I have that keychain knife, and the school administrators are idiots to think of it as a weapon. In a real fight, I'd rather face someone with that little toy in his hands than someone using his fists.
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
Aren’t most of our schools today?
Liberalism and common sense do not and can not coexist.
Was his crime having the knife or being an Eagle Scout?
I feel so much safer knowing this Eagle Scout’s 1-1/2” knife is not on school grounds.
What a bunch of buffoons running that school system.
ALLES IN ORDNUNG ! ! !
SIEG HEIL ! ! !
AGENDA UBER ALLES ! ! !
OK, I’ll stop channeling an educrat.
Equal-outcome is the name of the game.
Yes.
In my day, any kid fortunate enough to have a pick-up, also had a gun rack with at least one gun in it and they parked right on the school parking lot.
idiocracy
Typical brain-dead, one-size-fits-all thinking that pervades our public schools. School administrators are not allowed to use their independent judgment.
This is still America right? It’s so hard to tell these days.
No, a "District board" didn't do anything. People did. Who are they? What are their names? What is their reasoning, or lack thereof? I guess a news article by a group with "Union" in their name isn't really interested in details.
The probability is good that this will happen in the future. Because of this particular instance I will change my approach. First, the ID. If they are associated with a school board, public school, or any funding organization for such institutions, they are ON THEIR OWN.
Too much risk in getting sued to help those people.
If it happened in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Illinois or Massachusetts - no.
It didn’t happen in America. You can relax.
Heck, the school probably considers drawing a mere picture of a knife to be grounds for expulsion.
If West Point rejects this kid because of an inch and a half pocket knife, then they are just as big a set of moonbats as the kid’s high school officials. The Eagle Scout is better off without West Point if they reject him because of something so trivial. I’m hoping they have more sense than that at The Point, but then again, look at how the Army handled the Fort Hood shooting.
I have that keychain knife, and the school administrators are idiots to think of it as a weapon. In a real fight, I'd rather face someone with that little toy in his hands than someone using his fists.
We need to ban pencils and pens in skool, those can be weapons as well. Students should only use jumbo crayons.
Just your kakistocracy at work.
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