Zachary Christie with his mother, Debbie, his father, Curtis, and the Cub Scout utensil that got him suspended from school.
Posted on 10/12/2009 12:17:31 PM PDT by JoeProBono
1st Grader Brings Camping Utensil to School for Lunch, But Zero Tolerance Weapons Policy Leads to 45-Day Suspension -
A 6-year-old boy's excitement over joining the Cub Scouts may just land him in reform school for 45 days.
Zachary Christie was suspended from his 1st grade class in Delaware's Christina School District after bringing a camping utensil - a combination knife/fork/spoon - to use at lunch, prompting calls to reexamine schools' zero-tolerance policy for bringing weapons to school, according to a New York Times report Monday.
Zero tolerance policies were instituted in many school districts across the country, at least in part due to violence at Columbine and Virginia Tech, the report notes. Their rigid enforcement is designed to eliminate the appearance of bias or discrimination on the part of school officials.
But residents, and some lawmakers, are now wondering why schools can't apply a more common-sense discretion to such instances.
"It just seems unfair," said Zachary, who is being home-schooled while his mother, Debbie Christie, tries to fight the suspension. That involved Zachary appearing before a district disciplinary committee with his karate instructor and mother's fiancé vouching for him as character witnesses.
Zachary Christie with his mother, Debbie, his father, Curtis, and the Cub Scout utensil that got him suspended from school.
Its sad when school officials have less common sense than a 6 year old.
Simply home school and don’t worry about it. We did for 20 years and have a family of well adjusted, normal children. Married, college degrees and doing fine. All are conservative, but are so of their own free will.
This nation is going freakin nuts! The inmates are running the asylum. When will WE the PEOPLE say ENOUGH OF THIS CRAP!”? (Rhetorical, and end of my rant....but Holy Christ, this is unbelievable!)
But the good news is that he earned his “Suspended From School” Belt Loop.
lol
This is a joke, right?
The “knife” in those kits have a round end!
Certainly looks menancing. Maybe more midnight basketball will straighten this one out. I sure hope so, the idea of meeting and armed Cub Scout down some dark lonely alley really frightens me.
There is common sense in some places. I used to be a cop at a South Central L.A. school. A recent immigrant from Central America came to school with a 10-inch serrated knife and a bag of fruit.
Teacher sent her to the assistant principal who called me. She (student) told me they do that at her old school. I talked to the Juvenile detectives at LAPD and told them the scenario. No harm, no foul. She didn’t even get detention.
Too many districts go by the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law. Looks like the tide may be changing.
Some of these have real knives. Still seems a bit extreme.
Ummm...whats wrong with the idea that ITS NOT A WEAPON!
Hmmmm! I'm thinking "Too many A-holes go by the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law.
From your post, I would have thought someone had just posted a Helen Thomas picture.
"Zero-tolerance" policies are a code phrase that means "school administrators are excluded from having to think"!! Some of the dumbest things currently being perpetrated by the schools on our kids are done under the umbrella of "zero-tolerance"!!
“But residents, and some lawmakers, are now wondering why schools can’t apply a more common-sense discretion to such instances. “
If I were his mom...I would break my foot off in the teacher’s ass!
Kid could do more damage by taking off a sock dropping a rock down into the end it.
Once again, common sense is nowhere to be found by busybody school officials.
I've carried a pocket knife daily since I was 8, never thought of it as a weapon. A pocket knife is just a tool. This, I suppose, is a cultural thing, but some cultures obviously see anything as a weapon.
I deeply resent being lumped in with those who abuse liberty, and I deeply resent losing my liberty because of their abuses of liberty.
I know this statement is going to trigger name calling from the liberals, but I no longer care what they call me.
When anyone abuses their freedom they threaten everyone's freedom, and society should not accommodate them.
Too bady, they wont even allow Boy Scouts by the time this guy gets old enough ...
Anything is a weapon if you use it as one. The real idiocy is in allowing “officials” to deflect blame on, and ban the use of, inanimate objects. When I was a kid, we used knives, forks and spoons to eat with. I’m pretty sure we didn’t have to call the swat team over utensils, and we knew how to cut our own food all by ourselves by the time we went to school.
We’ve done the same. Our perfectly normal kids all have multiple pocketknives (more than I can count), hunting knives, bows, arrows, toy swords, toy guns, BB guns and a 20 guage shotgun that fires real shells.
A line from the hero The Blue Raja:
“An effete British superhero, to be precise. I am pilfering your tableware because I hurl it. I hurl it with a deadly accuracy. The Blue Raja is my name. And yes, I know I don't wear much blue and I speak in a British accent, but if you know your history it really does make perfect sense.”
