Ohio School Suspends 1st-Grader For Having Plastic Knife

WLWT Eyewitness News ^ | 3/8/03 | WLWT Eyewitness News

[visagoth]

A school board near Youngstown, Ohio, is debating whether a 6-year-old should be suspended from school for taking a plastic knife from his school cafeteria.

Kevin Long was suspended for doing just that.

And, he could even face expulsion, WLWT Eyewitness News 5 reported Friday.

[visagoth]

I have the feeling this silly school will have to remove all plastic utensils, and the kids will be left with finger jello and potato chips for lunch.

I suspect pencil sharpeners will then need to go - because a pointy pencil is also a very nice weapon. And then we take away (insert any other potential object used for poking someone here)....

Zero-tolerance run amok.

[dennisw]

I hope they shame these bad actors via a law suit. Only downside is the idiot school admins are not fired and taxpayers pay the damages in the lawsuit.

[Fresh Wind]

No pencils, no tests. No tests, no grades. No grades, no failures. No failures, everybody passes. Everybody passes, nobody is unhappy. Who cares if nobody can read? The TV will tell them everything they need to know.

[Dane]

This is just plain silly. What does the school do? Reuse the plastic knives?

Sheesh the knife would have gone into the trash can anyway. This situation shows that common sense has been thrown out of our society.

[Trickyguy]

Close down the public schools, salt the ground, then put
pepper on the administrators.

[blondee123]

This is getting just a BIT out of hand!! I have a 6 yr old grandson, he'd be terrified from a situation like this. What an awful thing to put a 6 yr. old thru.

[Wilhelm Tell]

Ayn Rand predicted this: "Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We *want* them broken. You'd better get it straight. That it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." - -- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged , Ch. III, "White Blackmail".

[Montfort]

That is the system we live in. The only thing Ayn Rand got wrong was that no character on the left would ever come out and say anything as honest as this.

They will never admit it is about power. It will always be "for the children."

[LibertarianInExile]

Amen.

The great thing is, in the legal system they've promulgated, we can and will win by suing the individuals who 'infringe on our childrens' innocence.' I think that saying the school principal, teacher, board, cafeteria workers, and superintendent are all personally going to be held liable, just as if they had supplied drugs or a gun to this kid. Because they DID know that there was a supply where the kid could this knife, and they DID know it was illegal for him to have it in school, or they wouldn't have enforced the rule!

If the kid had brought a gun to campus the school would be making noise all over the media about where he got it and how it's their fault, not the school's, that the school is 'just doing its job.' This time, it's back in the laps of the jackasses who started the whole thing.

[sd-joe]

Close down the public schools, salt the ground, then put pepper on the administrators.

I like the way you think.

[Jim Ralls]

The school's administrators should be suspended for having plastic brains.

[libertylover]

Can't these people get a grip?

[chgomac]

Hey Visagoth, you'll like this obituary...

Today we mourn the passing of an old friend, Common Sense. Common Sense
lived a long life, but died in the United States from heart failure early
in the new millennium.

No one really knows how old he was, since his birth records were lost
long ago in bureaucratic red tape. He selflessly devoted his life to
service in schools, hospitals, homes, and factories, helping folks get
jobs done without fanfare and foolishness.

For decades, petty rules, silly laws, and frivolous lawsuits held no
power over Common Sense. He was credited with cultivating such valued
lessons as to know when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird
gets the worm, and that life isn't always fair.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more
than you earn), reliable parenting strategies (the adults are in charge,
not the kids), and it's okay to come in second. A veteran of the
Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and the Technological
Revolution, Common Sense survived cultural and educational trends
including body piercing, whole language, and "new math." But his health
declined when he became infected with the
"If-it-only-helps-one-person-it's-worth-it" virus.

In recent decades his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of
well intentioned but overbearing regulations. He watched in pain as good
people became ruled by self-seeking lawyers. His health rapidly
deteriorated when schools endlessly implemented zero tolerance policies.

Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing
a classmate, a teen suspended for taking a swig of mouthwash after lunch,
and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student only worsened his
condition. It declined even further when schools had to get parental
consent to administer aspirin to a student but could not inform the
parent when a female student was pregnant or wanted an abortion.

Common Sense lost his will to live as the Ten Commandments became
contraband, churches became businesses, criminals received better
treatment than victims, and federal judges stuck their noses in
everything from the Boy Scouts to professional sports. When an
individual, too stupid to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot*,
was awarded a huge settlement, Common Sense threw in the towel. As the
end neared, Common Sense drifted in and out of logic but was kept
informed of developments regarding questionable regulations such as those
for low flow toilets, rocking chairs, stepladders and auto emissions.

Common Sense finally succumbed when, while the United States was fighting
a war on terrorism, a federal judge declared the Pledge of Allegiance to
be unconstitutional.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his
wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He
is survived by two stepsiblings: My Rights, and Ima Whiner.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
...Source Unknown

[11th Earl of Mar]

And, if the school insists on upholding the suspension, his parents reportedly will seek criminal charges against the school for supplying weapons to children.

Good for the parents! Send the teachers to jail for this kind of crap.

[AppyPappy]

My first grader son just splained it to me. No ones uses the plastic knives because they are useless. So anyone who had one must be up to no good.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

More nonsense from the government schools.

I hope the parents sue the heck out of the school...and can get criminal charges on the school employees who supplied the plastic knife

Our public schools are a nightmare. If they would concentrate on teaching kids...instead of indoctrinating them in Homocentrism and anti-gun hysteria.....our kids would be better educated

[UnsinkableMollyBrown]

My son came home this week and told me a boy had been expelled from his elementary school. The crime? Well, he brought a stick from home, one that was kind of shaped like a gun and he said bang, bang. So, he is permantly kicked out of school for having a piece of wood, and saying something that most of us grew up with. Hey, in fact TOY STORY, repopularized that way. How I am, as a mother, supposed to warn my kids sufficiently of every idiotic item they shouldn't bring or thing they shouldn't say at school?

[ladylib]

You should try and get your son out of there asap. It could happen to him. I hope the boy who was permanently expelled can go to a private school or homeschool. He would be much better off.

Remember: Too many stupid (and evil) people have too much power to do too much damage to kids today.

[Clara Lou]

Stupidity will always be with us. Our middle school cafeterias provide plastic knives for students. We haven't had any students report being menaced or injured with one, either.