Zachary Christy (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)
Posted on 10/14/2009 6:16:24 AM PDT by BulletBobCo
The news came out this morning that Zachary Christie, a 6-year-old Delaware first-grader, is back to school. He made news by bringing a small pocketknife with a fork and a spoon to his school. His mother didn’t know he did it. He didn’t know he shouldn’t have done it. He just wanted to bring his cool new camping tool to school to eat his lunch.
He had faced 45 days of suspension from his school, and enrollment in an alternative school for troublemakers, after violating the school district’s “zero tolerance” policy on bringing weapons to school. According to today’s story about the case, the “Christina School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to reduce the punishment for kindergartners and first-graders who take weapons to school or commit violent offenses to a suspension ranging from three to five days.”
The board used its discretion to change the rules based on the circumstances of this case. So the zero tolerance policy wasn’t, really, zero tolerance. Is that so wrong?
Obviously, nobody thinks weapons should be allowed in schools. The punishment for that should be harsh. Obviously, it would have been nice if Zachary’s mom knew he was bringing it and could have prevented it. But a strict reliance on that belief could only come from someone who has never had a 6-year-old kid. Be as vigilant as you want; something is going to slip past your notice.
So it seems to me the right decision was made here.
But do you agree? If not, why? Can you ever imagine a time when the circumstances would make a zero tolerance policy useless? Don’t we have sayings like “that’s the exception that proves the rule” or “rules were made to be broken”?
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Zachary Christy (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)
False statement.
My mother in law has fond memories of walking to her first day of school wearing a pair of boots that had a special pocket for a little pocket knife. She loved those boots and that little knife. She was 7. It was the 1930’s. Before common sense died in America. Before lawyers took over the country.
The school board has now doubled-down on their initial idiocy. What did this case have to do with "committing violent offenses"?
They make these zero tolerance things so they don’t have to use discretion. They can just say its the policy - keeps the PC people in check
A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. - Theodore Roosevelt
Teachers...
What other group whines so much about how ‘little’ they are paid?
Who else gets a annual salary, yet works only about 70% of the days that anyone else has?
Who else has such a thing as ‘Tenure’ after only 3 years on the job?
What other group is so brain-dead as to make decisions such as this, and Lord don’t we wish that this imbecilic decision was just an extreme example?
And then they wonder why society holds their whining in contempt. Why people roll their eyes every time a NEA Union Member opens their mouth. Good God people, grow up and act like the Professionals we are paying you to be.
Zero tolerance policies are generally very stupid.
I could understand a zero tolerance policy on cocaine, heroin, loaded guns, and truly dangerous knives, etc., but there still should be some method for showing discretion.
But, when Advil is treated like Meth and a cub scout’s eating utensil is treated like a loaded AK-47, something is seriously wrong. To hold ANY six year old, to a zero tolerance policy, for ANYTHING is absurd. They are simply not old enough to be held accountable for what they bring to school.
The deal is, if any teacher or administrator “exercises discretion”,
he or she is “on their own” when it comes to lawsuits.
The school tells them they will receive NO legal assistance.
Much better to be a coward and point to “policy” as a cover.
When public policy shifts paradigm from ‘deterrence’ to ‘prevention’, this is what ya get...
As long as we insist that Public Officials ‘keep us safe’, we’ll be increasingly victimized by our Government....
As ye sow....
Indeed!
Violent kids should not be allowed in schools. Get rid of them, and we can all go back to not getting our shorts in a bunch over a pocketknife, camping tool, what-have-you.
In other words, find the right solution to the problem, cuz this “zero tolerance” bunk ain’t it.
What do you expect from morons. Liberals really don't see a difference between having a weapon and committing a violent act. They are really that stupid.
But then,that was *many* years ago.
Shouldn't it be the weapon that is punished?
After all, it's the weapon that is evil and the weapon that is violent.
Wow,where did you go to school? The Bronx?
An individual “having a weapon” is inherently declaring that he will take care of his own defense and not be a ward of the collective. THIS is why liberals hate weapons.
My high school used to have a rifle team and a rifle range in the basement!
Yes, they have make an even worse rule. If an eight year old second grader brings an innocent camping tool, he gets 45 days suspension. If an eight year old (held back) first grade bully brings a real weapon and attacks a classmate, he gets 3 to 5 days...
Zero Tolerance is gererally an idiotic idea. Unfortunately, any other policy requires persons capable of judgement. I think it can be argued those are becoming scarce, particularly in certain jobs.
I don’t tolerate Zero at all.
Zero tolerance policies are the refuge of the spineless weasels that inhabit our institutions. They want to escape actually having to make moral judgments. My guess is that their moral compass is broken or non-existent. No one wants to believe there is good and evil and we can usually discern the difference.
No because leftist vermin are always looking for an opportunity to harm an innocent child. It’s what they live for.
No Tolerance, No Justice.
Seriously.