Honestly we have become wimps of the highest order! My father made me carry my scout knife with me at all times since I was 6 years old. He would often inspect it to make sure I kept it clean and sharp as a razor. God knows how many times I cut myself with it but I still have it. Its has been replaced in my pocket by numerous Victorinox knives but I don't go anywhere without one. I have to remember to put in my checked baggage when I travel.
When I was a Cub Master I insisted on knife training to get the wolf badge and the parents howled bloody murder! I asked them at what point they would learn to use sharp tools, when they turn 30?
These days, for all too many, the spirt of the law is the letter of the law, if you get my meaning.
Can you believe this crap?!! When I was 6, I used to use my Creepy Crawler set and make black spider to scare the boys who would either hide under their desks or on jump to the top ... I was a nuisance ... between me and my brothers, the teachers would have WELCOMED with open arms a young man, proud to be a scout, who dressed in a suit and tie periodically, whose infraction was bringing his big-boy fork and spoon to school.
So, I wonder if kids and bring in rubber spiders to school and what the punishment would be for some kid to crack open his skull running from the thing?
No common sense in school administration. Looks like a sign of things to come. Get ‘em while they are young and make sure that they don’t have an original thought in their head!
Geez!
I'm sorry, but I have to side with the school on this one. I think there is a good chance that the boy turns out to be a cereal killer!
When my son was in middle school kids were stabbed with pencils in the hallway. These rules leave no room for the application of common sense. But considering that many school administrators don’t have any common sense the kids suffer from a forced reliance on one-size-fits all zero tolerance. Public education is not about the kids, and certainly not about education in many cases. They just love the power of enforcement!!
Poor little guy. What a screwed world we live in.
Back when I was in highschool 1999-2003 we couldn’t eat with plastic knives, we had to cut everything with the edge of a fork or spoon.
Another dangerous toy banned from schools.
What idiocy!
Did they ban all contact sports too? Allow only Wii versions?
In Delaware a first DUI offense—which by the way could put someone’s eye (or life) out—carries a 45-day license revocation. Where’s the proportionality?
Lemme guess...it was the daddies who didn't like it.
Did I win anything?
I graduated high school in 74. During middle and high school I carried a Buck 4” folding hunter on my belt every day. Nobody ever blinked. It was a tool, not a weapon, even on the couple of occasions I got into a fistfight.
WE ARE DOOMED...ADULTS have NO COMMON SENSE!
This is exactly why my 11 year old granddaughter is studying karate. She will never be defenseless.
It’s freeper time!
http://helpzachary.com/
Zachary’s education and emotional well-being have been impacted because of the zero tolerance policy of the Christina School District. He is not the only “collateral damage” that has happened due to the “zero tolerance” rules set forth in the Christina School District’s Code of Conduct. Numerous cases are heard each month which end in expulsion or “alternative placement” into the Douglass School. Many of these children are innocent victims of decisions being made based on extreme, zero tolerance rules.
On Tuesday, September 29th, Zachary brought his camping utensil to school to use at lunch (spoon, fork, bottle opener, and knife). As he was getting off the bus, a teacher asked him what he was holding in his hand. Zachary showed it to her and explained why he had brought it... to eat his lunch. The teacher gave the utensil to the principal, at which point Zach was suspended from school pending a school district hearing.
The School District committee recommended that he be alternatively placed at The Douglass School, a reform school for juvenile delinquents. This is the same school where they place children who have severe behavioral problems and who are guilty of such offenses as assault and battery, rape, drug offenses, concealing a deadly weapon, and more. Since there is absolutely zero chance that we will allow that to happen, the only hope for Zachary being able to rejoin his friends at Downes Elementary is if Christina School District Superintendent Marcia Lyles or the Christina School Board intervenes to overturn the committee’s decision.
Did you catch the fact that HE IS SIX YEARS OLD?!?!?! We haven’t spoken to anybody who believes that the zero tolerance policy is either rational or reasonable, but the District continues to follow it in spite of legislation (HB 120) that calls for school districts to use sound judgment in reviewing these cases.
Please help! Please send emails and letters to the Christina School Board and to Christina School District Superintendent Marcia Lyles (contact info listed below)... MOST IMPORTANTLY, Please come to the School Board meeting on Tuesday, October 13th. Our goal is to have 10,000 people there to make the School Board listen to reason and stop victimizing the same innocent children they are supposed to be protecting.
Come to the School Board meeting and make your voice heard!
October 13, 2009
General Business Meeting ~ 7:30 pm
Porter Road Elementary School
500 Caledonia Way, Bear, DE
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