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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: massgopguy

Do you think they might even have SHARP KNIVES in the teachers’ lounge? Good grief!


81 posted on 10/12/2009 8:03:26 AM PDT by NEMDF
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To: MrB

but you can also call all the school administrators

COWARDS

for not having the guts to say that a cubscout from a responsible family with a camping knife/utensil

is DIFFERENT

from the kid of a crackho with no father bringing a knife to school to “cut some cracka”.

EXACTLY! And that worked when America had common sense and a consensus on what constituted appropriate and inappropriate social behavior. This was destroyed in large part by Communist infiltration of our education system at all levels.


82 posted on 10/12/2009 8:03:53 AM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: Mind-numbed Robot
More unintended consequences? Yeah, right!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Exactly! Government schools are working exactly as intended from their beginnings in the mid-1800s.

83 posted on 10/12/2009 8:06:43 AM PDT by wintertime (People are not stupid! Good ideas win!)
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To: reaganaut1
But the question on the minds of residents here is: Why do school officials not have more discretion in such cases?

Where have the residents been, living in a cave? For the past 70 years the atheistic socialist agenda has been being implemented...the fact that schools officials have no discretion is absolutely nothing new.

The Socialist Vision and Global Connections of the NEA
http://www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/chronologies/nea.htm

84 posted on 10/12/2009 8:10:47 AM PDT by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51. Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: Wiz
And when everything is a weapon, everything will be banned!!!

No School Supplies for you!!!!


85 posted on 10/12/2009 8:17:44 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: SmithL

Renegade School/NEA/ACLU types is more like it.


86 posted on 10/12/2009 8:24:56 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: 1raider1
Well, then you shut down the local school district/file bankruptcy as soon as a verdict (with corresponding monetary award) is reached.

As the district is ‘now’ bankrupt, no monies can be parceled out to pay the claim.

Then reincorporate the school district as a ‘new’ district with no association with the ‘bad’ old district... and rehire all the teachers and administrators.

See, lawsuit problem solved!

And as a future benefit, people will be less likely to sue, now that precedence is set. (ie - no money even if you win)

87 posted on 10/12/2009 8:29:08 AM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: Terabitten; Hegemony Cricket
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...

I just never mention this. It's too obvious. I'd rather they remain ignorant.

88 posted on 10/12/2009 8:35:58 AM PDT by no-s (B.L.O.A.T. everyday...because someday soon they won't be making any more...for you.)
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To: Nervous Tick

It comes apart into three parts.


89 posted on 10/12/2009 8:37:58 AM PDT by opbuzz (Right way, wrong way, Marine way)
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To: reaganaut1
This passage was used twice, almost verbatim:
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,”

To make matters worse, it was used once as a quote and once (the first time) it was used in the body of the article, as if the article writer had written it.

Guess that's what happens when the Old Gray Slut trades in her editors for political officers.

90 posted on 10/12/2009 8:38:35 AM PDT by Still Thinking (If ignorance is bliss, liberals must be ecstatic!)
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To: reg45
If we take slop, run it through a blender, and serve it to the kids in a paper cup (without a straw - which could be used to poke someone’s eye out) perhaps that would pass the zero tolerance test.

That's an excellent idea. It makes it much more convenient to include their Ritalin and drugs that will make them susceptible to suggestion. Then, once they're in the proper frame of mind, we can finally show them why the state is their only true, loving, and wise parent. By high school, they'd take the swill if they DID know what was in it.

91 posted on 10/12/2009 8:46:56 AM PDT by Still Thinking (If ignorance is bliss, liberals must be ecstatic!)
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To: reg45

It’s still parallel. It’s just that the one they’re not running is the better of the two.


92 posted on 10/12/2009 8:49:46 AM PDT by Still Thinking (If ignorance is bliss, liberals must be ecstatic!)
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To: cyclotic

Creepy, yet amusing.


93 posted on 10/12/2009 8:54:38 AM PDT by Still Thinking (If ignorance is bliss, liberals must be ecstatic!)
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To: CharlesWayneCT
Excellence must not be tolerated. Everyone must be held back, ignored or pushed forward as needed till everyone is exactly the same shade of dull gray-brown. "Collectivism: We may all be miserable, but we're all miserable to exactly the SAME degree!" Reminds me of Camazotz, the planet in Medeleine L'Engle's kids book Wrinkle in Time. Come to think of it, Obama reminds me of the malevolent brain-thing that ruled the planet.
94 posted on 10/12/2009 9:02:38 AM PDT by Still Thinking (If ignorance is bliss, liberals must be ecstatic!)
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To: Durus

Excellent! That would make a good tag line!


95 posted on 10/12/2009 9:04:31 AM PDT by Fast Moving Angel (GOP: Stop listening, start doing -- we need new leaders!)
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To: stinkerpot65
These NEA "educators" who probably all voted for Obama obviously are delighting in this 6 year-old's banishment to their "reform school" but will not say a word when his Justice Department will protect Roman Polanski who used a tool of a different sort to rape a child.

Leni

96 posted on 10/12/2009 9:11:43 AM PDT by MinuteGal (Somewhere in Kenya, a Village is Missing Its Idiot!)
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To: reaganaut1
Finding character witnesses when you are 6 years old is not easy.

Finding credit references is even harder.

97 posted on 10/12/2009 9:15:03 AM PDT by NaughtiusMaximus (Hey, O'Riley! I'd rather be a CRACKER than a CASPAR.)
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To: massgopguy
How do people eat at this school? Do they eat soup with their hands?

Soup?

Soup is way too hot, and dangerous. I'm sure they serve tofu balls. Soft (but not too soft - choking hazard, don'tchaknow?), room temperature tofu balls.

98 posted on 10/12/2009 9:20:19 AM PDT by mountainbunny (Mitt Romney: Would you buy a used car from this man?)
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To: massgopguy

NO SOUP FOR YOU!


99 posted on 10/12/2009 9:23:59 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB (ACORN:American Corruption for Obama Right Now)
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To: wintertime

The boy is being homeschooled during those 45 days. If anything, the school did him a favor.


100 posted on 10/12/2009 9:34:34 AM PDT by Tired of Taxes (Dad, I will always think of you.)
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