posted on April 7, 2002 02:29:19 PM new
The very worst part is that to get off he has to agree saying he committed a crime.
That will teach him something - how to be as great a flaming hypocrite as the pricipal whoes hands are tied because he has vacated all responsibility for using his judgement.
posted on April 7, 2002 02:39:52 PM new
This report is largely incomplete on facts. For instance, did a teacher tell the boy to bring a kitchen knife to school for his science project? The story, as written, sure seems to insinuate that into the text, but no where is it asked or substanciated. Therefore, if no teacher asked the boy to bring a kitchen knife to school AND the boy was aware of the "no tolerance" rule, then he did knowingly commit a crime. Right?
Those facts are not mentioned either; whether the boy knew it was wrong and did it anyway. From the article, we get a quote from his mom, "He's always been labeled as exceptional: bright ..." And I ask you this: what public school makes such serious rules with such serious penalties and does not make it a point to drill it into every single student, no matter dense they may be?
No facts on that either.
News Channel 3 in Madison, Wis. needs to go to Basic English Composition and Journalism School!
And, they should stop calling it "The News" as well, IMO.
UUB
[ edited by Borillar on Apr 7, 2002 02:44 PM ]
I hate to be the one to point this out, but that idiot principal is a woman:
"His principal is recommending a one-year expulsion.
"My reaction was, 'This is ridiculous. Are you kidding me?' And she said, no, her hands were tied... "
This is the same mindless thinking that prohibits me from carrying nail clippers or a fingernail file on an airplane, while the fellow who's fully prepared to blow a plane up can skate onboard with matches and explosives in his sneakers. It took someone wayyyyy down the line in the "security chain" -- a flight attendant -- to spot that Reid guy and determine he was up to no good.
And, yes, Gravid, the bs about the kid having to "admit" he committed a crime is beyond the pale. If I were his parents, I'd sue the school for masquerading as an "educational institution".
Borillar, have you got your trousers on backwards again?
posted on April 7, 2002 03:17:04 PM new
On a TV special recently I saw boxes of items taken away from people who were boarding aircraft. There was a huge cardboard box full of disposable plastic razors.
I am sure I am going to back everyone into a corner brandishing my Bic. I can grab a hostage and threaten everyone -"One false move and this turkey's sideburn is history!"
Is it any wonder any bright kid thinks anyone in authority is a joke?
posted on April 7, 2002 03:56:01 PM new
There's also the little-reported scam of airport security guards deciding, as you race to make your flight, that that unusual diamond-encrusted brooch in the shape of a scimitar affixed to your blouse is a potential weapon. You have two choices: surrender your expensive pin and trust that it won't be "lost" by the "inspectors" and will be returned to you (weeks later via snail-mail) -- OR -- miss your flight and leave the airport. Kicking up a fuss to both keep your brooch and get on the plane is not an option. At the first sign of your becoming argumentative, here come the cops, and now you're looking at being detained AND missing your flight AND being certain to have your pin "lost" (if you ultimately surrender it).
posted on April 7, 2002 04:18:46 PM new
Did he try to cop a feel also getting it?
There was a fellow in Albaquerque that they tried to take a medal away from at Security. It was the Congressional Medal of Honor. He had recieved it for being the premier air ace of the Pacific in WW II. I guess they thought he was addicted to destroying aircraft....
[ edited by gravid on Apr 7, 2002 04:29 PM ]
posted on April 7, 2002 04:47:24 PM new Here's that story...
SECURITY LOSERS STRIKE AGAIN
What do you get when the government – and that means Republicans and Democrats alike – presents us with high school dropouts in critical security positions? Well, you can ask this winner of The Congressional Medal Of Honor if you like.
This airport security horror story is about retired Marine Corps Gen. Joseph J. Foss. He was trying to board a flight to the Washington D.C. area. He was going to speak to an NRA meeting. General Foss was carrying his Congressional Medal of Honor with him. He was awarded this medal for valor in World War II. Apparently the problem was not so much the medal as it was the two other items that were in the pocket with the medal. One was a commemorative (gasp!) nail file with the Medal of Honor logo on it. The other was a dummy bullet with a hole in it that was part of a key chain.
The dummy bullet and the nail file were confiscated. Apparently the ace security studs wanted to take the medal too. After all, it was in the same pocket with the other forbidden items.It apparently took these morons about 45 minutes to decide that the Congressional Medal of Honor wasn’t dangerous, General Foss, 86 years old, a former Governor of Utah, was allowed to proceed.
One thing for sure … that’s as close as any of these ace security screeners are going to get to a medal for valor.
posted on April 7, 2002 06:37:45 PM new
The kid and the airport fiascos are all part of being "politically correct". Powerless school administrators and politicians are at a loss to explain why some wacko kid snapped and shot up his school. So they get their names in the paper by passing "zero-tolerance" this and that and look like they're doing something.
In our airports we have to strip search Swedish grandmothers and US Congressman so as not to appear to be "profiling" people. It's hilarious to watch celebrities on talk shows talk about being frisked.
posted on April 7, 2002 08:10:42 PM new
plsmith--LOL!
Well, my friend just went back to Seattle but not without whining about Them taking his toe-nail clippers.
Maybe tomorrow night I'll tell you the story about how around 9-6-01 they demanded I return to check-in with my kid's weapon, er, BUBBLE BLOWER (a neon purple and pink plastic thing clearly attached to a bottle of bubbles!) Meanwhile they were happy to watch his nebulizer machine for me when I finally stopped the theatrics and cooperated. Now if ever there was a place to look for a bomb I would think that peeculiar little box... The security guy craacked me up tho', but not before threatening to cuff me ffor using the "B-Word". ("What did I say", I said, "Beech?" It was "bomb when I poined out the nebulizer.) They just had to follow FAA rules, "and that I can be assured that no bubble blower will ever make it onto a blah-blah flight."
posted on April 7, 2002 11:18:01 PM new
Let me guess - They probably think you can blow poison darts through the thing?
