistoljim
I agree with the "zero tolerance" policy. In this case it may have been a harmless little 5th grader. What if it had been an 8th grader on drugs? He or she could have started stabbing anyone within arms reach.
can do same thing with an ink pen0 -
quote:Originally posted by pistoljim
I agree with the "zero tolerance" policy. In this case it may have been a harmless little 5th grader. What if it had been an 8th grader on drugs? He or she could have started stabbing anyone within arms reach.
Fifth graders don't do drugs?0 -
quote:Originally posted by guntech59
It is a sorry state of affairs, gentlemen!
How many of you carried a pocketknife to school when you were younger? I did. I never even thought about using it as a weapon. It was a tool.
Swiss Army knife. Carried it around for, gosh, all through jr. high and high school as well as in college.
I also can't count how many times I handed it to a teacher because something needing a tool, and the Swiss Army knife had the tool for the job. Never heard a stink from it, and the teachers would always give it right back.0 -
I used to hunt on my way to the school bus with a 410 Iver Johnson. The bus driver would keep it on the bus till we got to my stop in the afternoon, then I would hunt on my way home.
This is beyond pathetic[xx(]0 -
The motto of the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) is "One mind, any weapon." Anything found in a classroom or cafeteria can be used as a weapon when applied with enough force.
-For the "old Corps" MCMAP is what we have instead of line training.0 -
As said on a previous post:
ZERO TOLERANCE=ZERO JUDGEMENT
Last year in high school a boy told my daughter countless times that she looked like a "fat boy". She finally decked him. Down with one punch. She got suspended for 3 days for fighting. The boy got a detntion.
I asked, since when is bullying tolerated? If she got suspended for fighting, why did the boy only get a detention? Last I saw, it takes two to fight. The correct punishment should have been 3 days for hitting. They don't have that rule.......
I don't condone fighting or violence. That being said, Some words are just fighting words.0 -
quote:Originally posted by bpost1958
This is a PERFECT example of why when you serve on a jury you are seeking JUSTICE while looking at the law the application of the law and the defendant.
Our government is filled to the brim with bureaucrats that possess the common sense of a dried pile of yak dung.
FREE THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Odd you should post to this effect. Thinking the matter over since the last time the topic of juries arose, and not only reading this but recalling countless similar episodes over the past few years, my thinking on the matter of "upholding the law" has clarified. I originally said that my given word was a matter of principle and I'd uphold the law if sworn to do so, but this kind of thing not only violates my principles, it violates any sane measure of common sense. Breaking my sworn word would be by far the lesser of two evils.0
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