Fred A. Anderson Elementary School in Bayboro, N.C. sponsored 'Camouflage Day'
Posted on 11/20/2002 10:26:11 PM PST by JohnHuang2
When 9-year-old Jonathan Cross dressed up in his duck-hunting outfit for his school's Camouflage Day this week, he never dreamed his love for the sport woud backfire on him.
Covered from head to toe in his gear, the fourth-grader was "a very happy camper," according to his mother, excited to show off his new hunting boots, hat, mesh face mask, shirt, bib, pants and boots.
But there was something in his pocket he had forgotten about – a shotgun shell left over from an outing with his father and brothers last weekend.
His discovery of the projectile while on campus has left the straight-A student stunned with a five-day suspension, his teachers in tears, and his parents perplexed over the latest case of "zero tolerance" in the government school system.
"They shouldn't have had Camouflage Day," said Kay Cross, Jonathan's mother. "It's militaristic; it has connotations of violence. He just happened to have a shell in his pocket."
The incident unfolded at the Fred A. Anderson Elementary School, located in the rural town of Bayboro on North Carolina's eastern side.
Fred A. Anderson Elementary School in Bayboro, N.C. sponsored 'Camouflage Day' |
The school, like many others across America, takes part in "Spirit Week," featuring different themes each day designed to motivate children. One day is Professional Dress Day, where students dress themselves in the attire of working adults. Another one is Mismatch Day, where children can suit themselves in colors and items that clash. Tuesday was Camouflage Day.
Jonathan had been dropped off by his mother and was waiting with other early arrivers in the lunchroom before being dispatched to class. It was in the lunchroom that he felt something in his pocket. When he took it out to see what it was, he realized it was a shotgun shell, as did a teacher who caught a glimpse.
The boy was brought to the principal's office, and because of the school's zero-tolerance policy for weapons and explosive devices, officials say they had no choice but to suspend him for five days, even if there was no intent to use the device.
"A shotgun shell is considered an explosive," said Cathy Dunbar, the school's assistant principal. "We do have some discretion for the number of days [for suspension]. We kind of go with five. ... It's not like we really wanted to come down hard on him. We didn't."
Dunbar says the school has had Camouflage Day for years, and it's the event in which the greatest number of students actively participate, as that part of North Carolina is filled with hunting enthusiasts.
"It never crossed our minds," she told WorldNetDaily. "We didn't think kids would have something in their pockets. [Camouflage Day] is really a very innocent thing."
Mrs. Cross is not laying entire blame on school officials, whom she says are truly remorseful, telling her Camouflage Day would not take place in the future. She says she should have checked her son's pockets, but what's upsetting to her and many American parents is the rigidness of zero-tolerance policies designed to keep the classroom safe.
"Zero tolerance comes from a good place," says Cross, "but it's black and white; there is no gray. There's a common-sense point of view that gets overlooked with this black-and-white law. There's no blurring of the edges, no extenuating circumstances."
That point is echoed by the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil-liberties and human-rights organization that has dealt with many similar cases in the legal system.
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| President of the Rutherford Institute John Whitehead says zero-tolerance policies are 'spreading like a disease.' |
"[Zero tolerance] teaches kids a bad lesson," says institute president John Whitehead. "Make the slightest mistake and the state authority is gonna come down on you like gangbusters. No hearing, no appeal. ... What's the rationale for expelling a student for having a Certs mint or gargling with Scope after lunch? These are actual cases."
The institute has handled high-profile incidents, like that of Virginia eighth-grader Ben Ratner who prevented a suicidal friend from slitting her wrists by taking away her knife, only to face automatic suspension for possessing a weapon in his locker.
The Loudoun County school district defended its action, stating the zero-tolerance policy was not really the issue, since it suspended Ratner for the rest of the semester, not the minimum one-year suspension as required by district policy.
A federal appeals court upheld the expulsion, stating the facts didn't demonstrate that "the school's policy in this case failed to comport with the United States Constitution." The Supreme Court subsequently refused to consider if Ratner's constitutional rights had been violated, thus affirming the discipline by local officials.
