Remember the Spoon, Fork Camping Pocket Knife? Yeah, It Got a Six Year Old Suspended

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Remember the Spoon, Fork Camping Pocket Knife? Yeah, It Got a Six Year Old Suspended

Written By : Duane Lester

I happen to be a staunch advocate for a simple tool, which I believe would prevent or solve a majority of the issues the world faces. It’s something that just about everyone can use, but some find themselves not only unable to wield it, but prohibited by procedure.

It’s common sense.

For example, had common sense been applied to this situation, a six year old Cub Scout would not have been suspended from his school for bringing a “weapon” to school:

Zachary’s offense? Taking a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary was suspended and now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.

“It just seems unfair,” Zachary said, pausing as he practiced writing lower-case letters with his mother, who is home-schooling him while the family tries to overturn his punishment.

Seems unfair? That’s one way to put it. I think it’s utterly moronic. In fact, this is the type of thing that takes stupidity to planes high enough to turn the sky from blue to black.

I know there are policies in place to deal with student who bring weapons to school, but zero tolerance rules should be applied with a liberal helping of, you guessed it, common sense. If a kid brings a gun to school, there are some issues there that need addressed. If he brings a pocket knife with a fork and a spoon, it might be ok to let that slide.

Slippery slope you say?

Common sense, I reply. If a kid brings a Crocodile Dundee knife, then yeah, that kid needs to be talked with, but the administration finds itself reacting the way it did with Zachary because it can’t make those distinctions. They could be accused of favoritism by parents who fail to use common sense.

Maybe this Zachary kid is a menace, right? Maybe there is more to this story. Maybe he threatened to cut a kid and eat his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

Yeah, not so much:

“Zachary wears a suit and tie some days to school by his own choice because he takes school so seriously,” said Debbie Christie, Zachary’s mother, who started a Web site, helpzachary.com, in hopes of recruiting supporters to pressure the local school board at its next open meeting on Tuesday. “He is not some sort of threat to his classmates.”

Here’s an Eagle Scout who was suspended for having a two inch knife as part of his emergency kit in his car:

Matthew Whalen, a senior at Lansingburgh Senior High School, says he follows the Boy Scout motto and is always prepared, stocking his car with a sleeping bag, water, a ready-to-eat meal and the knife, which was given to him by his grandfather, a police chief in a nearby town.

But Lansingburgh High has a zero-tolerance policy, and when school officials discovered that Whalen kept his knife locked in his car, he says, they suspended him for five days and then tacked on an additional 15 after a hearing.

Whalen asks a great question:

“I said to him, ‘What about a person who has a bat, on a baseball team? That could be a weapon.’ And he said, ‘Well, it’s not the same thing.’” The school district’s policy lists “Possessing a weapon” under “examples of violent conduct,” which “may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including suspension from school.” School district officials did not reply to requests for comment.

Yeah, I bet they didn’t. At least they have some common sense. They need to practice it more often.

http://TheNixonTape.Com Dick_Nixon

Six year old Cub Scouts are not allowed to have knives in their possession under BSA guidelines.

The Whalen kid is rumored to have been turned in by one of his classmates who is opposed to the military. Whalen is working toward gaining appointment to West Point. The narc is probably one of Obama's brainwashed Obots.
SanChez

This is the problem with government and why we need less, and not more.

The government handles everything with a formula. It can't interject common sense, justice, or compassion because otherwise, someone might be treated differently from another person. It doesn't matter that everyone is different, and/or their circumstances are different, etc. Everyone must be treated the same.

And as long as they follow the formula, any travesty they commit can be brushed off while they hide behind it.

I"m not trying to criticize anyone particular, it's just a problem with government in general.
Toastrider

You sure about that, Nixon? I checked the BSA website, and the guidelines/policies; pocketknives fall under Wolf/Bear Cubs and up, according to the PDF (top link at this page: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HealthandSafe…

SanChez hits it on the head. Formula responses simply don't function as a 'one size fits all' solution. Instead of offering administrators and teachers flexibility and guidance, they're straitjacketed into doing things by the book.

I'd have scolded the Cub. Maybe. If he was playing with the pocketknife (or whatever the hell it is) during class.

Whalen's case is just disgusting — a two inch knife, locked in his car, in an emergency kit, is a threat?
http://TheNixonTape.Com Dick_Nixon

Posted by Toastrider

2009-10-14 00:27:52

6 year old is a Tiger. You have to be a bear to earn Whittling Chip, unless they changed it in the last year.

I agree, the rules lock in the response without any consideration to circumstances.
bob234

Funny how the BSA web page has this line, "16 points that embody good judgement and common sense for all activities." Again common sense-so lacking among most liberals and their reasoning. Why do we have these moron laws and rules? Too many people lacked this common sense when applying punishment so lawmakers applied knee-jerk policies to compensate. Instead of dealing with things through a case by case basis.
http://conservativebootcamp.com martinhale

It's always wryly amusing to hear of/read of people who fixate their control fantasies on "weapons" of one sort or another. It's almost as though they think the potential for violence is somehow locked into the object(s) they seek to control. Maybe an intro level anthropology course would have taught them that to a large-brained species with advanced ability for complex reasoning, weapons are simply an extension of our own innate potential for violence and can be fashioned out of virtually anything.

Over in Old Blighty, in the face of a steep spike in knife crime, there have been serious proposals made to outlaw knives altogether. Obviously, more reasonable people have turned those proposals away, but the realisation that we share this planet with someone who actually thinks that people in a modern society could somehow exist without any cutting implements is simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny, and massively depressing.
BME

Luckily, some places are starting to realize how moronic "zero tolerance" (or is that "zero intelligence"?) polices are. The Waco, TX, school district decided just recently to look at mitigating circumstances again. (http://tiny.cc/sSErK)
Bill_Dalasio

Zero tolerance policies were instituted in the wake of Columbine (which are oddly referred to as "tragedies" rather than atrocities) under the brilliant notion that mass murderers would be deterred by the possibility of expulsion from school for having a weapon.
http://TheNixonTape.Com Dick_Nixon

Nixon opposes zero tolerance.
assassin6

This is a great opportunity for Whalen. He should file complaints with the school admin about anyone that has a baseball bat, golf clubs, tire iron, tow chain, etc etc. In thier vehicle. All of those items could be used as deadly weapons. This would force the school admin into either enforcing the policy as stated or admitting stupidity and clearing him of all misconduct charges. If they don't enforce the rules, then he has legal avenues to travel down because he was singled out. Bottom line, these kinds of mindless "zero tolerance" policies only showcase the incompetence and idiocy of the school in question. If a school principal doesn't have the mental capacity to judge things on a case by case basis they school be flipping burgers not administer a school. Lastly, Whalen should forget about West Point, he should get a ROTC scholarship instead. There are more than two or three tin-pot dictator types that enforce rules blindly at that institution just like at his high school.
http://conservativebootcamp.com martinhale

I read just minutes ago that the School Board has relented and given the miscreant a mere 3 to 5 day suspension from school. But only after a bunch of parents contacted them complaining about a severe lack of common sense in their policy.

Bravo for the parents of Philadelphia who actually got the School Board to extract their collective crania from their collective rectums. Maybe we should send those parents to Washington.
http://redinktexas.blogspot.com Rorschach

Martinhale, which situation are we discussing here? the eagle scout or the tiger cub scout? I presume you mean the Eagle Scout.
http://conservativebootcamp.com martinhale

No, I was speaking of the 6 year-old in Philly. The Eagle Scout is equally heartbreaking.
http://redinktexas.blogspot.com Rorschach

Ah, I didn't see the follow up post when I wrote that.