Posted on 02/24/2005 8:24:34 AM PST by Graybeard58
WOLCOTT -- A 9-year-old boy was suspended from school for 10 days Wednesday for bringing a knife to school, his father said.
School officials wouldn't comment directly on the suspension. But Carl Glendening, the father of the fourth-grader at Wakelee School, said his son got into trouble Tuesday after his wife packed her son's lunch with a Cub Scout camping spoon that -- unknown to her -- had a concealed blade in it.
Glendening said the boy was using the camping spoon for a snack about 10 a.m. Tuesday in his classroom at the elementary school. He said his son didn't display the blade, which is about 2 1/2 inches in length.
He said his wife made an honest mistake while getting their three children ready for school early Tuesday.
"My wife was packing their lunches," Glendening said. "She didn't have any plastic spoons so she reached for a camping spoon that my son had from Cub Scouts, not knowing that there was a concealed blade inside. He did not reveal the blade."
Glendening said a student in his son's class saw the utensil, knew what it was and told the substitute teacher about it. About 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Glendening received a call from his wife who had been notified by the school administration to pick up their son. Glendening and his son then met with School Superintendent Thomas M. Smyth Jr. and the Glendenings also spoke with John Cook, the principal, to explain what happened, he said.
"I thought they might actually see through to this," he said. "Cook called it a deadly weapon. It was a ... camping spoon. There was just no consideration to the situation. This is an administration that places policy over the welfare of children. They (Cook and Smyth) are punishing a 9-year-old boy because of a mother's honest mistake. That is abhorrent."
Glendening said the administration didn't interview any other students about the incident.
Cook couldn't be reached for comment late Wednesday.
School officials would release few details on the matter. Smyth said he couldn't discuss the incident because it is a student discipline issue.
"Any student discipline I really can't comment on," Smyth said. "Right now, it's at the building level and being forwarded to me."
The school district has a zero-tolerance policy on bringing weapons to school property or to a school event, Smyth said. If someone does, there is an automatic 10-day suspension, he said.
The policy directs the building administrator, or the principal, to gather information about the weapon and how it was brought onto school property, he said. The principal then refers the matter to the superintendent, who can recommend that the Board of Education impose discipline up to and including expelling the student.
"Basically we have been consistent over the last six years," Smyth said. "This is my seventh year. There is no acceptable reason for bringing a weapon to school."
He didn't know how many students had been suspended for bringing weapons to school in the last year. But he said "this has happened before in my experience here and we've dealt with (it) in said like manner."
Responding to Glendening's complaint that school officials are over-reacting, Smyth said, "I think there are two sides to every story, and I believe that our responsibility as administrators and the members of the Board of Education are to provide a safe and orderly environment at all times. There are no exceptions to bringing inappropriate things to schools."
At the beginning of school each year, students on all grade levels are given student handbooks to take home to their parents to sign and then return to the schools, said Michael Santogatta, chairman of the school board. The handbooks delineate policies on dress and behavior including those regarding weapons, he said.
I remember my first pocket knife - I was 8 and it had the cub scout logo on it.
It was followed 2 minutes later by my first self-inflicted pocket knife cut.
My Dad used to play something called 'mumbly peg' with his pocketknife at recess. But clearly 'assault spoons' must be banned! Zero tolerance!
Zero tolerance = Fascism. Mindless bureacrats at work.
:^)
You'd think that the administration would have better things to do. What is this punishment teaching the kid?
At worst, a more sensible alternative would be to take the "weapon" from the kid, and tell him to pick it up on the way out the door. Maybe - send a note home with the parents, and ask that the "incident" not be repeated.
I guess that this is what you get when the inmates are put in charge of the asylum.
The assault on children continues...
Teach the children early that the all powerful state has control over every aspect of their lives. That way tyranny will be easier for them to accept when they are adults. If you don't go along, their life can be made miserable.
So did I. We live in the pansy era of 24 hour hyper news.
It was followed 2 minutes later by my first self-inflicted pocket knife cut.
Bet you did that when you went to close it?
This whole 'zero tolerance', theres-nothing-we-can-do mentality has permeated the workplace as well. Some buffoon of a manager spills coffee on an important report and declares that coffee-spillers will be fired. Then mindless human resources goons apply the policy, mindlessly. Well heck, they probably learned mindless, illogical obedience in public school.
Zero tolerance equals zero intelligence.
There is no acceptable reason for you to be working in a school.
That authority is not necessarily to be trusted, and is often an excuse for those who have it to throw their weight around. I suppose that's a lesson that may need to be picked up at some point in one's life, but the lesson that gets learned more readily from incidents like this is suspicion and disrespect for rules and law and those in positions of authority.
"Glendening said a student in his son's class saw the utensil, knew what it was and told the substitute teacher about it."
Good little tattle-tale/brownshirt in training. When I was a kid that would have gotten you beaten up after school.
I've had to correct several people (including Smithsonian guards) that it is not a weapon it's a pocket knife. I'm pretty sure everyone agrees one does not use a "weapon" to butter their toast. I don't use a weapon to open boxes or cut string either.
it still does...where is this school? ;)
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