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It’s a Fork, It’s a Spoon, It’s a ... Weapon?
New York Times ^ | October 11, 2009 | Ian Urbina

Posted on 10/12/2009 5:54:24 AM PDT by reaganaut1

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 now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.

“It just seems unfair,” Zachary said, pausing as he practiced writing lower-case letters with his mother, who is home-schooling him while the family tries to overturn his punishment.

Spurred in part by the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings, many school districts around the country adopted zero-tolerance policies on the possession of weapons on school grounds. More recently, there has been growing debate over whether the policies have gone too far.

...

Education experts say that zero-tolerance policies initially allowed authorities more leeway in punishing students, but were applied in a discriminatory fashion. Many studies indicate that African-Americans were several times more likely to be suspended or expelled than other students for the same offenses.

“The result of those studies is that more school districts have removed discretion in applying the disciplinary policies to avoid criticism of being biased,” said Ronnie Casella, an associate professor of education at Central Connecticut State University who has written about school violence. He added that there is no evidence that zero-tolerance policies make schools safer.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; US: Delaware
KEYWORDS: agenda; arth; banglist; bsa; cubscouts; discipline; education; liberals; publiceducation; publicschools; spork; stupid; zacharychristie; zerotolerance
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To: MrB
"creating a parallel society"

How can it be a parallel society when the home schooled are better educated?

41 posted on 10/12/2009 6:29:11 AM PDT by reg45 (Be calm everyone. The idiot children are in charge!)
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To: metmom

6 years old. 45 day suspension. For a Cub Scout utensil.

Ping.


42 posted on 10/12/2009 6:31:09 AM PDT by JenB
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To: reg45

We’re parallel, just further up the X-axis :D


43 posted on 10/12/2009 6:32:02 AM PDT by JenB
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To: reaganaut1
I suppose pencils and pens could be used as weapons too. I wonder if they are banned as well.
44 posted on 10/12/2009 6:32:07 AM PDT by HapaxLegamenon
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To: reaganaut1

I’m surprised they allow kids to drive to high school anymore.

I can’t think of any more deadly weapon that can be used for mass destruction and death than a kid deciding to point his car at a group of jocks that just stuffed his head in a toilet and press down on the gas pedal. One turn of the wheel and pressing down on the gas changes a car from a tool to a weapon, just like a gun it’s all about intent.

I really shouldn’t post this because some idiot administrator will think about it some and decide that I’m right.

Intent has to be factored in to some of these incidents like this, which it seems isn’t allowed anymore. They say that blacks are three times as likely to be punished than others for the same crime, are they comparing the kids who are a boyscout and have their jackknife in a coat pocket with the gang member who carries a switchblade? It all comes down to intent, and that’s where the race card always gets played every time.


45 posted on 10/12/2009 6:36:50 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: reg45

A better educated group would, by definition, BE a “parallel society”.

What the German courts were upset about, though, was the “isolation”, ie, the non-exposure to worldly values, that the homeschoolers were experiencing.

That is EXACTLY WHY most homeschoolers do it.

James 4:4
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.


46 posted on 10/12/2009 6:38:40 AM PDT by MrB (Go Galt now, save Bowman for later)
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To: MrB

When I went to school no self respecting boy walked around without a penknife or, preferably a jack knife.

You never knew when you might have to open a can of pork and beans, build an emergency shelter, whittle a toy flute or fend off a mountain lion, a dragon or a band of godless commies.


47 posted on 10/12/2009 6:44:22 AM PDT by Iron Munro (I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take a beating.)
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To: reaganaut1

Oh no! Where will he get his homosexual indoctrination for those 45 days?


48 posted on 10/12/2009 6:44:53 AM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast ( If you have kids, you have no right of privacy that the govt can't flick off your shoulder.)
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To: Iron Munro

Yeah, I CONSTANTLY carried a Swiss army knife (with scissors, etc).

