Draw a picture of a gun and see what is "construed".
Posted on 05/28/2005 7:24:30 PM PDT by Coleus
A school resource officer arrested an 11-year-old Rawlinson Road Middle School student Wednesday after the boy went to school with 10 nails in his pocket. The boy produced the three-and-a-half-inch-long nails after Dianne McCray, the school's assistant principal, asked about a jingling sound in his right pocket. McCray asked to see what was in his pocket, and he gave her the nails.
The boy first said the nails were from a project about 10 days before, according to the police report. He then said the nails were for self-defense because a suspicious man had been seen in his neighborhood. He also said he needed the nails for a Boy Scout outing this weekend, the report said.
He was charged with having an unlawful weapon but was not taken to the police station; his father picked him up from school. The Herald is not identifying the boy because of his age.
The boy had the nails from an earlier scouting trip, his father said, and noticed them in his pocket after putting on a pair of pants he had not worn since the trip.
"They were not to be used as a weapon at school," the boy's father said.
McCray then called in school resource officer Ashley Doster, who sought charges against the boy.
State law says anything that can be construed or used as a weapon on school grounds can be classified as unlawful, said Lt. Jerry Waldrop of the Rock Hill Police Department.
"I'm not second-guessing the officer that made the charge," Waldrop said. "The nails could have been used against other students. The juvenile with them did state he had them for protection against a suspicious male in the neighborhood."
But the boy's father said his son did not threaten anyone with the nails, did not do anything violent, and had no intentions to use the nails as a weapon.
"Is a pencil a weapon? Is a pen a weapon? Is a paperclip a weapon?" the father asked. "I think this whole charge is ridiculous."
The decision to have the boy arrested was made by the school's administrators, said Rock Hill school district spokeswoman Elaine Baker, who did not know specifically why the decision was made.
"The information I read was that the student didn't bring the nails to harm anybody," Baker said. "They were left in there (the pocket) from something else."
McCray did not return several phone calls from The Herald.
Resource Officer
Ashley Doster
Email
Mrs. Dianne Hart-McCray
6th Grade Assistant Principal
Email
I don't e mail hyphenated teachers.
filing civil suits is the only way to curb these nonsense arrests.
A lot of kids take Tae Kwon Do lessons nowadays. Are they themselves weapons, and should they be banned??
Insane. Does the Middle School have a wood shop? If they do, shut it down, no telling what type of nails they have in there /sarcasm
When they outlaw vinyl sinkers only outlaws will ...
Draw a picture of a gun and see what is "construed".
Getting out my trusty crystal ball: I see a lawsuit for wrongful arrest. I see the plaintiff winning.
It's in the water FUR SHUR.
Got to break their spirit at the first hint of individuality.
Hey! Teacher! Leave those kids alone!
How do they teach Geometry without the use of a compass?
PRINCIPAL: "And is there anyone against whom you might have needed to use these nails as weapons?"
KID: Well, there was this scary kinda guy hanging around our neighborhood..."
Bottom line: Until his questioners suggested -- and coached him into -- it, the kid had not even thought of the nails as potential weapons.
ENTRAPMENT!!
I wonder if it's possible to strangle someone with a super-strength condom. That would certainly put the school in a dilemma!
They're basing the decision to make charges on the fact that he implied he could use them as weapons.
The boy first said the nails were from a project about 10 days before, according to the police report. He then said the nails were for self-defense because a suspicious man had been seen in his neighborhood. He also said he needed the nails for a Boy Scout outing this weekend, the report said.
Let's see, he first said one thing (a very reasonable explanation), then the one that is absurd, and then yet another one (also logical). It sounds like he was probably subjected to serious questioning. They don't let the police question fully competent adults without allowing them to get lawyers, and yet they are going to use the testimony of an 11 year old who was clearly pressured to give them an answer they wanted. If Miranda passes constitutional muster, this should be abolutely unacceptable as a basis for any conviction.
I'm sure it's here somewhere, but in what state is this school located?
