yeah, I agree. A two-plus inch blade can be just as much of a weapon in the hands of an enraged person as say, a fork at lunch time.
Actually I tend to drift between optimism and pessimism in a middle-of-the-road way. Expecting is too strong, wanting is too weak. I think people are capable of change if they work hard enough to bring it about. And I believe they should at least try.
Do you think I’m any more or less “horrified” by this incident than any other zero tolerance injustice? I’ll assure you I’m not. Maybe it’s just that the tone I (and some of the other posters) have taken is slightly stronger than you would use. Maybe it’s simply that I’m just a little more passionate about this particular issue. I can certainly respect your opinion…
Anyway, if we’re on the same side, remind me again why you brought the subject up? 
What about birth control? If high schools can ban Midol, can they do anything about prescription drugs? If you have someone in school how is on birth control pills, there is a good chance that she carries them with her at all times, to be sure to always have them (I know I do). I like to joke with my bf about having him take the sugar pills - would that cause suspension in school? Maybe the selling of them, or pretending they’re something else, but saying to a friend “Why don’t you take these? I don’t want them!” as a joke?
What about other drugs? My sister is arthritic - she has been since she was 14. She carries her meds to school often incase she has a flare-up, although as long as she takes them regularly, its not an issue. Would she get in trouble? What about asthma inhalers? Insulin?
I just wonder how far things can go. I carry Advil on me when Im having my period, because without it, I’d likely stay home some days. I’m not in high school anymore, so I don’t really have to deal with any ZT rules, but it just seems rediculous. “We’re suspending you for having drugs on you (Advil)”, or “We’re punishing you for missing too much school - your absentee record shows you miss school on a regular basis…”. Which, as a student, do you choose?
[slight hijack]
I remember taking Midol in high school once, and I had a reaction to it - suffered from most of the side effects, actually. I must have seemed pretty burnt out - it was pretty clear that I had taken something. I was worried enough about how I was feeling that I had friends walk me to classes, and I made sure to tell classmates and teachers in every class what I had taken in case I passed out or something. In the end, it just wore off, and I was fine. But this thread made me wonder - in today’s ZT world, would I have been suspended?
[/slight hijack]
Here in Florida:
Girl is busy week before graduation moving into her new apartment. Carries boxes of possesions in her car. Table knife falls out of box and gets wedged under seat.
Monday at school: administrator sees knife poking out from under seat, calls girl to office… expels her.
Girl is permitted to graduate, but not able to walk at graduation.
Girl is member of NHS with spotless record.
I’ll try to find a cite.
I refuse to improve sentence structure.
The pacifier thing is probably related to rave culture, funny hair, glowsticks, and pacifiers are identifying features of those types of kids.
When I as in school, It was a status symbol to have a buck 110 folding hunter on your belt in the little leather pouch. Just like Bo and Luke on the Dukes of hazzard. Thats 3 1/2 inch lock blade knife, and everyone had one. No one got cut.
I would deffinately at least consult a lawyer if this happened to my child. A friend of mine’s son got caught in a similar situation. So now for a solid year he went to the alternative school, and got to hang out with all the gang bangers and trouble makers that were there for a reason.
bdgr, if it comes to that, then I will either put in her in a private school or homeschool her. I will NOT let her go to the “alternative” school.
Another quick thought - if you are familiar with the district’s rules/policies and disagree with them, there are quite a few ways to voice your opinion. Go to the Board
of Education meetings, write letters, attend all PTA meetings, and spend some time at your children’s school.
Volunteer in the classroom, or just go and observe a class or two, maybe even try to volunteer as a lunchtime monitor or playground aide. It might open your eyes and ears to what’s really happening on school grounds. We might think we know, but things have changed, even in the past few years.
In our district (and the two other districts where my son has gone), all medicine must be brought to the nurse’s office by the parent or guardian in it’s original container. This means that my son cannot bring in a refill for the medicine that he takes daily–which he would never abuse because he knows how it improves his ability to cope in the world. When he runs out, each month, either his mom or I have to bring in the refill–despite the fact that each of us have had jobs, at one time or another, that have required over an hour travel time, meaning that we have to show up late for work those days.
Now, I can grudgingly accept that for his daily stuff (Schedule II drugs), but it makes absolutely no sense to me for us to have had to schedule a late day to bring in Amoxycillin or Dime-Tapp which has no street value and is utterly unattractive to all the druggie fourth graders.
When I was in basic training, our drill sergeant made us carry a plastic spoon from an MRE on our persons at all times. He said it was because you could kill with it if you had to do so. Several of us could barely contain our smirks so he demonstrated. He had one private come at him and then threw that private over his shoulder with a simple judo throw, spun and held the butt end of the spoon at his throat. OK, so it’s still a plastic spoon; come on Drill Sergeant, convince us. He then turned around, the spoon still grasped in his fist, and stuck the butt end of it through the wallboard behind him. IMO, if it’ll penetrate wallboard, human flesh is a snap. To tell the truth, I’d rather go up against someone with a MRE spoon than a 2" Swiss Army knife. The spoon handle is 4" long and is more likely to cause a fatal penetrating trauma in trained hands and it won’t fold back into your fingers.
Isn’t there getting to be quite a long line of precedent that students in school have a significantly reduced expectation of privacy? Their persons, lockers, and cars are subject to warrantless searches without cause. And they are entitled to reduced process when accused of violations. Is this news? Is a ninth grader unaware of this?
Yes, kindergartners are being sent home for having a plastic sword with their Halloween Pirate costume. Yes, kids are suspended for drawing pictures of guns, or writing arguably violent essays. Yes, students are suspended for giving another student a Midol. Students involved in extracurricular activities have to piss in a cup.
Yes, this is a very unfortunate turn of events. Consistent with the expedient political approach of appearing to address a problem that may or may not exist, while failing to actually improve the specific situation.
If this strikes you as one of the greatest ills facing society, then by all means, ride off to battle. Confront the PTA, school board, other elected officials, the media, hire attorneys, picket, purchase advertising. Knock yourself out.
On the other hand, if you happen to have other more pressing demands on your time, then you might want to make sure junior leaves the knives (however small) and drugs/medicine (however innocuous) at home.
While you are at it, you might want to restrain from making bomb jokes at the airport. Now doesn’t that make you feel safer?
And the answer is…
3 more days of suspension, then she will be graciously accepted back into the loving bosum of the school.
Our appointment with the panel was at 3:45. We finally got in at 5:10. It was all over by 6:00.
She was charged with 1) - having a knife 2)lying to a person in authority and 3)failure to follow rules.
LittleB had typed up the whole story, (which she read to the panel), and was brutally honest about what she had thought during the whole thing (“Should I try to hide the knife?”), and about the asst. principal (“I told her my friend’s name 5 times already, she probably won’t remember and then my friend won’t be able to get her lunch!”). I thought it showed quite a bit of character, but I guess the infamous panel was not impressed. They looked at her academic performance(not so great last year), as well as absences and previous conduct (stellar).
Incidentally, the knife was much smaller than I had originally thought. It is commonly referred to as a “penknife” - total length 3".