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School Suspends 1st-Grader for Cub Scout Eating Utensils

Zero-tolerance weapons policies sometimes ridiculous, say critics

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 12, 2009 1:42 AM CDT

(Newser) – A first grader was suspended for 45 days from school for bringing a Cub Scout combined knife-fork-spoon utensil to class, triggering an uproar among parents. Zachary Christie, 6, was booted because his Newark school has a zero-tolerance policy on knives. Horrifying episodes like the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings have heightened penalties for school contraband, but critics say some anti-violence policies have gone too far.

Advocates of zero-tolerance policies stress that it's difficult for teachers to distinguish pranks from serious threats. In addition, studies have shown that allowing teachers’ some discretion in applying punishment has led to uneven application—with African-American students receiving a disproportionate share of expulsions and suspensions, the New York Times reports.

Scouting Magazine.
Scouting Magazine.   (PRNewsFoto/Boy Scouts of America)
New Boy Scout Handbook.
New Boy Scout Handbook.   (PRNewsFoto/Boy Scouts of America)
A set of camp eating utensils sold by the Boy Scouts of America.
A set of camp eating utensils sold by the Boy Scouts of America.
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There is no parent who wants to get a phone call where they hear that their child no longer has two good seeing eyes because there was a scuffle and someone pulled out a knife.
- George Evans, president, Christina district school board

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 32 comments
Snarfeh
Oct 14, 2009 12:14 PM CDT
Forty-five days is WAY excessive. However, this is not a left or right thing; this is a helicopter parent thing. School administrators are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Thanks to parents who get TOO involved in school policy, school officials walk on egg shells in fear of a lawsuit. I feel sorry for them. I am sure they realize how stupid this is, too, but they are covering their asses due to lawsuits filed by overzealous parents. You cannot put hundreds, much less thousands, of kids in one setting and expect it to be tailored to each and every kid, but helicopter parents who don't like the way something is done or handled jump in with criticism and lawsuits making the jobs of teachers, principles, superintendents and school boards all but impossible to do. Many blame poor education on the teachers, but I blame it on the parents and the government. And no, I am not nor have I ever been, a teacher. But I have been a student....
zackmasson
Oct 13, 2009 6:55 AM CDT
You know what those signs that say weapon free zone do, they don't deter they invite. It just announces, no one here has a gun come shoot us to any psychos around.
Rocket448
Oct 13, 2009 6:42 AM CDT
@Zik - "educationism" is a rather dirty word, Zik, used to describe a system of social control and oppression. An "educationist" is a person in a position of authority in a school who puts the institution ahead of the student. NCLB really empowered the educationists in my opinion, by allowing testing to take precedence over teaching.
Politics • US

 
Virginia Tech • discrimination • weapon • elementary school • Columbine school massacre • knife • Boy Scouts of America • policy

 
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