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2007-12-18

Time to buy an island

Have you heard about this? A ten year-old girl was arrested because she brought a knife to school.

A steak knife.

No, she didn't use threaten anyone with it; she was spotted by a couple of teachers using this utensil to cut her steak and they swooped in and took it away from her. I'd say that was probably unnecessary but I understand wanting to be cautious. However, the school felt merely removing the offending utensil wasn't sufficient; they then called the Sheriff's department who arrested the girl and hauled her off to a criminal processing center. It seems this was also not an adequate response as she is now looking at a felony charge for possessing a "weapon" on school property. Oh, and she's been suspended for ten days.

I personally feel far safer knowing this little girl is out of the cafeteria off the streets and no longer able to provide bite sized steak bits for herself. I think it's fabulous that tax dollars are being spent to ensure that zero tolerance policies are strictly observed to any extreme without even a slight nod towards common sense.

I think my head is about to explode.

7 comments:

  1. Ah,reason #8,765,644 I homeschool.

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  2. OMG That is ridiculous! I understand that they don't want knives and obviously guns...but all the poor girl wanted was to eat her sketchy lunch meat without choking!!!

    (http://randomramblingsfrome.wordpress.com/)

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  3. My son was suspended for bringing a tiny pocket knife to school. They knew he meant no harm, but they have a zero tolerance policy.

    It sucks.

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  4. On the other side of things . . . this is what a student handbook is for. Why weren't the parents aware of the rules for the school? Let's face it . . . a knife is a knife is a knife . . . Like it or not, it can cut . . . therefore considered a weapon. As a parent, I wouldn't want my child next to someone with a knife, of any kind. As a teacher, the less knives at school, the better. Trust me, student moods can be scary sometimes. (Although, personally, I think in punishment issues, they should look at the history of the student, etc.) In situations like this, zero tolerance does suck, but for the majority of situations, it does serve a purpose. . . to protect all of our children.

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  5. Ridiculous but so typical!

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  6. typical over-reaction which exacerbates situations. It should have been quietly explained to the girl and her parents why steak-knives even used innocently are not appropriate. Only if that failed should the matter have gone any further - but that is common sense and that doesn't have a place in rule-books these days.

    I got stopped trying to take a pair of scissors aboard a cruise liner. In the end, sense prevailed and they let me keep them.

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  7. :(

    this is sad... at least she didn't bring the knife like i just posted for my V is for violence picture for ABC wednesday...

    jim baker

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Brilliant observations: