Posted on 12/29/2010 7:59:57 PM PST by ri4dc
A standout North Carolina high school student has been suspended for the remainder of her senior year and charged with a misdemeanor for having a small paring knife in her lunchbox.
Ashley Smithwick, 17, of Sanford told WRAL she accidentally took her father's lunchbox to Southern Lee High School in October instead of her own when school officials searched the lunchbox, along with several other students' possessions, possibly looking for drugs.
Ashley's father, Joe Smithwick told the station the lunchbox had a paring knife inside so that he could slice up an apple that accompanied it.
"It's just an honest mistake. That was supposed to be my lunch because it was a whole apple," he said.
But school officials didn't see it that way.
The athlete who takes college-level courses was suspended for the remainder for the school year, banned from campus and this month was charged with misdemeanor possession of a weapon on school grounds, WRAL reported.
Ashley says she finds the punishment particularly alarming because she's never been in trouble before.
[excerpt as required - read more at link]
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Makes ya proud to be an American , huh?
what a shamewhen your kids are told to to a line and then get slammed when they don’t.. even when it’s clearly a mistake.
what message does that send? Zero Tolerance?
Hardly.. Peter Principle is more apt.
Democrats have controlled North Carolina for a century, until *this year* when the GOP took the statehouse. From the governor on down, most officials are leftist, corrupt, and dumb as a box of rocks.
Not all county school districts are equally batty, though. The ones with a larger population of “minorities” are particularly careful to suspend or expel a few high-achieving white students over kitchen knives, so as to defuse some “racism” charges.
Bookmark
Just noticed something:
When a perp who is underage is accused of allegedly raping, murdering, stealing, etc. he or she usually remains un-named due to the fact of being a minor.
An honor student, OTOH, gets immediate punishment and is named publicly and nationally for the terroristic (not ‘alleged’) crime of having a paring knife or hunting weapon.
Wonder why that is?
It’s legislated OUT.
NC is becoming more of a political sh*thole everyday.
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