Whatever happened to commonsense? FGS, if the teacher is worried that a 6 yr old is going to commit mayhem with a kid's camping set, why in the world didn't she just quietly ask him to let her keep it for him until the end of the school day?
In the meantime, I'm sure the kids at this school are having their little skulls filled with the totally untrue global warming scam, and are singing praises to Obama to start every day. And then, of course, they will also be learning how to put a condom on a vegetable of some sort, and learning about the homosexual lifestyle.
I don't care what the damn policy is....this was not "a weapon".
Black suit, black shirt and tie...
Zackary the bag man for Vito the playground enforcer.
The point is - the courts have brought this about and necessitated “zero tolerance”.
Say you are a school principal. You have a minority student who has an abysmal academic record, a two-inch thick discipline folder, and past criminal charges, who is brought in to your office, who had an ounce of pot in his coat pocket, selling it at lunch. According to policy, you suspend him with recommendation for expulsion, and turn it over to the police and prosecutor’s office.
Two weeks later you have a non-minority student come in. He had a bottle of tylenol on his person and gave it her friend with a headache. According to policy, drugs are not allowed, and even OTC meds must be dispensed by the school nurse. But, this girl is a good student, doesn’t even have a discipline folder, and has never been a problem. The logical thing to do would be to write it up as a minor indescression, remind her of the school policy, maybe even retain the Tylenol, and send her on her way with a slap on the wrist (even though the policy stinks).
At the hearing for the first student - the one with marijuana (or whatever illegal drug), the parent brings a high-powered civil-rights lawyer (that works pro-bono) who not only rips the principal and school board a new tail, but also has papers served for a federal lawsuit for violation of his civil rights - naming the school district, superintendent, principal, and each individual school board member. The violation? Not applying the school drug policy evenly, regardless of race.
Now, this might seem absolutely insane to anyone with even 10% of a brain. But unfortunately, this has been the scenario for nearly two decades now in many schools. Thus by having a “zero-tolerance” policy, it ties the hands of the school and administration - and can in no-way be interpreted as uneven. Insane and idiotic, yes. but even...
Early in my teaching career (thankfully, I am no longer in the field), I had a student - an incredible trumpet player, a very good kid, good Christian, father an associate pastor, and a contender for valedictorian of his senior class. The kid had it all. His father had a side-job of filling amusement vending machines (crane game in retail establishments). This student helped his dad in this work after school.
Well - there had been an issue some time before (before my time at that school) where a student had brought a knife to school with ill intent (not an accident). Because of this, and at the recommendation of the school attorney, the district had recently implemented a zero-tolerance policy (keep in mind, this was the early 1990’s).
Well - all of this played in to this particular case - as he had a giant poly bag of prizes for the crane games to fill a machine after school. Probably 30-40 stuffed animals, a few watches strapped to boxes, balls, and other trinkets - and three folding pocket knives (in display boxes for the machine). Well - at the time, the school was participating in an anti-drug program and having the country bring the drug dog every so often to sniff cars and lockers. When they got to this student’s car, they looked in the back glass (1987 Chevy Camaro - big back glass) and see this big relatively clear bag - and can just make out one of the knife display boxes among all the other goodies.
They called the student out of class, had him unlock his car, pull out the bag and empty it. They found the three knives in display boxes, had the police detain him, and called his parents to come get him. Their reasoning - if they didn’t come down hard on him, then how could they when there was a “real” threat...
This is the insanity that these schools are facing. This event was in 1993, I believe.
And then we have cases similar to the one in the original post - like the child suspended for pointing his chicken finger from lunch at someone like it was a toy gun...
And then we have young Zachary, playing a game much like many of us played growing up - with never a thought about such consequences.
This world has gone absolutely insane..
This incident is another offensive outrage perpetrated by leftist education. I’m concerned with the future of this nation and embarrassed by this stupidity.
The kid looks like a terrorist to me!
I went to school in central Texas. Our VO AG teachers used to take us dove hunting after school.
“Zero Tolerance” is not that dangerous by itself, as it screws everybody equally. The concept is to prevent the policy enforcers from making decisions that might favor their pets, athletes, and libtard disciples over the hellions. The problem is in writing the definition and leaving it to be defined the same idiots they were trying to curb. Liberal nannyism always has unintended consequences.
Exactly. As an attorney, several years ago I represented a fifth grader who brought his pocket knife to school to show it to his friends. The knife was exactly 1/16 of an inch over the allowable limit. At the expulsion hearing, I attempted to get some sort of reprieve from the school board. One of my arguments was that the zero-tolerance policy was asinine in that it limited the school board and the principals discretion in handling these matters. Incredibly, the principal then stood up and said I like the zero tolerance policy because then I don't have to think!
It got a little humorous when one of the school board members reminded her that the board pays her to think.
The end result was that the board said they had no option and had to dish out a one year suspension, but the suspension would not take effect until the school year ended in about eight weeks, allowing the student to complete 5th grade. The parents enrolled the student in a Catholic school for the 6th grade and told me later it was the best thing they ever did.