The bottle is full of poison frog toxin and you will make darts out of paper clips with your own hair for fletching?
Shot my mouth off and now we won't be allowed paper clips or hair. Baldies only.
posted on April 13, 2002 07:35:45 PM new By JAMES SALZER Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
State legislators don't want administrators kicking kids out of school every time they think they saw a puddy tat.
Partly in response to Cobb County's "zero tolerance" nightmare of a year ago -- the Tweety Bird key-chain case -- a group of lawmakers has filed a bill reminding local boards they can take into account whether students intended to harm someone when deciding how to discipline them for bringing "weapons" to school.
"What the Legislature is trying to do is put a little common sense into it," said Senate Education Chairman Richard Marable (D-Rome), who is a teacher. "If it's like a Tweety Bird wallet and chain and there was no intent there, it would not be treated the same . . . as somebody who was bringing a knife or gun to school."
Ashley Smith, a Cobb County sixth-grader, was suspended for 10 days when school officials ruled that a chain on her Tweety Bird wallet violated the weapons policy. Her case was one of dozens that sparked criticism of hard-line zero tolerance policies across the nation.
Marable, who sponsored the bill with Senate leaders of both parties, said state law gives school districts some discretion.
Jay Dillon, spokesman for the Cobb school district, said there was confusion among principals about how strictly to enforce the policy. He said district officials talked to school administrators about the issue before the current school year.
"I think it's made a difference," Dillon said.
Gerry Weber, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, which sued over the Tweety Bird case, praised the new legislative effort.
"The zero tolerance policies are often very vaguely worded and just focus on the item," Weber said. "It might be a plastic knife brought to school for a birthday party to cut a cake, but it's [considered] a knife."
posted on April 13, 2002 08:38:39 PM new
How embarrassing it must be as a legislator to find out that the principals your schools employ don't have the collective intelligence of a potted plant.
Perhaps it is time to consider the hiring standards that put such people in charge and ask what exactly they contribute to the system?
posted on April 14, 2002 01:06:42 PM new
You know we keep saying how "stupid" all of these administrators are and lacking common sense, etc. I'll wager the real reason behind the common sense "decline" is lawsuits. Can you imagine if little Johnny took the plastic knife and sawed off somebody's pigtails? Dollar signs would flash in the heads of the parents.
posted on April 14, 2002 01:58:05 PM new
How can these schools allow forks in the cafeteria? Someone might get forked in a rage. How can they have scissors in art class or hammers and cutting tools in shop? Do they have anything at all like a home economics course where I suspect they would have a knife to cut things? Bats for baseball in the in the gym?
posted on April 14, 2002 05:10:11 PM new
I just re-read the article and noticed that nowhere does it say exactly *what* kind of knife it is (at least as far as I saw). It says 'kitchen knife'. Well, what does that mean?? Does that mean a butter knife?? Or does it mean a chopping knife?? There's a big difference.
When *I* chop an onion, I use my 10" VERY SHARP chopping knife. This could do serious damage to someone.
I can see both sides of the story. If there are rules, they need to be followed. If the parents don't like the rules, then work to change them.
posted on April 14, 2002 05:29:04 PM new
I think the PC (politically correct) element at play here (and to which DeSquirrel alluded earlier) is that little Chris, the good kid who really did just bring the knife to school to cut an onion, cannot be allowed to responsibly possess a knife on school property because those who would bring a knife with nothing but harming others in mind would holler that they're being unfairly singled out when their shivs are confiscated and they're sent home. Somehow, these ne'er-do-wells have brokered themselves so many rights in the course of their misbehavior (and downright criminal acts) that entire school communities have to use their standards to judge everyone or run the risk of being sued by mouthy, illiterate parents who haven't raised Johnny right in the first place and see no harm in arming him in the second place.
posted on April 14, 2002 05:52:00 PM new
barbarake raises a very good point. The other young fellow about a week ago that was tossed out of school because he had a knife laying in the bed of his pick-up truck from moving his Grandmother had a bread knive with NO POINT and a none serrated edge.
These people have no common sense at all.
The simple fact is almost anything can be used as a weapon. Trying to eliminate anything that fits in that catagory does not work.
Somewhere along the line you have to TRUST people or lock them down like in a prison.
Government does not trust us - but when it gets to the point they display that lack of trust to school children treating them like criminals for normal behavior it is SICK.
Trust and respect work both ways
How can they expect any trust or respect from the children or parents acting this way?
I am sure they feel they are owed repect just due to their job title.
Sorry - won't work people.
Just brings back my school days where I knew the only adult in the building who could function with other adults was the janitor. The rest of them needed to have a bunch of little kids to bully in order to make it through the day. They would have been eaten alive in the business world. In fact some of them had been - and retreated.
posted on April 14, 2002 06:27:36 PM new
It's a case of Bad Apples Spoiling the Barrel. Nobody likes it when some people violate saftey, personal property, and commonsense and the answer from authorities is to make a blanket law that makes it illegal for everyone. Zero Tolerance for weapons in schools is a GREAT thing! A couple of the schools that I went to were so full of armed students that violent and deadly confrontations often developed. I was scared sh*tless going to school everyday. I'd have been happy to go to any Zero Tolerance school where kids like this one are into trouble, because that meant that the other, violent kids would not concider bringing knives to school to use for cutting up fellow students. Go Zero Policy, Go!
posted on April 14, 2002 06:35:49 PM new
Yes, Borillar, zero tolerance for weapons is a good thing. Zero ability to distinguish between a weapon and a science project utensil is ludicrous.
