THIS is a Knife. . .
Posted on 05/20/2010 1:05:26 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Matthew Whalen's suspension will stand.
On Wednesday night, the Lansingburgh Central School District board of education rejected Whalen's appeal of the punishment and decided not to expunge the blemish on the record of the Eagle Scout suspended for having a pocketknife in his car while the vehicle was on the grounds of Lansingburgh High School. Whalen received a 20-day suspension in September after he turned over to school administrators a 1 1/2-inch knife that he kept in his glove box as part of a car survival kit. He returned to school in October.
Whalen has said he does not know how school officials learned he had a pocketknife in his car, but suspects another student may have tipped off administrators in an attempt to pull a prank on him.
School officials, who did not respond to requests for comment, have said Whalen violated the school district's zero-tolerance policy because he brought a weapon on to school grounds and that the suspension was an appropriate response. The case raised national furor when Whalen went on two separate national Fox News programs to discuss the penalty. He worried that the action could hurt his chances of getting into West Point.
He said he never realized the school considered the keychain knife a weapon. He said his grandfather Robert Whalen -- who recently retired as police chief of the Hoosic Falls Police Department -- gave him the folding knife to use in his car after they used it to cut wires while installing a car radio.
Whalen was given a Lifesaving Heroism Award by the Boy Scouts of America at age 13 after he performed CPR on his aunt, saving her life. He said he carries water bottles, a sleeping bag and a change of clothes in his 1999 Mercury Sable in case it breaks down. He considered the key-chain knife part of that preparedness kit.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/ASPStories/story.asp?StoryID=868106#ixzz0oVBJ25GX
Academics are nearly always the stupidest people I meet.
Superintendent'S Office
Lansingburg Central Schools
576 5thAvenue, Troy NY 12182
518-233-6850
Source
Linky Thing: Lansingburg Central School District Manual
George's email
ggoodwin@lansingburgh.org
Source
Excellent observation. He’s better off avoiding West Point, if they’d reject him over this.
I’m glad to hear this.
In other words, the admission people at West Point are normal Americans, whereas many of our public school administrators across the U.S. are out-of-control PC types.
Declaring anything as a weapon to a Texas LEO (traffic stop for example) could be a felony. *Anything you say can and WILL be used against you.*
Several times I have said NO while having several gun cases in plain view and a 5.25" clip knife sticking out of my pants pocket. "Then what are those?"...my firearms and a pocket knife.
Attractive knife! All sorts of weapons are kicking around *my* school, and nobody’s been massacred yet ... although I’ve been really tempted ...
Actually, my old high school still does. And they have a full Jr ROTC program (open to girls) and a Rifle Team. That's in Fresno CA.
THIS is a Knife. . .
Yes, schools are so much safer now that they've eliminated all that harmful prayer and started teaching homosexual techniques!
Our school had bow and arrow practice out back, with big straw-stuffed targets.
The worst thing that happened on our suburban DC campus in the early 60s was that a senior, over 18, drank a beer in the school parking lot during Senior Week. The school threatened to cancel graduation.
Heck, the school probably considers drawing a mere picture of a knife to be grounds for expulsion.
Actually, the words “a picture of a knife” spelled out should be grounds enough. And if the words “a picture of a knife” are rendered in a foreign language, why that’s a concealed weapon.
LOL! Well, tell the pupils to put on the whole armor of God.
0 tolerance/0 IQ
I was very proud when in the first grade I finally had a pocket knife so that I could join the other kids at playing “mumbley-peg”.
How much things have changed in 55 years.
“Too much risk in getting sued to help those people.”
Not be forgotten is the fact that the price of arm length rubber gloves is out of sight, too.
But it's out there, if you're interested and have the time to dig.
“Zero tolerance” is a vile destruction of the educational process that has severely damaged millions of students who are crushed by it, and millions of teachers administrators that enforce it. It’s purpose is to kill morality and rational thought, and replace them with unaccountable decrees from a faceless wall of rules and totally indemnified, “untouchable” teachers and administrators who have gone mad with power.
The abdication of teaching responsiblity and denial of consideration of mitigating factors required by due process called “zero tolerance” is one of the greatest scourges ever inflicted upon a population. It is enforcement training of nothing less than the programming of mindless obedience to political correctness totalitarianism, and has transformed teachers into vicious, punishing hypocrites.
Talk to a public school teacher lately you haven’t seen in awhile? You’re in for a treat.Their arrogance has been so bloated by their wielding of this punative, sadistic, completely protected tyranny they actually strut, and refuse to respond to critical discussions even with an adult. Why? Because they don’t have to justify themselves anymore... and they’re drunk on the power.
I have always believed “zero tolerance” could be struck down as an acceptable school policy on a number of grounds, with a big enough federal legal effort. It contrasts wholly with every purpose of education - it’s defenses are mere sound clips, and the curriculum itself even violates it. For example, these are the people who are also teaching that the rule of law regarding immigration, for example, should be justifiably broken - and that is far from the only “zero tolerance” hypocrisy that could be used against them and their openly leftist political agenda.
The whole thing makes me sick like few other subjects. Public school teachers and administrators are wildly out of control - they are running true gulags in America, and in raping the hearts and minds of the students, they’ve lost their own, all while screaming that they have the moral high ground. They’re hideous, and besides the district, they themselves should be personally sued into the ground for their abuses.
We have zero tolerance for weapons here in the Chicago Public School system.
Oddly enough, students keep getting shot to death.
This decision says far more about the Lansingburgh Central School District Board of Education than it could ever say about Matthew Whalen.
Maybe the solution is to establish some kind of "permanent record" for school administrators and board of education members. With such a system, any person who is responsible for instituting such monumental idiocy gets it put on their permanent record.
That way, at least there would be some way to protect future employers and/or knowledgeable voters from unwittingly putting them into any position of trust where having sound judgment is a requirement of the job...
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