20 weeks for a noble deed? I think this kid’s parents should take him to Disneyworld every day of his suspension. That’ll show 'em!
I can definately understand why the kid might have even thought that turning the knife in would have caused his suspension. Mostly because it probably would have. At least thats always been my understanding of school policy.
Careful, matt - posting all these human interest, The Man Is So Stupid threads might get you lecturd to or - horrible! - dubbed a One Trick Pony in your own right.
:rolleyes:
I’m glad you can still get angry at such frellin’ stupidity, dear. Keep it up. <smooch>
Esprix
Um, “lectured.” Sorry.
Suppose the poor kid was set up? I mean, say the girl had some kind of beef against the kid, for whatever reason, and knew that under the zero tolerance policy she’d get him busted, so she concocted the story about wanting to kill herself, figuring that he’d take the knife and then she’d rat him out to the “authorities” and he’d be out of school! I’ve known kids pull similar stunts in the past. (Note to those of you who’re still in school and plagued by bullies, feel free to plant weapons, threatening notes or other such items on them and then alert your teachers that the bully is in possession of such items!)
Well, I experienced something a little similar (well not quite, but it’s stupid nonetheless…).
In eighth grade, someone had the bright idea of making darts out of sewing pins and thread, and started shooting them out of straws. I was one of the fortunate ones to get hit in the shoulder. I pulled it out of my skin, followed by a nice trickle of blood (it was about 1/2 inch in my skin), just as the dean walked by.
She SAW me take it out of my arm. She had CAUGHT the person shooting the darts. And what happens? I get dragged to the administration office for punishment. They wanted to suspend me for 5 days. WTF?? After a huge ordeal, with my friends coming in and complaining to a petition going around, they decided to “only” suspend me for a day.
Their reason? I was in possession of a dangerous object as soon as I removed it from my skin. I “should have gone to see the nurse” to have it removed. :rolleyes:
Maybe the equation should be “Zero Tolerance” = “No Intelligence” + “Cowardice” + “Zealotry”. Look at Monster104’s post and tell me the dean wasn’t being completely moronic.
I was just going to say that, sturmhauke. When I was in school ('70s and '80s) it seemed like administrations ignored most problems because they didn’t want to examine individual cases. Now they suspend and expel automatically because they don’t want to examine individual cases.
Nothing’s changed. Just the negative has been flipped. (I mean as in a photographic negative.)
First thought-
On his permanent records, is it just going to say “no tolerance for weapons possession” or is the situation going to be explained?
Second thought-
rayniday walks into nurses office Hey Nurse? I bit my tongue and am bleeding…the principal said I should come here…
Nurse-why?
rayniday-he said my teeth were dangerous and should be removed…
Third thought-
Yes, or else the the girl would have done away with herself before something could be done. If she was suffering from depression, then she probably would be that much MORE depressed, being thrown out of school, and cut away from the emotional support of friends…sigh
Just out of curiosity, what grade level was Ratner when this happened?
How old is Ben Ratner? If he’s in middle school, I understand that he would hide the binder in his locker. Being told by a friend that she is planning on commiting suicide is a scary thing; he probably panicked a little and didn’t know what to do with the knife. If he’s in high school, I would think that he should have a little more common sense than to keep the knife in his own possession for the remainder of the school day. However, there is no way to correctly handle the situation. A lose/lose situation if I ever heard one, all made possible by the school. If you can’t trust the teachers at your school, then who can you trust? <Sigh>…I almost feel tempted now to e-mail this case to the principal of my school, and ask her how she would have handled this situation.
The kid probably would have been suspended longer for bringing the knife to the office. The best thing to do would have been to throw it in the trash somewhere and hope no one gets hurt by it or sees you. Or maybe in someones locker you don’t like. I bet the kid who actually brought the knife wasn’t even suspended.