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 mothers fiancé by his side to vouch for him.
Zacharys 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 districts 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 ...
How can it be a parallel society when the home schooled are better educated?
6 years old. 45 day suspension. For a Cub Scout utensil.
Ping.
We’re parallel, just further up the X-axis :D
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.
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.
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.
Oh no! Where will he get his homosexual indoctrination for those 45 days?
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 :) )
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.
>>The designer won the Nobel Peas Prize!
ROFLMAO
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???
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.
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Just when you think you've heard it all.......
Might as well ban hands and feet while you're at it...
Yeah, those sporks are a major danger.
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.
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.
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