"A 10-year-old Hilton Head Island boy has been suspended from school for having something most students carry in their supply boxes: a pencil sharpener. The problem was his sharpener had broken, but he decided to use it anyway.
A teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School noticed the boy had what appeared to be a small razor blade during class on Tuesday, according to a Beaufort County sheriff's report.
It was obvious that the blade was the metal insert commonly found in a child's small, plastic pencil sharpener, the deputy noted."
"He had no criminal intent in having the blade at school, the sheriff's report stated, but was suspended for at least two days and could face further disciplinary action.
District spokesman Randy Wall said school administrators are stuck in the precarious position between the district's zero tolerance policy against having weapons at school and common sense.
'We're always going to do something to make sure the child understands the seriousness of having something that could potentially harm another student, but we're going to be reasonable,' he said."
No...no you aren't going to be reasonable.
If any of you have young kids in school, I'd be getting concerned about that point.
I've just went over their school policy, (Beaufort County School District - Beaufort County School District) and they don't even HAVE a Zero-Tolerance policy, they modified it last year to allow discretion in cases just such as this!!!!! This principal should be fired. NOW!
When my mother was a School Ma'am, way back, she had a penknife on her desk which all the kids used to sharpen their pencils! Only thing was, no kids left her classroom unless that penknife was back in it's place on the desk! She also had a leather "Strap" and was not afraid to use it!!
If teachers and principals don't have Common sense in a case like this, what are they teaching the Children ???
Shoot,when I was in school, we had bic pen blowguns,mini slingshots, spitball launchers, staple shooters, and we carried pocket knives for FFA...and even Scissors !!!
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Yep, as late as the mid-70's we carried pocket knives too. I had my 4" Buck Knife in the pouch on my hip all the way thru 12th grade! We built ML pistol kits in metal shop, built and launched model rockets (resulting in an interesting 'mortar barrage' of the AG building and student parking lot), did some dangerous things in Chemistry class - with the teacher being the instigator and advisor!
Ah, it was a mighty different world then.....
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When I was in high school back in the mid-70's we had an Old West History class. I carried my brothers 50 cal. Hawkens Rifle down the hall way and used it for my presentation for my final grade. I had a couple of teachers ask if they could check it out. Things sure have changed.
I carried a pocket knife throughout high high school in the early 80's. It was the biggest Buck folder I could find. My friends called it the "pocket sword". I was often the target of fights between classes, and carried it as a last line of defense. This was at a private, christian school, and the fights often took place right in front of teachers and the principal. So, I guess I would say 80's is when things started to change.
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I never carried a knife while at school. I did, however, always had a pocketful of .22's, or the random half dozen shotgun shells for some hunting right after school.
"District spokesman Randy Wall said school administrators are stuck in the precarious position between the district's zero tolerance policy against having weapons at school and common sense."
That says it all. When common sense is an option, it doesn't exist.
My kindergartener(I stress the word KINDERGARTEN) has already gotten two warning letters....one for not keeping his hands to himself & the other for not following instructions. It was a generic note, without explanation. I & my husband had to contact the teacher for her to clarify.
Now, I can understand the "hands off" part.......and I can understand that my child must learn to listen/abide by rules.
But what has my son on the verge of intervention, even suspension is the reason for all this behavior. His teacher told us that instead of doing some of his work....he wants to play with his classmates.
His completed work is up to par with groups his age. His coloring is a bit sloppy and he is getting penalized for that.
My son turned 5 the day before he started school. He spent 2 years prior in a christian daycare setting. He was there all day and did have "work" time.....but he also had plenty of inside & outside group/individual play. Now, I understand that my child must learn to abide by rules..he is being taught that, but c'mon...suspension because he wants to play a bit!!!!!!
This is a problem beyond "zero" tolerance. They are making our children automatons....putting a leash on them with the expectation that they will follow like little doggies and not stand up for themselves. Those that show any latent leadership abilities are "singled" out for behavior issues, or even attention deficits. Then the parents destroy the children's abilities even more because the child now gets grounded for the teacher's comments.
These children will not be leaders later on in life....They will have been suppressed so much as to just be pulled along by the puppetmaster.
My child isn't perfect.....he does have his negatives.....but a little over a month later he now dreads going to school....sometimes begging me to not let him go to school because he doesn't "know" why he is getting in trouble & why notes are going home to us.
What a GREAT start to his school life, huh?
__________________ Love the earth...Love the creator.(Rom. 20:1)
... maybe our next President will take this one by the horns and put some common sense back into schools.
... realistically, exactly what kinds of students are the board of ed. looking for? Robots... or drug induced, placid kids?
I carried a pocket knife all through school... never once had any issues or any teachers who wanted to make anything of it.
IF they are concerned about weapons... isn't a pencil, pen and anything with even a blunt point a weapon? Hey... stairs are dangerous, why not ban them from schools?
This is ridiculous.
__________________ You don't scare me! Work on it!
Last edited by LarryO1970; 09-12-2008 at 11:45 AM.
