South Carolina Ping
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.
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.
Yes, I agree, but you are ignoring the fact however that citizens are primed to sue schools when they feel the school didn't take proper action with regard to safety. They take the nails away this time. Then the kid does something else where someone gets hurt. All of the sudden, it's the school who gets sued for not taking action early on. It is a lose-lose situation for the school. If they take action, they are slammed for going overboard. If they do nothing, they are sued for failing to take action.
"I wonder if it's possible to strangle someone with a super-strength condom"
I don't know about that but a condom will stretch enough to be pulled over someone's head to suffocate them.
The chances of my kids ever setting foot into a government school are somewhere between slim and none.
"Perhaps we should stop suing at the drop of a hat."
But then lawlessness will sweep that land as millions of attorneys will have to resort to (visibly) armed robbery to steal they money.
"Were these 8d 'assault nails?'"
Did they fit the silencer-equipped pneumatic nail gun and air compressor that the kid was hiding in his other pocket?
That's exactly right. My oldest son has been on a hammering kick the last few days so he's been taking his hammer with him wherever he goes. Before that he was using his pocket knife to whittle sticks. All over our porch were remnants of sticks. So glad he doesn't go to public school and have to deal with this. They would have locked him up.
Wood shop has been shut down so that time can be used for more socially important purposes, like GLBT indoctrination, multicultural awareness, and the like.
She should have all the students arrested for bringing fists to school, definite potential weapons. And MS Doster should be arrested for bringing the potential tools of prostitution on school grounds,
This is beyond stupid, it's insane! I will drop an email to Commrades Doster and Hart Hyphen McCray, their bosses and their bosses, and tell them so. Maybe they can find a job as prison guards since that's what their calling seems to be.
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