Yesterday I installed a shop work light using nothing else. (I was pretty proud of myself :) )


49 posted on 10/12/2009 6:45:43 AM PDT by MrB (Go Galt now, save Bowman for later)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

That is most likely the cause of the “discrimination”. Those kids who were wielding weapons and threatening violence just happened to be black. So, in typical efficient gub’mint form, instead of trying to stop black kids from stabbing and shooting each other, they chose to pass zero-tolerance rules. Now no school administrator has to think at all. I wash my hands of this matter. Throw the child out. It’s the law.


50 posted on 10/12/2009 6:48:09 AM PDT by Sender (It's never too late to be who you could have been.)
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To: Joe 6-pack

>>The designer won the Nobel Peas Prize!

ROFLMAO


51 posted on 10/12/2009 6:49:46 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Stop dissing drunken sailors! At least they spend their OWN money.)
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To: reaganaut1
"Zero tolerance" is sheer unadulterated BS, and any "educator" who uses it should be fired.

ANYTHING can be a weapon. When I was in third grade, I was a real bookworm (still am, for that matter), and brought books from home to read in off time. One of the other kids was giving me unmitigated hell about it, so I took the book and whacked him upside the head. He "did" quit bothering me, and the book survived the incident.

Are they not gonna give the kids schoolbooks anymore???

52 posted on 10/12/2009 6:53:32 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog ( The Hog of Steel)
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To: Hegemony Cricket
The really dumb-funny thing about all these stories is that the stupid zero-tolerance liberals involved have such a narrow paradigm about what a weapon is that they totally disregard thousands of items around them that could easily be used to maim or kill...

The worst ass-whuppin I ever took was when my martial arts instructor taught a class on improvised weapons. He rolled up a one-subject spiral bound notebook real tight and commenced to whup me up one side and down the other.

It's a lesson I never have forgotten - there are no dangerous weapons. There are only dangerous people.

53 posted on 10/12/2009 6:58:38 AM PDT by Terabitten (Vets wrote a blank check, payable to the Constitution, for an amount up to and including their life.)
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To: 2Jedismom; AAABEST; aberaussie; Aggie Mama; agrace; AliVeritas; AlmaKing; AngieGal; Antoninus; ...

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)

The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.

Just when you think you've heard it all.......

54 posted on 10/12/2009 7:03:04 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: HapaxLegamenon
I suppose pencils and pens could be used as weapons too. I wonder if they are banned as well.

Might as well ban hands and feet while you're at it...

55 posted on 10/12/2009 7:03:54 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: reaganaut1

Yeah, those sporks are a major danger.


56 posted on 10/12/2009 7:07:23 AM PDT by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: Wonder Warthog

In junior high, I was constantly hailed by this little twerp named Carl. He was the leader of a bunch of bigger thigs, so I was always on the losing end of every fight.

The art teacher made us bring in cheese graters to grate wax to make candles. On the last day of that project, i had the four sided stainless steel behemoth cheese grater in my hands on the way to the locker.

Carl made a crucial error. He confronted me alone. I found that the cheese grater also did a fine job as a skin grater. Surprisingly, Carl never bothered me again.


57 posted on 10/12/2009 7:08:46 AM PDT by cyclotic (Boy Scouts-Developing Leaders in a World of Followers.)
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To: sitetest
Google images sometimes turns up some surprises:

58 posted on 10/12/2009 7:10:45 AM PDT by MrB (Go Galt now, save Bowman for later)
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To: ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY

Yes, that was just sloppy writing — zero-tolerance policies have been around for years, and contribute to the problems at Columbine and VT, first because of the anti-gun rules which keep people from defending themselves, but moreso that the zero-tolerance policies keep children from learning how to behave themselves, so when they get into less structured environments they easily act out in violent ways.


59 posted on 10/12/2009 7:11:38 AM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: reaganaut1
Is fish paste considered to be a WMD down there in Delaware?
60 posted on 10/12/2009 7:13:08 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Host The Beer Summit-->Win The Nobel Peace Prize!)
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