http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/educat...terstitial

Quote:NEWARK, Del. — Finding character witnesses when you are 6 years old is not easy. But there was Zachary Christie last week at a school disciplinary committee hearing with his karate instructor and his mother’s fiancé by his side to vouch for him.

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.

Who do you think is more dangerous? That lady who babysits at the bus stop, or this kid?

Reminds me of the Kindergartner that kissed a girl at school and was charged with sexual harassment and expelled. Dear lord our society is stupid!

I did seriously used to be all for zero-tolerance. A gun is a gun is a knife is a knife.

But as in life, nothing is so cut and dry. Tolerance policies should be at the discretion of the principle.

He knew what he was doing.

The ability to apply "common sense" to ordinary day-to-day activities is a lost art as the liberals try to codify all human interaction.

(10-12-2009 03:04 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Tolerance policies should be at the discretion of the principle.

The problem is, they're not. They're given ironclad rules with no allowance for latitude or application of common sense.

The attitude is, "Yeah, I know it's dumb, but any liability will be on me if I let it slide, so I don't have a choice."

The "nuke the jaywalker" approach is borne of CYA.

Blame the lawyers.

In Texas if your child is a discipline problem, gets in trouble in school for an aspirin i.e. drugs, is caught fighting, skipping school. You end up in court with your child, in front of a Judge who fines you for anything your child does in public. It's a money maker for the courts and only teaches the child that there are ways to shift the responsibility to others.

Zero tolerance = Tolerant Liberals Amazing the liberals "claim" they are for a free society but put stupid laws like this in place.

(10-12-2009 03:41 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  Zero tolerance = Tolerant Liberals Amazing the liberals "claim" they are for a free society but put stupid laws like this in place.

Yep, weapons at school is real smart.

(10-12-2009 03:43 PM)cb4029 Wrote:  

(10-12-2009 03:41 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  Zero tolerance = Tolerant Liberals Amazing the liberals "claim" they are for a free society but put stupid laws like this in place.

Yep, weapons at school is real smart.

It's not a stupid rule.

It's the knee-jerk enforcement of the rule that is stupid.

(10-12-2009 03:46 PM)Smaug Wrote:  

(10-12-2009 03:43 PM)cb4029 Wrote:  

(10-12-2009 03:41 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  Zero tolerance = Tolerant Liberals Amazing the liberals "claim" they are for a free society but put stupid laws like this in place.

Yep, weapons at school is real smart.

It's not a stupid rule.

It's the knee-jerk enforcement of the rule that is stupid.

Several years ago my 11 year old niece was suspended for bringing a nail file to school at a Colorado public school. This type of enforcement proves that liberals can not be trusted with administration of zero tolerance rules and they are stupid. Zero tolerance means no exceptions, but in my niece's case and the case in the original post shows that exceptions should be granted therefore there can not be Zero tolerance.

(10-12-2009 03:43 PM)cb4029 Wrote:  

(10-12-2009 03:41 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  Zero tolerance = Tolerant Liberals Amazing the liberals "claim" they are for a free society but put stupid laws like this in place.

Yep, weapons at school is real smart.

So what? This kid is going to spoon someone? You can make a pencil a weapon, does that mean pencils should be banned from school? There are already forks and knives in school just like the ones on the Boy Scout Knife, does that mean the school is guilty of violating the zero tolerance policy? Most school cafeteria's have knives for students to use, sure sounds like a violation of the policy to me.

A couple of years ago, some high school students took a knife away from their teachers husband ( or ex-husband , I don't remember) that he was using
to try and hurt their teacher. I fully expected one of the students to get
expelled due to being in ossession of a knife. luckily that did not happen.

Out here 4 or 5 years ago a 6 year old was expelled for taking a nail clipper to school. As we speak, my son is suspended pending an expulsion hearing on Wednesday for drawing a pictures of guns and soldiers - I'm not kidding. Our advocate says the principal has no case because my kid is in an IEP and has a recognized disability...but the principal hates me because I told her to F-off 3 times and told her she works for me. Anyway, my wife is so stressed over this ordeal she hasn't eaten for days and cries constantly. God, I hate this f**king state.

(10-12-2009 09:32 PM)smn1256 Wrote:  Out here 4 or 5 years ago a 6 year old was expelled for taking a nail clipper to school. As we speak, my son is suspended pending an expulsion hearing on Wednesday for drawing a pictures of guns and soldiers - I'm not kidding. Our advocate says the principal has no case because my kid is in an IEP and has a recognized disability...but the principal hates me because I told her to F-off 3 times and told her she works for me. Anyway, my wife is so stressed over this ordeal she hasn't eaten for days and cries constantly. God, I hate this f**king state.

Sorry to hear that the failed liberal school system that eats up 50% of the state's budget is responsible for the stress that you, your wife and child is going through. Remind me again, how is a nail clipper a threat to anyone? more than a knife or fork in the cafeteria.

(10-12-2009 09:55 PM)SumOfAllFears Wrote:  

(10-12-2009 09:32 PM)smn1256 Wrote:  Out here 4 or 5 years ago a 6 year old was expelled for taking a nail clipper to school. As we speak, my son is suspended pending an expulsion hearing on Wednesday for drawing a pictures of guns and soldiers - I'm not kidding. Our advocate says the principal has no case because my kid is in an IEP and has a recognized disability...but the principal hates me because I told her to F-off 3 times and told her she works for me. Anyway, my wife is so stressed over this ordeal she hasn't eaten for days and cries constantly. God, I hate this f**king state.

Sorry to hear that the failed liberal school system that eats up 50% of the state's budget is responsible for the stress that you, your wife and child is going through. Remind me again, how is a nail clipper a threat to anyone? more than a knife or fork in the cafeteria.

I believe the nail clipper had one of those little tiny files on it. There was a lot of debate over it and eventually it was decided zero tolerance means "zero tolerance."

Googled "nail clipper expulsion" and got a lot of hits. http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=na...+expulsion

Here is one from Riverside, thats close to San Bernardino where you are, where they ruled nail clippers is not a knife.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=13...80,5390960

f'ing liberals

Since when do liberals see everything as black and white. They want gray in everything?

Riverside is the next town over from me.

I want to say the expulsion I was referring to took place in Moreno Valley, that's where I used to live but i can't find anything on it.

Oh, I'm not from San Bernardino, that's a sh*t hole. I'm in Corona, Riverside County. But it's still too close to San Bernardino.

Nail clipper bizzarness aside, the kid brought a knife to school. If you have a policy (especially a zero-tolerance one), you have to enforce it. Yeah, it may be stupid, but you cannot bend it otherwise other rules become subject to challenging. If its stupid, then change the rule. But as long as its on the books, enforcement is necessary and expected of administrators who are entrusted with the responsibility.

i have an interesting one, although it doesn't directly pertain to this. The rival school of my old high school had an awesome baseball coach named david miller. We didn't like him on the field because he was such a great coach and his team always beat us, but we certainly respected him off the field. He's honorable, a good person and supposedly a really good math teacher. He got screwed by the liberal school board and fired. His offense? His alcohol policy was less tolerant than the school's. he wanted his players to have to adhere to a zero tolerance drinking policy and apparently the school board with that. No parents complained, the school board simply saw fit to take action.

here's more info. if you want to shake your head, i suggest you read it. you'll learn how pathetic the liberal town of chapel hill can be.