As WorldNetDaily previously reported, students have also been suspended for playing "cops and robbers" during recess, drawing a picture of a Confederate flag, using nail clippers and stating the intent to launch spitballs.
The list of events gaining national attention in recent years also includes:
Harsh zero-tolerance policies have been adopted by educators across the U.S. in the wake of the Gun Free Schools Act of 1994, in which Congress mandated automatic expulsions for students carrying firearms on campus. Local districts have since approved additional penalties for alcohol, drugs, threatening behavior and possession of items which can be construed as weapons.
In June 2000, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University released a report on the issue, stating a great deal of evidence supports the conclusion "that children are being unfairly suspended and arbitrarily kicked out of school for incidents that could have been very easily handled using alternative methods."
"As a result, everyday zero-tolerance policies force children to be suspended or expelled for sharing Midol, asthma medication (during an emergency), cough drops, and for bringing toy guns, nail clippers and scissors to school. Even the common schoolyard scuffle has become a target, regardless of severity and circumstances," the report said.
Despite the publicity surrounding recent cases, Whitehead says the situation for students is not getting any better.
"[The districts] are not listening," he says. "It's the lockdown of America. The schools are locking down, the courts are locking down. It doesn't bode well for freedom."
Back in Oriental, N.C., Jonathan Cross has an unexpected 11-day break, as his suspension will merge into next week's Thanksgiving holiday.
His mother personally met with school officials and has no intention of pursuing any kind of legal action, as administrators were simply enforcing Pamlico County policy and have now relegated Camouflage Day to a thing of the past.
"I don't have a bent against the school," she said. "I'm still pissed, but I'm satisfied."
It was so silly as its hard to find a 2nd grader who didnt see the movie.
I related to them how I use to take my uncle's Mauser K98, Nazis eagles and all, to show and tell in elementary school. And how teachers back them knew how to inspect a weapon. What a bunch of weak whimps schools have now for teachers and administrators.
What you say is true. Government schools are missing three things which assure children are being short changed: (1)A traditional curriculum which is proven to be worthwhile...(2)Teachers fully competent in their subject...(3)discipline in the classroom
Many teachers are functionally illiterate and the teachers unions exchange votes for the anti-children education programs of the Democrates which allows it all to happen.
Its a pity.
Actually, at least here in Texas, the problem is NOT the teachers, it's how the state mandates the school administrations! It's not "moronic administrators", it's assinine state education agencies which mandate state schools to do moronic things!
It is a fact that there are some classes in which the teacher could hand out the test the night before giving it, tell the students that this was the test, give said test the next day, and half the class would still flunk!
Elementary and middle school teachers are told that if they flunk more than a very small number of kids it will reflect negatively on their evaluations. Said flunkees are "placed" in the next grade, in spite of failure to learn. Young students are taught early on that they do not have to perform to progress! They don't do their homework, they don't study, and the state (based on a Ross Perot plan drawn up without consulting real educators) does nothing more than remove the kids from extracurricular activities (the debacle of "no pass, no play" - a great-sounding idea, but VERY poorly implemented!!), forcing them out of after-school supervised situations and freeing them up to join gangs.
A teacher can have 28 kids in a class, four of which are simply uninterested in anything but disrupting class, and the teacher is blamed for not teaching because 80% of class time is spent dealing with discipline problems - this from proven, seasoned teachers who are known and respected for their classroom control (not "1984" control - simple, fair, classroom good order!).
At the risk of oversimplification, the classrooms of today are a battlefield, the teachers are often being blamed, while the real problem is PRIMARILY that the politically correct educational system refuses to hold students and their parents responsible and accountable for doing homework, studying within reason, and not misbehaving in class and on school grounds!
There is much truth in what you say, however, in my view public (read gov't) education is essentially dead. Reasons?
Teachers unions exchange votes to support those politicians who will maintain the status quo of ever smaller classrooms (as if that really mattered in a zoo enviornment), more money for the teachers, tenure, and little if any competency examination.
