Six-year-old Zachary Christie was so excited to become a Cub Scout that he brought his camping utensil to school. The tool serves as a spoon, a fork and a knife, and Zachary wanted to use it at lunch.
What Zachary didn't know was that the gizmo violated his school's zero-tolerance policy on weapons. And now the Christina School District in Newark, Del., has suspended the first grader and ordered him to attend the district's reform school for 45 days.
Security theater, emphasizing "theater" without the "security".
Update, 10/14/09: Today I read that the district had revisited its policy, and now kindergarteners and 1st graders will be suspended for only 3-5 days for such offenses, and no reform school. Ah, now they're magnanimous idiots.
"What else explains this?"
ReplyDeleteLike I've already written, zero tolerance policies aren't in place to protect kids from each other but to protect administrators from responsibility.
No unhappy results from misreading a situation, no repercussions from poor judgment, no need for judgment at all. Just a policy so broad and so sweeping that the administrator is always protected.
Those school admins have GOT TO GO! FIRE the lot of them! We MUST take our country back from mindless lefties such as that.
ReplyDeleteI really wish EVERY schoolkid would whip out such utensils at every school lunch. The admins would realize they wouldn't be able to suspend the entire student body, and so would have to back down.
chicopanther
These things send us all up the wall but keep it in perspective. It really is quite a rare event. That's why it gets headlines.
ReplyDeleteThis happens now and then at most schools, I know it does at ours. The teacher picks up the item and the office holds it until the end of the day. If it is really a minor thing, as in this instance, the kid takes it home at the end of the day. If it is more than that the parent is called to pick it up.
I think the vast majority of schools do more or less the same.
Hey, and don't blame it on us mindless lefties. It was probably a highly anal conservative.
Richard
What's messed-up? The parents want to send him back after that.
ReplyDeleteTheir child has been abused by the school (sorry, saying a kid MUST go to reform school when he hasn't tried to kill anyone is ABUSE) and the parents still want to send him back. They are messed. Messed, messed, messed. "Twisted" would also be an apt description.
I sure hope at least while they are "homeschooling" their kid that they are not doing one of those public school at home programs. Otherwise, it is NOT HOMESCHOOLING and it sooooo doesn't count.
Stories like this just kill me.
No, Richard, definitely a leftie :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen the asinine zero tolerance policies won't allow a kid who has dressed up as a cowboy, police officer, stormtrooper, etc. to bring the accessory weapon (which could never be mistaken for real) to school on Halloween, they need need to be re-examined.
ReplyDeleteLike Allen said, the zero tolerance policies are there not to protect the students, but to remove all responsibility for decision making from the school administration.