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Eagle Scout's penalty stands
timesunion.com ^ | 5-20-10 | SCOTT WALDMAN

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bsa; discipline; eaglescout; education; idiocy; liberalfascism; publiceducation; publicschools; ruling; suspension; zerotolerance
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To: Skepolitic

Yes it is.


81 posted on 05/20/2010 3:06:03 PM PDT by Dante3
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Evil in USA


82 posted on 05/20/2010 3:08:54 PM PDT by broken_arrow1 (I regret that I have but one life to give for my country - Nathan Hale "Patriot")
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To: Hodar
The mind of the Libtard is a difficult thing to understand; because thier method of processing data is akin to watching a cow chew it’s cud. Slow, mechanized and easily distracted.

Beautiful and profound IMHO.

Thanks

FMCDH(BITS)

83 posted on 05/20/2010 3:09:13 PM PDT by nothingnew (I fear for my Republic due to marxist influence in our government. Open eyes/see)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Click on the keyword “zerotolerance” and you’ll get hundreds, if not thousands of similar stories from all parts of the country.

To be a teacher or administrator in just about any public school, one must have education beyond a four-year college degree. With so much education, why are so many teachers and administrators so lacking in common sense?


84 posted on 05/20/2010 3:09:19 PM PDT by Taft in '52
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To: afraidfortherepublic
“school administrators a 1 1/2-inch knife that he kept in his glove box as part of a car survival kit.”

INSANITY...

85 posted on 05/20/2010 3:11:17 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Chairman Mao was a community organizer)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Click here to see my suggestion as to what to do with those school board members who perpetrated this outrage.
86 posted on 05/20/2010 3:23:09 PM PDT by Taft in '52
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Zero tolerance is just an excuse for not thinking. Liberals cannot make moral judgments so every misdemeanor is a felony and every felony a misdemeanor.


87 posted on 05/20/2010 3:48:00 PM PDT by 1010RD (First Do No Harm)
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To: Taft in '52
With so much education, why are so many teachers and administrators so lacking in common sense?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yuri Besmenov warned us. It is called “demoralization”!

The Marxists have so thoroughly infested education ( and every other area of our culture) that our citizens can no longer think rationally even when the facts are in front of them.

Next step: Destabilization!

88 posted on 05/20/2010 3:49:18 PM PDT by wintertime
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To: Oldpuppymax
Forget the loons on this school board. Time to goto court. A reasonable judge should reverse this.
89 posted on 05/20/2010 3:58:27 PM PDT by mrsixpack36
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To: super7man
Yes and when in living in Southern California a Sheriff told me that a KEY is a tool of entry.

TRUE   But how many of us would think like that.

90 posted on 05/20/2010 3:59:00 PM PDT by Buddy B (MSgt Retired-USAF - Year: 1972)
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To: RipSawyer
I got pulled over this one time about 20 years ago in Hopewell, NJ. I was a "target"... a young punk, shaved head, driving a '64 Skylark convertible at 2am on the way home from the recording studio with a drum kit in the back seat of the car. Cop made me get out of the car while they searched it... he had a HUGE problem with the softball bat (and glove?) in the back seat... and insisted I keep it in the trunk.

Fine, whatever.

Then... the cop found my "stash"... of sport boomerangs. He asked me if I knew how to use them, and when I answered that I did, he said (and I am NOT MAKING THIS UP), "Well since you know how to use these, they could be considered weapons that you could use against an Officer of the Law. You should keep these in your trunk as well."

I have very little tolerance for cops now. Actually, make that ZERO TOLERANCE.

91 posted on 05/20/2010 4:29:41 PM PDT by Rodamala
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To: RonF; AppauledAtAppeasementConservat; Looking for Diogenes; Congressman Billybob; ...

Scout Ping


92 posted on 05/20/2010 4:46:41 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Has anyone of a different race or sexual persuasion committed the same offense and have had the punishment expunged from their record? If so this would be discrimination.
93 posted on 05/20/2010 4:52:24 PM PDT by guitarplayer1953 (Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to GOD! Thomas Jefferson)
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To: SandRat
...the Lansingburgh Central School District board of education...

Stupid, one and all! 1 1/2 inch? Not a lick of sense among the whole bunch!

94 posted on 05/20/2010 5:26:35 PM PDT by Kathy in Alaska (~ RIP Brian...heaven's gain...the Coast Guard lost a good one.~)
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To: Tax-chick
Who needs weapons when you can just put them in the freezer, anyway?

Or, freeze them with a putter...

95 posted on 05/20/2010 6:07:29 PM PDT by Albion Wilde ( Racism is the first refuge of liberals. --J.T. Young)
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To: Albion Wilde

I think we took all the golf clubs to The Salvation Army before the last move.


96 posted on 05/20/2010 6:38:18 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Amateurish," agreed Janet Napolitano, the White House amateurishness czar.)
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To: Flash Bazbeaux

And if you happen to draw a picture of an American flag AND a knife, then you’d end up in youth detention and be labeled a criminal. Values are SO topsy-turvy these days!


97 posted on 05/20/2010 7:10:53 PM PDT by 1951Boomer
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To: Talisker

Yes, they’re straining at gnats while swallowing camels. The REAL damage done in the classroom— freewheeling sex ed, politicized curriculum, expunging of God and related symbols, bullying feral kids raised by idiot parents—is gleefully accepted. But if a limp-wristed bureaucrat can kill two all-American symbols with one stone, e.g., an Eagle Scout AND a pointed object, then by all means, they can’t allow THAT in their precious school.


98 posted on 05/20/2010 7:26:24 PM PDT by 1951Boomer
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To: wbill
The answer, roughly, was "Hell no, we don't care. We've got bigger fish to fry than some charge trumped up by a nosybody administrator."

West Point will issue him a sword.

99 posted on 05/20/2010 7:42:23 PM PDT by gitmo ( The democRats drew first blood. It's our turn now.)
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To: cblue55

Being an Eagle Scout means you have character and are an overachiever, both of which are a big no - no in today’s academia. When I made Eagle 40 years ago, my town almost had a parade. How times have changed.


100 posted on 05/20/2010 7:42:58 PM PDT by P8riot (I carry a gun because I can't carry a cop.)
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