Mathematics, chemistry, physics, and the rest of the hard sciences are all but finished as far as public school children moving up are concerned. African studies, "social science" (to funny) and the rest of these essentially worthless non-objective endeavors are the norm....pathetic experiments discarding tried and true curriculaum is rampant: such as phonetic spelling, new math and etc.
My wife and I drove jalopies, gave up exotic vacations, and got all of our four out of the public schools and ultimately through University into meaningful scientific work.
My advice to young parents is to do the same....You can'r beat these self serving b@astards in the education factories of America so take other measures to save your children.....its what parenting is all about.
MKM
MKM
That spent shotgun shell is only a projectile when he throws it at the person responsible for this nonsense.
Only two generations ago, kids brought shotguns to school and leaned them in the corner so they could hunt on the way home. I know a man who did this in North Florida and he told me, "We were brought up with guns, and it just never occurred to any of us to point them at another person."
I blame television for teaching kids that it's OK to point guns at other [bad] people.
BTW, I just took a Hunter-Safety course here in WNC, and was very pleased to see that half the class consisted of 12-year-olds fixing to go deer hunting with their dads or moms next week. Yup, there were moms (and a couple of grandmothers) there.
My wife teaches high school algebra and (based on your post), I think you might understand the frustration she comes home with at the end each day of attempted teaching! The "dumbing down" problem rules!! The idiots running the math program are touchy-feely-clueless social scientists - someone mandated that ALL 9th graders in Texas would take algebra - after a couple of years of this, "they" have discovered the obvious (something their predecessors knew) - not all 9th graders are capable of algebra.
My wife, for example, was told to teach algebra to a kid who did not pass one math class, 5th through 8th grades (he was "placed" because he couldn't be promoted on merit). This kid cost her at least 20 minutes of instructional time each day because of disruptive behavior - don't want to get into the abject stupidity of the "self esteem" crap "they" are using to foist this kid on my wife and the classroom full of students (70% of which would actually like to learn if the teacher were free to teach) - etc., etc., etc.! ....but I digress.
Having learned that not all 9th graders can handle algebra, instead of remediating said non-performers, "they" are still going to teach everyone algebra in 9th grade, "they" are merely going to take the existing course and make it into a two school-year class. The good students, and the "talented and gifted" students who are part of the "good" student population are getting totally hosed, here! This is the quintiscential (sp?) example of dumbing down! Talk about making a subject boring!! Not only that, the "bad" students (the ones who were never held accountable for their lack of performance in school) will continue to fail!! AARRGGHH!!
The only thing that works is student accountability; the homeschoolers generally have this (my oldest daughter, a certified teacher, stays home and homeschools her three boys). Kids in public schools have this beat out of them by folks like the NEA and its social engineering......
OK, so on to private schools and vouchers, right? -GRIN-
I think I previously missed your point concerning the mis-direction of schools coming from the pols and the "education" state establishment and that not all the fault is because of teachers...good point and I totally agree with you here.
Nonetheless, my conclusion is that for all of these reasons we have covered the public schools for most of America are dead.
It must be terribly difficult to raise children now and I do not envy your wife being a teacher and having to cope with these issues daily. My sister has a masters degree in Physics from Michigan and at one point in her career had to stop teaching high school physics for she explained that she got no support from the admin and the classroom was a zoo with a few disruptive children preventing any learning at all....Forunately she quit and got a fine job in research for industry.
I must also correct myself on one point...Two of my children left the catholic school and went to the local public high school.....a school in a very, very upscale village in rural NJ where we raised our children. They receivedt a tremendous education there since the vast majority of residents were professionals working at AT&T headquarters or in NYC and really would not stand for any important interference from the state educational morons. Bussing was local and they prevented regionalization of the school system so that the parents were living with the teachers (poor teachers but lucky kids). Well over 90 % of the H.S. graduates went on to graduate from 4 year colleges.
I suppose there are good schools here and there but I believe the vast bulk of public schools are a waste land.
Have a nice day...I think we ran this one into the ground.
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