Zero tolerance under fire after expulsion over bread knife

CNN ^ | March 20, 2002 Posted: 3:19 PM EST (2019 GMT)

[RoughDobermann]

BEDFORD, Texas (AP) -- Taylor Hess says the 10-inch bread knife found by a school security guard in the bed of his pickup was accidentally left behind from a box of personal belongings owned by his ailing grandmother.

But the knife could end up costing the 16-year-old honor student the rest of his junior year of high school. Hess was expelled from L.D. Bell High School two weeks ago under the state's zero-tolerance weapons policy. An appeal is set for Thursday.

[RoughDobermann]

Pathetic...

[Phantom Lord]

I still say that some students should go to the Salvation Army and buy up all of the butter knives in the place and plant them in every single car in the school parking lot. Especially the staffs cars.

Would be interesting to see them handle having to suspend every single student.

[Ancesthntr]

Zero tolerance rules/laws are an excuse for ignorant, mind-numbed robots to act according to their true nature, and to thereby realize their dreams of petty-dictatorship.

I think that Hess and his parents should sue the living S--- out of the school district and school officials in question. My understanding is that the law in question only refers to certain weapons, including daggers, machetes, swords and the like. I rather doubt that a breadknife is either mentioned or was contemplated as a target of this idiotic law.

Maybe these folks could also sue based on denial of the kid's freedom of expression. It seems that a talented attorney could modify the free-speech arguments used by those who place religious items in buckets of urine to get this kid exonerated and re-admitted to school (plus a hefty chunk of change to act as a deterrent to similar idiocy everywhere).

[mattdono]

Gene Buinger, superintendent of the Hurst-Euless-Bedford School District, said Tuesday that Hess' expulsion was mandated by the state education code.

"We're very limited in what we can do," Buinger said at a news conference. "I understand the public's frustration. I'm frustrated, too."

Well than do something about it!m Change the freakin' rule. The police AND the DA are not pursuing charges. This is pure BS.

[zook]

The man is lying. He's the superintendent. He's not limited at all. He can rescind the suspension. He's a coward.

[X-USAF]

Rules, regulations, policy, and procedures, especially at a SCHOOL level, are greatly different than codified laws.

Something that EVERYONE is forgetting: Spirit versus letter. Certainly the spirit called for bad kids with dangerous weapons to be held accountable. Not good kids with flatware.

[ladtx]

The man is lying. He's the superintendent. He's not limited at all. He can rescind the suspension. He's a coward.

No he's not lying. It is a state mandated expulsion. Your problem is not with the superintendent but with the assinine state education requirements. Zero tolerance is the lazy man's way to run a system. That way they don't have to think, unfortunately this appears to be the way much of the society is going.

[Joe Hadenuf]

BEDFORD, Texas (AP) -- Taylor Hess says the 10-inch bread knife found by a school security guard in the bed of his pickup was accidentally left behind from a box of personal belongings owned by his ailing grandmother. But the knife could end up costing the 16-year-old honor student the rest of his junior year of high school.

Bread knife in is truck?

An 8-year-old boy in Jonesboro Ark., was suspended for three days after pointing a breaded chicken finger at a teacher and saying, "Pow, pow, pow."

A breaded chicken finger?

This crap is spreading across this nation as fast as the illegal aliens.

[X-USAF]

All of us should tell him our thoughts.

Superintendent
Gene Buinger, Ed.D.
1849 Central Drive
Bedford, Texas 76022
817-283-4461
817-267-3311 (Metro)

[Tickle Me Pank]

The school / ISD administration does have some leeway - while state law says that the student "shall" be expelled, they can specify the length of the expulsion.

[steve-b]

Sorry, that excuse won't fly. He was handed a rationale to do right thing on a silver platter (the legal definition of "possession") and lacked the backbone to use it.

[Publius6961]

"We're very limited in what we can do," Buinger said at a news conference. "I understand the public's frustration. I'm frustrated, too."

Unadulterated BS!
(even for Texas)

Criminal Stupidity is not yet a crime, but for administrators and bureaucrats, touching the lives of millions, it should be.
Being in a position of authority also carries responsibilities.
Making a distinction, and sometimes tough choices is part of those responsibilities.

Time to be sure to have adults in those positions.

[ladtx]

Sorry, that excuse won't fly. He was handed a rationale to do right thing on a silver platter (the legal definition of "possession") and lacked the backbone to use it.

My point is, that we try to make it too easy for administrators etc, with such a goofy regulation as zero tolerance. The real culprit here is the Texas Dept of Education, not the wimpy superintendent, who obviously is not a thinking type of guy.

[steve-b]

Criminal Stupidity is not yet a crime, but for administrators and bureaucrats, touching the lives of millions, it should be. Being in a position of authority also carries responsibilities.

See my suggestion on the other thread.

[Redbob]

Why does CNN call this a "bread knife" when all the local (Dallas area) media called it a "butter knife"?
There's a big difference: bread knives have edges, butter knives don't.
Anyone know which it really was?

[Tickle Me Pank]

It was not a "butter" knife. I saw a spot on a Dallas news channel which showed the teen, his truck, and the knife (or one he said was like it), the knife was definitely ~10" long.

[Tickle Me Pank]

Unfortunately, the legal definition of possession is in the Texas penal code, and that's not what we're talking about here.....

[Sender]

My wife is a high school teacher and it IS pathetic how rigid and stupid many of the rules are. Kids cannot access the internet because they might see porn or conservatism, they cannot have sharp eating utensils, cannot do anything that might possibly offend one person on the earth. And if I hear one more wimpy, spineless assistant administrator say "there's nothing I can do, my hands are tied" I swear we might as well send our kids to the mall as off to publik skool.

[Tickle Me Pank]

The lad's back in school now, he won his appeal, and received a shortened expulsion.

[Phantom Lord]

Look at that necklace he is wearing! Its a weapon! He should be expelled for that alone!

Hey, if a Tweety Bird keychain is a weapon worth a lengthy suspension, why not that necklace?

[Tickle Me Pank]

I think those ears could be used as weapons......

[Ancesthntr]

Rules, regulations, policy, and procedures, especially at a SCHOOL level, are greatly different than codified laws.

True. However, when such school-level rules, etc. result in the denial of a person's right to attend school, such rules are then subject to scrutiny by the courts, just like regular laws. In that sense they are no different.

[X-USAF]

True. However, when such school-level rules, etc. result in the denial of a person's right to attend school, such rules are then subject to scrutiny by the courts, just like regular laws. In that sense they are no different.

Agreed.