Posted on 04/03/2006 10:02:15 AM PDT by Abathar
INDIANAPOLIS -- A school principal in Indianapolis suspended an eighth-grader for 10 days and recommended he be expelled for carrying a pocket knife, even though the boy said he had forgotten the weapon was in his coat pocket and turned it over to school officials as soon as he entered the building.
An expulsion hearing has been scheduled for April 10.
Elliot Voge, 14, told Stoneybrook Middle School principal Jimmy Meadows he forgot that he had left the Swiss Army knife in his pocket after using it to whittle wood last month. The next day, just after he was dropped off at school by a classmate's mother, he said he discovered the knife in his coat and immediately went to the office.
Nevertheless, Meadows suspended him and recommended expulsion. The action stunned the boy's parents, who hired a lawyer to represent him at the hearing next week.
Pro-noun trouble -- it seems I was not clear, my apologies for causing your confusion.
Cannot recall there ever being a problem with knives in our schools until the race 'wars' of the late 60's early 70's.
Even then they didn't ban them, as far as i recall.
I never saw one pulled out at school except to play that game where you'd try to throw the knife into the ground between the other person's feet, and they'd have to move one or the other foot to the knife if it stuck (in the ground). first one to chicken out 'lost'. What was the name of that game?
oh, the good old barlow.....
Oh, btw, glad to see sbmom and tlb8z 'kissed and made up' (they did didn't they?)
OK, it was confusing, I thought something was not right. Anyways to me, it all comes down to the pride. The school had a policy of expulsion for a firearm. The principal took it a lot further himself, writing letters to parents what he would do if a weapon was brought to school. Instead of recognizing the extraodinary circumstances in this case and just slapping the students wrists, the Principal's pride took over. The Principal put his pride above the future of a very bright young kid who would never do anything wrong. It is just asinine.
The media is out there to make money--not to report the news. If this type of article sells more papers, then they are happy. If people write letters to the editor, then the owners are even more pleased. This generates publicity and sells papers and makes money.
I take the WaPo in the AM--their list of corrections can sometimes take up half a page. But no one notices that--they notice the first article, the first impression. I try to be analytical in reading any type of report and always keep in mind what is the true mission of a paper--to make money.
Man, if I went to that school I would have been either ran out on a rail or so welted by a ruler I couldn't write my homework. I believe in sending your kid down the right path, but good grief that is almost as bad sounding as some Islamic schools over in Saudi land.
I read that link you posted, unbelieveable.
And they have a class in Bible thumping, too.
Seriously...every few weeks a new crew mans the street corners waving Bibles and carrying placcards and banners.
Boys carried swiss army knives from about 5th grade on up when I was in school. Many were Boy Scouts and nobody thought it was unusual. I remember girls had small folding pocket knives in their purses, no one thought of these as weapons, they're knives FGS! In middle and high school the administration was only concerned with kids who carried switch blades. Carrying a switch blade pretty much got you expelled.
Just what is it that made the pocket knife a "weapon"? I assume that the principle has a penis. Does that make the principle a rapist just because of the potential?
That's what the metal detectors at schools are for.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Yours is my favorite post. Too funny!
Golly, thanks! You would have had to know this guy for it to have full impact. 99.9% of the time he was extremely serious, but those occassions when he slipped a little humor in, he was very, very funny.
I do have to think that he would have handled this situation in a totally different, very rational way. In general, the people who got in 'big' trouble (i.e. Suspended or Expelled) at my school were the ones who truly deserved it, and most of the kids would agree with the punishment. That, to me, is what defines effective discipline. Fairness, not just being as heavy-handed as you can possibly be.
The day when Zero Tollerance became inacted in public schools was the death of common sense, IMO.
Most of my friends are teachers and are either retired or on the brink of retirement. Some are sensitive to the bashing that public schools get because they are truly dedicated and do the best they can under the insane rules. I'm so glad mine are grown, but it makes me sick to see the utter failure public schools have become. So, it's good to have a laugh every now and then and I thank you for providing one.
If you think the little gang bangers and wanna be gang bangers can't figure out how to get a knife, or a gun, around the detectors, you don't know kids very well.
Besides which, unlike the case with firearms, there are knives that are completely undetectable by metal detectors.
That's a software problem, not a hardware problem.
Kick the bloody gan'stas out. Schools are for learning to read write and cipher. Anybody not interested in such can go elsewhere.
They can't do that by gov't fiat via the "No Child Left Behind" policy. A plan that yokes those with the desire and ability to learn to those without either of those attributes. Guess who loses out in that scenario. Thanks Georgie-boy.
Every educrat is a thug.
LOL!!! No, however silly judgments by this principal makes it easy to call him a dick-head!
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