I wonder if there are any dastardly fingernail files laying around teachers' desks at Rawlinson Road Middle School.
South Carolina
Boy, 11, arrested for having nails at school
Why add the word "Scout"?
Dianne McCray, [6th grade] assistant principal at Rawlinson Road Middle School, asked the child Wednesday what was jingling in his pocket and the student gave her the 3.5" long nails.Woman
A school resource officer [Ashley Doster] arrested him. His father picked him up and he was not taken to the police station.Another woman ...
Why is it that I, a guy, could conceive that two femnisist, most likely non-outdoorsy, non-treefort building women would take this 'bend' with commonly available construction materials like NAILS?
Why not? He is obviously a Boy Scout.
ball-bearings. it's all ball-bearings these days.
I need to get me some nails, and build a shack in the middle of nowhere. This is all too scary.
He was a boy scout, the reason why he had the nails, the scouts are under fire by the ACLU and the libs. Freepers are pro scouting.
"He also said he needed the nails for a Boy Scout outing this weekend, the report said. "
And the saws, man, the SAWS!!
Because he hasn't been an alter boy since last year. "Scout" (now) sounds better than "former alter boy" to a leftist.
One of the reasons why I never read the Herald, my hometown paper.
I see a Scrappleface article coming on:
"The Rock Hill Schoolhouse Nail Massacre"
"Forty students and a school administrator were massacred by a teenage boy weilding a 3.5" nail today...."
I don't know how many times I have left something in my pocket after working on a project or chore. I hope the family sues the he** out of this school. This crap is getting out of hand. These people are supposed to be educated professionals, but their reaction shows they didn't teach common sense where they got their degrees. This is as bad as suspending 6 - 7 year olds for playing cowboys and Indians at recess using their fingers for guns.
Why do parents keep thier children in these indoctrination camps????
You should see the damage i can do with a 3.5" floppy disc!
I once used it to bring france to it's knees!
I guess wood shop is a thing of the past.
Government schools are evil.
ROFLOL !!! - I once worked with a guy that went to Wall HS, somewhere in NJ ...
Buddy B, was a Boy Scout member long ago and we were to tell the truth.
Has Scouting changed?
Okay, I'll play : )
ROTF...........
But did he have a hammer too. Of themselves all nails could do unless honed to a fine point, is scratch.
Has Scouting changed? >>
I guess so. Nobody's perfect.
The youth felt threatened by someone or something and had put the nails into his pocket so he could protect himslf from the threat.
Do these circumstances warrant using inflammatory comments like "unlawful"? 1- Nails can be weapons, 2- weapons are unlawful, 3-people possessing nails deserve to be charged as criminals.
Assume the first 2 statements are true: Is the final one 1=true 2=false 3=not certain?..........Tom greets Beth. Beth greets Mary. Tom did not greet Mary. (ANSWER = 3 not certain)
One more reason to abolish "public education".
Rock Hill School District 3 | Board of Trustees: Board Members
Rock Hill School District 3 | Online site Map
Rock Hill School District 3
P.O. Drawer 10072
660 North Anderson Road
Rock Hill, SC 29731
Phone: (803) 981-1000
Fax: (803) 981-1094
Email Us:
rh3web@rock-hill.k12.sc.us
What a coincidence that my 11 year old daughter was playing with a block of wood and seven nails just before supper. She asked me if I could stack all the nails on the block with only one nail touching the wood. I let her show me how it was done and she constructed a fabulous balancing puzzle on one nail in about 15 seconds. I was very impressed and when I asked her where she got this neat puzzle, (I'm thinking Cracker Barrel), she said "My Teacher made one for every student in the class and gave them to us". Of course, she doesn't go to a public school, so nails are used for instruction in engineering and construction instead of assaulting people... and their individual freedoms.
Yes, but lawsuits against schools are why these arrests occur to begin with. Perhaps we should stop suing at the drop of a hat. Then schools wouldn't feel the need to react with overkill about every tiny incident.
just take the nails away from the kid and contact the parents.
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