Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Eagle Scout's penalty stands
timesunion.com ^ | 5-20-10 | SCOTT WALDMAN

Posted on 05/20/2010 1:05:26 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

Matthew Whalen's suspension will stand.

On Wednesday night, the Lansingburgh Central School District board of education rejected Whalen's appeal of the punishment and decided not to expunge the blemish on the record of the Eagle Scout suspended for having a pocketknife in his car while the vehicle was on the grounds of Lansingburgh High School. Whalen received a 20-day suspension in September after he turned over to school administrators a 1 1/2-inch knife that he kept in his glove box as part of a car survival kit. He returned to school in October.

Whalen has said he does not know how school officials learned he had a pocketknife in his car, but suspects another student may have tipped off administrators in an attempt to pull a prank on him.

School officials, who did not respond to requests for comment, have said Whalen violated the school district's zero-tolerance policy because he brought a weapon on to school grounds and that the suspension was an appropriate response. The case raised national furor when Whalen went on two separate national Fox News programs to discuss the penalty. He worried that the action could hurt his chances of getting into West Point.

He said he never realized the school considered the keychain knife a weapon. He said his grandfather Robert Whalen -- who recently retired as police chief of the Hoosic Falls Police Department -- gave him the folding knife to use in his car after they used it to cut wires while installing a car radio.

Whalen was given a Lifesaving Heroism Award by the Boy Scouts of America at age 13 after he performed CPR on his aunt, saving her life. He said he carries water bottles, a sleeping bag and a change of clothes in his 1999 Mercury Sable in case it breaks down. He considered the key-chain knife part of that preparedness kit.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/ASPStories/story.asp?StoryID=868106#ixzz0oVBJ25GX


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bsa; discipline; eaglescout; education; idiocy; liberalfascism; publiceducation; publicschools; ruling; suspension; zerotolerance
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-108 next last
To: EnigmaticAnomaly
Fur Shur you should have checked out the company you'd be keeping before getting involved in that job or position.

That school has sure messed with the wrong fella.

61 posted on 05/20/2010 1:57:51 PM PDT by muawiyah ("Git Out The Way")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: RC2
Aren’t most of our schools today?

It isn't just the schools. Most leadership positions in our Nation are staffed by drooling idiots.

62 posted on 05/20/2010 1:59:21 PM PDT by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Flash Bazbeaux

In a foreign language?
Why, that would be grounds for promotion. Diversity and all that cr*p.


63 posted on 05/20/2010 1:59:26 PM PDT by rickb308 (Muslims need to check with Native Americans & ask how that whole cowboys & indians thing worked out.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: subterfuge

“No, a “District board” didn’t do anything. People did...”

100% correct. There is no such thing as “the administration, the Justice Department, the caucus, Homeland Security, the party...” there are PEOPLE doing these things not buildings or inanimate objects. From the evil people in this administration to the “Party officials” who would decree a Scozzafava, this is just a technique of deceit used by the corrupt and subversive to hide. It is depressing to know the shadows are filled to overflowing with these kind of people and it is harder than hell to find and remove such cockroaches because of this technique.


64 posted on 05/20/2010 2:00:41 PM PDT by Duke of Milan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58

And the principal and asst principal were the most likely people to want to admire said rifle or shotgun. Lots of times they would go to their own truck and let the student admire the rifle that they had. In our little West Texas town, most of the guys rarely even locked their pickups.


65 posted on 05/20/2010 2:12:26 PM PDT by NerdDad (Aug 7, 1981, I married my soul mate, CDBEAR. 28 years and I'm still teenager-crazy in love with her.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Your insight says it all.


66 posted on 05/20/2010 2:16:46 PM PDT by victim soul
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Deaf Smith

Good advice.

A knife is indeed a tool.

Thanks.


67 posted on 05/20/2010 2:18:17 PM PDT by super7man
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: Albion Wilde

Wellllll..... maybe not.

I don’t think the students could afford that one.


68 posted on 05/20/2010 2:21:26 PM PDT by super7man
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: wbill
I'd just strictly enforce the laws that are on the books for a certain set of people. That's all. :-) ""
I have many friends who are police officers...that is called "Selective Enforcement" and is perfectly legal......
69 posted on 05/20/2010 2:21:55 PM PDT by joe fonebone (They will get my Fishing Rod when they pry it from my cold dead fingers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Pollster1

A large screwdriver would be far more dangerous as a weapon but they probably wouldn’t object to that. He could have a tire tool in the trunk and that would be okay too even though tire tools used to be a favorite weapon of the really bad boys.


70 posted on 05/20/2010 2:23:59 PM PDT by RipSawyer (Trying to reason with a leftist is like trying to catch sunshine in a fish net at midnight.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic

Zero tolerance = Zero intelligence


71 posted on 05/20/2010 2:26:58 PM PDT by jimt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Albion Wilde

The decision of the Lansingburgh Central School District board of education, including Mary Sweeney, Susan Farrell, P.J. Higgitt, Karlene Gamble, Edward McDonough, Jason Shover, and Kelley Bristol, has defined its members as having the competency and ethical standards of human excrement.


72 posted on 05/20/2010 2:46:33 PM PDT by Carl Vehse
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic

It seems to me that there is no need for “administrators” or “school officials” with a “zero-tolerance” policy. A thin little policy manual administered by the janitorial staff should relieve all that staff overburden.


73 posted on 05/20/2010 2:50:00 PM PDT by RobinOfKingston (Democrats, the party of evil. Republicans, the party of stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Albion Wilde

Who needs weapons when you can just put them in the freezer, anyway?


74 posted on 05/20/2010 2:50:18 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Amateurish," agreed Janet Napolitano, the White House amateurishness czar.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Graybeard58

I remember those days, also. You could also get on an airplane without going through police state procedures such as showing proper papers, search of person and possessions, and interrogation.


75 posted on 05/20/2010 2:53:25 PM PDT by Skepolitic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: metmom; Tired of Taxes; wintertime; bamahead
Government schools strike again, with the expected idiotic, senseless results.
76 posted on 05/20/2010 2:55:23 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (Obama's more worried about Israelis building houses than he is about Islamists building atomic bombs)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pollster1
I have one of those. I come with a dangerous plastic toothpick.

ML/NJ

77 posted on 05/20/2010 2:59:14 PM PDT by ml/nj
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Talisker
It is enforcement training of nothing less than the programming of mindless obedience to political correctness totalitarianism ...

You've just neatly defined the raison d'etre of compulsory government schooling. Have a Guinness!

78 posted on 05/20/2010 3:01:33 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Amateurish," agreed Janet Napolitano, the White House amateurishness czar.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: RipSawyer

Isn’t the car itself far, far more lethal than a pocketknife when used as a weapon?


79 posted on 05/20/2010 3:01:54 PM PDT by Skepolitic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: afraidfortherepublic
This decision is sheer idiocy.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Yuri Besmenov warned us. Our nation is now utterly and completely “demoralized”! Next step: Destabilization!

Yet...Conservatives consistently fail to have a rational plan to RE-moralize the nation!

Hint: That RE-moralization plan better include shutting down every government K-12 school in the nation. That plan better include getting every child into a conservative private school!

Unless we raise up generations of citizens who can defend their faith and our nation's founding principles our nation is lost! We are facing a centuries long Dark Age. YES! It is that serious!

80 posted on 05/20/2010 3:05:18 PM PDT by wintertime
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-108 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson