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School Chief Sticks By 'Zero Tolerance' Ruling for Eagle Scout
FOXNEWS.com ^ | October 16, 2009 | Joseph Abrams

Posted on 10/16/2009 10:56:47 AM PDT by broken_arrow1

Call him Mr. Zero Tolerance.

The upstate New York school superintendent who suspended an Eagle Scout for 20 days for keeping a 2-inch utility knife locked in his car is unwilling to speak to the teen's family or bend in his ruling.

Lansingburgh Central School District Superintendent George J. Goodwin, 55, said in a written statement that his district "has an established policy of zero tolerance with respect to the possession of weapons of any kind on school property or in school buildings."

But nowhere in the school district's rule book, which is published online, is there any mention of a "zero tolerance" policy, leading some to question whether Goodwin, in fact, was compelled to suspend the youth.

Seventeen-year-old Matthew Whalen, a senior at Lansingburgh High School in Troy, N.Y., says he got in trouble over a survival kit he keeps in his car that includes a sleeping bag, water, a ready-to-eat meal and the small pocketknife, which was given to him by his grandfather, a police chief in a nearby town.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons; US: New York
KEYWORDS: agenda; communism; democrats; discipline; education; liberalfascism; publiceducation; publicschools; radicalism; schoolnazi; socialism; zerotolerance
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To: maine-iac7

Post-Columbine zero tolerance is like gun control. Yes, it makes perfect sense to a Libtard that a rule threatening suspension would have stopped the Columbine massacre. It didn’t do such a great job of stopping the carnage at Virginia Tech. Maybe if there was an Eagle Scout with a 2-inch blade in his pocket, the perpetrator Seung-Hui Cho, could have been stopped from killing 32 people and wounded many others.

Stupid is as stupid does!


121 posted on 10/17/2009 5:43:15 AM 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: Tenacious 1

I don’t think the monkey would have to be trained to perform as well.


122 posted on 10/18/2009 8:43:32 AM PDT by lokal yokal
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To: ConservativeWarrior

Well put. Good points about the effort that should be undertaken when you have kids in public schools.


123 posted on 10/19/2009 5:19:44 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (Government For the People - an obviously concealed oxymoron)
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To: sthguard

RE#113:

Well said. Good Points. The irony of your being a teacher was not missed by this reader.


124 posted on 10/19/2009 5:26:18 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (Government For the People - an obviously concealed oxymoron)
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To: sthguard
However, you’re ignoring the fact that careful attention to curriculum, attitudes, lesson plans, etc is a central part of homeschooling, whether a parent does the majority of the teaching or uses co-ops, tutors, community colleges, etc to supplement the child’s education.

I was merely countering the previous poster's assertion that I view enrollment of my children in public school as a transfer of my responsibilites to the school. I was not speaking of home schooling parental responsibilities.

I’ve got news for you: real conservatives are outnumbered a lot more than 3-1 in the public schools, and the ratio only gets worse as you move into high school...

Please re-read my post. My claim was that conservatives in general will be outnumbered at the ballot box 3-to-1, not in the public schools. And that includes your homeschooled kid. The difference is my kids will have experience countering the liberal mindset.

I'd like nothing more than to see the NEA dismantled, and primary education completely privatized. The simple fact is that the public schools system has grown too large to counter from the outside, it needs to be changed from the inside.
125 posted on 10/19/2009 6:27:06 AM PDT by ConservativeWarrior (In last year's nests, there are no birds this year.)
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To: EDINVA
Presenting one’s conservative case to a teacher, principal or superintendent does little more than get your kid or kids out of otherwise required programs in the school.

I see. The 3rd grade teacher had to re-teach the 2nd amendment to her entire class. The district utilized its automated phone system to notify every student household that viewing of the president's address would now be optional.

Yes, clearly I had wasted my time. Clearly I cannot make a difference, and should give up immediately, as you suggest.

You might want to see if your homeshooling network has anyone familiar with the concept of courage. You've got defeatism covered.
126 posted on 10/19/2009 6:34:14 AM PDT by ConservativeWarrior (In last year's nests, there are no birds this year.)
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To: ConservativeWarrior

“My claim was that conservatives in general will be outnumbered at the ballot box 3-to-1, not in the public schools. And that includes your homeschooled kid. The difference is my kids will have experience countering the liberal mindset.”

I did read your post; try reading mine. And I find it rather insulting that you think the only way to “counter the liberal mindset” is to expose oneself or one’s child to it for twelve years. If I have anything to say about it, my (future) kids will get plenty of such experience without drinking in the poison that is public education.


127 posted on 10/19/2009 8:27:12 AM PDT by sthguard (Inter 0bama silent leges - in times of 0bama, the law falls silent.)
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To: sthguard
If I have anything to say about it, my (future) kids will get plenty of such experience without drinking in the poison that is public education.

I was wondering how long it would take you to start reciting the popoular rhetoric. You argue like a lib.

Just more proof that you can't handle confrontation, and intend to raise your (future) children in a bubble.

Don't worry, my kids will there to tell them what to think.
128 posted on 10/19/2009 8:34:41 AM PDT by ConservativeWarrior (In last year's nests, there are no birds this year.)
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To: ConservativeWarrior

Why don’t you go back to my original post? I said “if I had it to do over ... I would homeschool.” As it is, my kids went thru public school.

I was the most visible front and center person for one high school, one middle school and 6 elementary schools, representing thousands of families, before the school board and our local governing board. I served on the Superintendent’s Advisory Council and countless other boards/committees, etc. in one of the largest public school districts in the country. I don’t have enough time or interest to recount all the changes I effected in our schools, often at enormous personal sacrifice.

So big whoop dee doo that you got your 3rd grade program changed. I am really, really impressed.


129 posted on 10/19/2009 1:52:09 PM PDT by EDINVA
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To: broken_arrow1

A knife is a utensil, not a weapon.


130 posted on 10/19/2009 2:18:33 PM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast ( If you have kids, you have no right of privacy that the govt can't flick off your shoulder.)
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To: AdmSmith; Berosus; bigheadfred; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fred Nerks; ...
...suspended an Eagle Scout for 20 days for keeping a 2-inch utility knife locked in his car is unwilling to speak to the teen's family or bend in his ruling. Lansingburgh Central School District Superintendent George J. Goodwin, 55, said in a written statement that his district "has an established policy of zero tolerance with respect to the possession of weapons of any kind on school property or in school buildings." But nowhere in the school district's rule book, which is published online, is there any mention of a "zero tolerance" policy...
The school needs a zero tolerance policy against goofy liars holding positions of authority.
131 posted on 10/19/2009 2:41:50 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: Lazamataz

Yup, he likes his fudge.


132 posted on 10/19/2009 3:45:28 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (There is no "gray area" on issues. I see things from both sides, but I choose the right side.)
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To: maine-iac7

Yup, hateful Commie power trip alert.


133 posted on 10/19/2009 3:57:52 PM PDT by GnuHere
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To: ConservativeWarrior

I’m willing to take bullets but not to use my kid as a human shield. Homeschooling is not cowering in fear; it is stepping up to the plate and facing the question of “what is the best way to raise and educate my kid” face on.


134 posted on 10/19/2009 4:00:56 PM PDT by JenB
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
>The young man’s grandfather needs to take this jerk out behind the barn and teach him some moderation with a blackjack or an axe handle.

I'd pay to see YouTube of Grandpa teaching the petty dictator a few lessons in "That's not a weapon, this is a weapon."

We must get out of the mindset, endemic since WW2, that the magic formula for success in any endeavour is to sacrifice our rationality to the Gods of Total War.

This nightmare will not end until we have zero tolerance for Zero Tolerance.

135 posted on 10/19/2009 4:29:31 PM PDT by Palin Republic (Palin - Bachmann 2012 : Girl Power!)
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To: sthguard

I totally agree with your perspective, sthguard. The Dept. of Education is one of the biggest bureaucratic jokes in existence. No matter how much money is thrown at it and the “education” it supposedly fosters, the schools are just absolute concrete jungles that are falling apart. Nothing but little petri dishes full of malleable kids who have to endure the Left’s latest social theories and experiments. I hate to use the word, but so many of them are simply hellholes. If you like the looks of government schools, then you’ll LOVE Obama’s healthcare takeover. Instead of books, supplies, and resources being rationed as they are now, it will be medical care.


136 posted on 10/19/2009 5:00:45 PM PDT by 1951Boomer
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To: stinkerpot65

Zero Tolerance policies are just an excuse not to have to think. The people who create and enforce them are beyond the pale.

And, you know, if we keep on the track we’re on now it won’t belong before there are gov’t Zero Tolerance policies for fast food, fast cars and fast women.


137 posted on 10/19/2009 5:15:42 PM PDT by dools007
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To: dools007
Zero Tolerance policies are just an excuse not to have to think. The people who create and enforce them are beyond the pale.

No, they are meant to create unthinking obedience to authority. It is all about control.

138 posted on 10/19/2009 5:18:33 PM PDT by Covenantor ("Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." Chesterton)
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To: broken_arrow1

Bozos like this are a walking advertisement for vouchers. If his pay was on the line he might learn to be a little flexible.


139 posted on 10/19/2009 8:33:49 PM PDT by Tribune7 (I am Joe Wilson!)
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To: luvEastTenn

Thanks for your support— if only certain public school apologists would see reason as easily!


140 posted on 10/19/2009 9:15:22 PM PDT by sthguard (Inter 0bama silent leges - in times of 0bama, the law falls silent.)
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