The multi-purpose Boy Scout knife is no more of a weapon than a # 2 pencil.
Right-wing-nuts for educators, that’s what this is.
A common misconception (at least in my experience).
I spent 14 years teaching in public schools (was a band director). Teacher contracts are based on a certain number of days. The base salary here in Arkansas is based on a 180 day contract. This covers 170 days of "student contact days", and 10 days of inservice training each year.
Most schools then take that salary, divide by 12, and then pay the teacher over 12 months.
As a band director, like most coaches, I had an extended contract - usually 210 days. So you take the base salary for years of experience, divide by the base contract of 180 days. Then take that daily pay and multiply by the number of days on my contract - which was 210 to get my salary. I also began getting a stipend as well that didn't amount to a whole lot, but helped.
Now - we had a new administrator come in that wanted us to document our days working. He was a bit upset with me when, after his first year, I turned in a calendar documenting all the days I worked well beyond my contracted days. Over time, I generally put in some 250 days, not including the many 14-16 hour days resulting from teaching all day, then dragging the band to an away football games). This didn't include the weeks of band camps, the countless hours I didn't step foot on campus, or spend with students, but was arranging music, organizing events, planning, fixing, and generally doing what it took to get my job done.
So my overall amount of work done was not so far off from "normal working folks".
But I know many teachers - some I wouldn't want within 50 feet of my children, while others I consider to be awesome teachers. The really good teachers (180 day contract for standard classroom teachers) also spend many days beyond the contracted days improving themselves as teachers, preparing, grading papers, creating assignments, doing lesson plans, time on committees, and such - all to be the best teacher they can be. And they still are paid for 180 days, even if they put in many, many more.
The fact that most teachers draw a check 12 months of the year does not mean they are getting "an annual salary".
"Tenure" is a misleading term as well. Here in Arkansas, you are a probationary teacher for the first 3 years you teach at a district. In that time, the "teacher fair dismissal act" is slightly more lenient for the district, allowing a little more opportunity to dismiss the teacher for cause. This period also calls for more evaluations each year so issues can be addressed (now - if administrators actually follow through is a whole different subject). After the 3rd year, if the teacher has shown no big problems, they then are "non-probationary" - (tenure to use your term). This simply means that to dismiss a teacher, the documentation of problems and efforts made to address them is necessary to not renew a teacher. As long as an administrator documents problems, and then shows that the teacher did not correct them, then it isn't such a hard thing to get rid of a teacher - with no threat from the union (it is all about documentation). So blame administrators if bad teachers are kept.
And finally - it isn't teachers who make such idiotic decisions as "zero-tolerance" - it is administrators and even more so, school boards who are afraid of litigation (that is VERY costly, regardless of the outcome). Further - blame the courts that have basically mandated such policies unless you WANT to go to court every time you take action that is needed.
And while I will never EVER defend a bad teacher, every time I hear someone complain about what teachers make, I suggest that person spend 180 days in a classroom, trying to teach, under the political and emotional stress that such work now involves - and see just how long most people would last, especially at the pay teachers I know make.
Because she works in a system where she could be fired for that little bit of compassion.
When my 10yo daughter got home from school yesterday, she told me a special-needs student stabbed another child with a pencil. Time to ban pencils.....C
A good band director is one of the greatest assets a school can have! I’m a former teacher myself, and I continually marvel at the way these people can organize and lead often as many as 200 students throughout a school year. My hat’s off to you.
I would never make it in a system like that. It’s hideous! I would never allow my kids to attend a school with such an asinine policy either......I’d have them out of there ASAP!
GSC, Not sure where 1952 went to school, but it was a similar situation in the rural NE Arkansas school I attended. We also had a designated smoking section in high school......C
I appreciate your comments. For the most part, I really enjoyed the word. The politics and the administration were the biggest frustrations.
That being said, I answered a Higher Call and though I word even more now, the work is even more rewarding.
zero tolerance is just a way for school authorities to abdicate their responsibility for making just, informed decisions on individual cases. It should not be tolerated.
Only in a society where truth and honor do not matter. Everyone should have the backbone to do the right thing, regardless of consequences.
It is imperative that the system be changed. We The People have that power. Isn't it about time we exercise it?
0 = 0
zero equals ZERO
just so
Personally I have a really bad case of Zero Intolerance. I've had all of Obama I care to see and hear, and it's less than 25 through his term!
People forget how we got zero-tolerance policies in the first place...because libtards couldn’t/wouldn’t use common sense. Now, because libtards oppose zero-tolerance policies, they demonstrate their continued lack of common sense, in the hopes of making us end the policy that was enacted to circumvent their incompetence.
Some of our teachers actually demonstrated how to do the throws...
No self-respecting boy back then would be caught at school without his pocketknife, and some kids thought it a status symbol to pack a "Genuine Barlow" (usually "Made in Japan")...
"Zero Tolerance" = "Zero Intelligence"!!!
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