I carried a pocketknife and a Sucrets box survival kit in school all through high school. I also kept a big bottle of aspirin in my locker to deal with the tension headaches, and my fellow wind ensemble members would ask me for a couple if they were having a bad day. The kids thought the survival kit was a little odd, but no one said boo about the aspirin and the pocketknife. Both would get you suspended these days, and the survival kit would probabaly get you expelled.
Has it not occurred to the idiots running our schools that it's a hostile world out there and it's their job to help prepare kids for it? Or are they more worried about lawsuits than doing their jobs?
If it were up to me, at least in suburban, exurban and rural schools I'd put practical survival courses that were a cross between Marine Corps basic training and Outward Bound on the curriculum - as mandatory subjects you have to pass to graduate. I don't think we could quite get away with dumping a bunch of 16 year olds with no cellphones out in the middle of nowhere with a bare minimum of gear, only a general map and no C-rats or MREs at noon on a Friday and tell them they have to make it to Point X-Ray, say 40 miles away as the crow flies, no later than 3 PM on Sunday afternoon to get the bus home or they flunk the course and have to take it again on summer vacation or next year. Oh yes; and they have to get home themselves. Okay - maybe I'll let them have Grab & Go bags. But still no cellphones, GPS Gameboys or anything like that.
That might be a real wake-up call for them, that life isn't fair and Mother Nature and Uncle Chuck don't care who your mommy and daddy are. It might also serve to identify the leaders among them, and five will get you ten those wouldn't be the dumbjocks and the Beautiful People.
Yes, one of my favorite Robert A. Heinlein novels is Tunnel in the Sky.
Yeah...kick the little guy out of school for this ridiculous incident, but force kindergarten kids to learn about homo sexuality....Kindergarten kids, least O'bama voted for that bill..
And, we parent shave to opt out of this type of crap.. But, funny thing is , they don't have to inform us before hand about the change, we have to somehow divine it ourselves or keep very close touch with the school policies....
A sad time compared to the sixties when I went to school..
Leep:
"Many were awarded at least a C grade - considered a decent pass - even though scripts were littered with errors, it is claimed.
Some teenagers were unable to spell there and where - words the average pupil is expected to master at the age of seven.
Pupils were also awarded B grades despite spelling words such as finally with one 'l' and failing to appreciate the difference between woman and women."
"Some words were so badly spelt that researchers had problems working out what they meant. In one script, gorgeous was spelt 'gourges', anxious came out as 'angshuse' and familiar became 'formiler'. In other examples, nervous was spelt 'nufse', thought became 'faunt' and talk 'torck'.
The disclosure comes just days after a leading academic called for an overhaul of the English spelling system to allow irregularities to be accepted.
Professor John Wells, from University College London, said that forcing pupils to memorise irregular spellings was holding many back in the classroom."
That is far more than just bad spelling. Notice that they are having trouble distinguishing distinct words. "Woman" and "women" mean different things. It also shows a lack of observational and critical thinking skills. Even phonetically, "nufse" couldn't conceivably be pronounced like "nervous". It's vaguely similar at best.
The part that is most concerning is the reference to "holding many back in the classroom". I assume none of us had this difficulty in school? Something has most assuredly changed, and within the last 15 years or so. As with you, when I was in high school, we had "dangerous" objects freely available. When I worked yearbook this was before desktop publishing really took off, so we used razors and sticky tack, like newspapers used to. We dissected animals, we did chemistry work that required gloves and the fume hood, we even did egg drops for physics and students were allowed to climb to the gym roof for them. Oh...gym of course...dodgeball, soccer, street hockey, rugby (padless).
This isn't just a liberal or conservative thing either. This is far deeper than that, and again, note that we are seeing it in multiple countries at about the same time.
I'm not conspiracy-minded, but it certainly makes one wonder.
- Coeloptera
Last edited by Coeloptera; 09-12-2008 at 10:25 AM.
Location: Colorado, with all the pot smoking libtards -_-
Posts: 4,149
What? when I was in elementary school about 10 years ago, I used to sharpen my pencil with my pocket knife. Some of the teachers would flip out but most knew what kind of kid I was and just let my do it. I still carry a large pocket knife all of the time because I need it here at work a lot and I am on a university campus. I have never been stopped by anyone before but I am a little concerned about it. I am not someone to use a knife to harm anyone but I need it almost everyday for my job here on campus. This thing with a small razor blade is ridiculous. Sure the kid could have cut himself but being suspended for sharpening a pencil? This is what happens when you let lawyers have any power.
Chris
__________________ Well done is better than well said - Benjamin Franklin
It's not a conspiracy, Coeloptera, just an extreme error in judgement that started back when good-minded people were convinced that taking students from small schools and classes where they got individual attention from the teacher, where the students not only knew each other but each other's families and developed life-long bonds of friendship and caring....and put the students in massive "cookie-cutter one size fits all" educational factories where interpersonal relationships take a back seat to fads and peer pressure, where disruptive influences can multiply to the point of being beyond control and independence hasn't a chance against "fitting in".
Then they wonder why the educational system isn't working.
