Posted on 10/12/2009 8:54:32 PM PDT by paltz
Boy Scouts are supposed to "Be Prepared." But how could a New York Eagle Scout prepare himself to have his dreams derailed by a school's imbalanced "zero tolerance" policy?
Matthew Whalen's plan to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point may be in jeopardy because the high school senior had a 2-inch pocketknife locked in his car. The Lansingburgh Central School District initially suspended him for five days and later added another 15 days to his sentence.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Let's hope that common sense prevails and he is admitted.
This doesn’t border on the ridiculous. It is so far past being ridiculous as to be unthinkable.
I doubt this will keep him out of West Point. But I want to know how school officials discovered such as small knife in his car. Did somebody not like him and tipped the authorities? Are they randomly searching vehicles at school?
meanwhile, a 6 year old is sentenced to 45 days in the district’s reform school - for bringing his cub scout camping/eating utensil - flork, spoon and GASP - knife attachements, to school
This SH*T has GOT to STOP
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/education/12discipline.html?_r=1
” It is so far past being ridiculous as to be unthinkable.”
But the point is that it is not unusual these days. Had my old school pickup been judged by today’s standards I would probably be doing some serious time. Of course, I was in high school in the sixties, and the pickup had a couple of high powered rifles in the rack, and ammunition along with whatever else goes into a working farm vehicle. It was quite normal back then in Nebraska. Today, not so much.
Hayseeds have it rough these days.
To fix this problem, we also have to fix the problem of racially different outcomes being deemed racist. It’s sad but true that, with today’s upbringings, a black kid with a knife is more likely to have violent intentions with it than a white kid would. This isn’t divined by some racist crystal ball; there are things like statements and behaviors that bear this out. Until we can tell the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of this country to go pound sand when they don’t like how their brethren are displayed in an objective mirror of conduct, we are left with this very undesirable unintended consequence.
This is just insane.
I went to high school in the early 80s. In the country. In Florida. Most of the guys drove pick up trucks with gun racks. Loaded with guns. They also carried pocket knives. Heck, most of the girls had pocket knives in our purses. Came in handy. Nobody thought anything of it. And nobody ever got hurt.
Yes, young Mr Whalen’s suspension is insane, but it may be a blessing in disguise. I haven’t heard this about West Point, but the Naval Academy is practising Affirmative Action with a vengeance, accepting distinctly lower test scores for black and brown applicants than for whites. I don’t care what color a leader is, but we have an AA President, an AA Atorney General, and a AA SCOTUS Justice, and it doesn’t smell like any of them are worth a fart.
ping
This incident and that of the 6 year old Cub Scout being sent to detention for bring a mess kit to school show the total stupidity of these policies that do not allow for any common sense. Ironic that the honor student in Chicago that was beaten to death by some thugs wasn’t protected by these no tolerance policies.
“And nobody ever got hurt.”
Quite true. In fact, with the possession of these firearms there was an implicit expectation that you were responsible for the safe use of the firearms. Firearms fell into the same category as all of the other farm impliments you were entrusted with. You didn’t abuse the truck, or tractors, or the hydraulics etc, as these could all kill you. Of course the expectations were quite different. You had access to all of these things because you were considered responsible, and you were trusted to use them in a benign fashion. In rural Nebraska, nothing has changed in that respect.
In Lincoln or Omaha, not so much. Regarding urban areas, the schools are dealing with a progressively disfunctional society where expectations and intent are often quite different than what we were raised with. The ethic of agrarian civic responsibility is one that no longer exists in cities. Too bad really.
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