Posted on 10/05/2013 10:15:44 PM PDT by ClaytonP
The weapons-at-school hysteria generally peaks with a suspension. Not so for a high school student in Georgia who is facing felony charges because the contents of a tackle box in his car.
17-year-old Cody Chitwood was busted during a random sweep of the Lassiter High School parking lot by police and this student who has never been in trouble before now faces prosecution, large fines, prison time, and the loss of his plans to join the Air Force in the future due to a hysterical overreaction that has resulted in his arrest.
Cody Chitwood, 17, is a senior at Lassiter High School, and an avid fisherman.
He went fishing at his favorite spot, Mountain Park off Highway 92 and Mabry Road several days before and left his two fishing poles and tackle box in his car.
Little did he know that Lassiter administrators would order a K-9 search of the parking lot on Sept. 17 and a dog would hit on his car.
The dog apparently picked up a scent of black powder because Chitwood also had several firecrackers in his trunk, left over from a Fourth of July celebration. That was enough for police to order a thorough search of his 1998 BMW 328i.
They found four knives, all of them with blades of at least 2.5 inches, according to the arrest warrant. Three of them, including a fillet knife and a spring-assisted knife, were inside his tackle box in the trunk. A butterfly knife was found inside the pocket of the driver’s side door.
“I enjoy fishing. I go fishing probably once a week, sometimes twice a week,” said Chitwood, who has been suspended for 10 days by Lassiter Principal Chris Richie. “I just forgot that it was in there. I had my fishing poles in the car, too.”
He was charged with carrying a weapon in a school safety zone, which is a felony in Georgia. (source)
Now Cody’s parents bear the financial responsibility for paying an attorney to fight the ridiculous charges. If Cody is prosecuted, he could face anywhere from 2 to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine…for having a loaded tackle box.
This hardened criminal – a kid who spends his time outdoors fishing instead of sitting at home playing violent video games or going out and smoking dope and drinking beer under the bleachers may be witnessing the destruction of his bright future – all because a group of administrators can’t be bothered to look at each situation individually.
Like all generalizations, “zero tolerance” policies are for lazy, unintelligent people who do not trust themselves to think critically about each individual situation. As well, a blanket policy makes it far easier to relinquish responsibility for actually making a decision based on the events and the people involved, and allows agendas to be pushed while freeing the enforcers of those agendas to say, “My hands were tied – we have a ‘zero tolerance’ policy.”
“Zero Tolerance”: It’s just code for “Zero Critical Thinking Skills”.
Oh Noes!
I always carried a knife in school.
I still carry 2.
Never stabbed nobody.
They are tools and I use them everyday.
The Adminstrators ordered a random sweep on Constitution Day?
Well, how sweet of them.
Really, I don’t get it. When I was growing up, I can’t think of a kid who didn’t have a Buck Knife on his belt.
We had the mid size and full size folder and a couple guys carried a full tang 6”.
I was in 3 fights in High School and saw plenty others. No one pulled their knife.
You kicked someones azz or took an azz kicking.
Heck, we even had shotguns and 22’s in our cars.
Oh, and this is KahLeeFawnEeYaw 1970’s
“A butterfly knife was found inside the pocket of the driver’s side door.”
They will use that to overcome any leniency over it being a fishing tackle box.
If it had been assault fishing poles, they’d have executed him.
GA FReeper ping.
The stupidity is here.
Someone need to respond to such a thing by aggressively pursuing removal of the administrators involved on grounds of gross incompetence endangering welfare of children. Inability to differentiate a fishing tool in context from a weapon shows serious psychological instability.
Good job Dems! Push harder....
We can help fix this stupidity. I would appreciate the Ping Master checking this out, and if approved, send it out to the list.
Thanks.
Georgia is usually a Red state but Lassiter is in the Bluest part of Georgia.
I can only assume you don’t know much about GA politics. That’s the GA 6th Congressional District, Newt’s old stomping grounds from the era when he was Speaker. It’s still generally conservative.
These kind of moves by public schools are not NOT due to lazy thinking or “Zero Critical Thinking Skills”. These people know exactly what they are doing. Its all about gun control. Another citizen has now lost his 2nd Amendment rights if found guilty of having a knife or three in his vehicle.
If he's convicted and survives prison, he will probably, indeed, come out a hardened criminal. Angry at the gross injustice, cynical, and having been trained by his fellow prisoners in how to deal drugs and use weapons, he will likely be preying on society for the rest of his life.
More anti-”weapon” hysteria deliberately designed to emasculate young Americans, and turn them into slaves of the state.
I used to spend 3 to 5 days per week in Atlanta but I changed careers in 95. I still have a lot of friends in Marietta that I maintain contact with me. They all say Marietta has changed a lot since then. If they are wrong so be it. I live in Jefferson County AL which is pretty conservative. But Birmingham, the largest city in the county, (but shrinking in population), is blue as blue can be.
Keep the government shut down.
East Cobb isn’t Marietta. Lassiter may have a Marietta mailing address, but it is in East Cobb.
Seriously, the states need to begin to reform such nonsense, such as creating a “common sense” law for school discipline, accompanied with litigation relief from lawsuits if the school has exercised “common sense”.
This means throwing “zero tolerance” policies out with the rest of the trash. That police should only be summoned in the case of actual serious criminal acts, intentions, or explicit threats.
except for schools, GA is a fairly sensible state.
“Why are you in???”
“Oh I got 10 years for having a knife in my fishing tackle box”
shaking head
I don’t even care that he had one in his car. Unconstitutional search anyway
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