How do we determine this? After the stabbing? Or do we ask Billy what he was going to do with that knife?

I disagree with the policy...and at the same time I disagree with completely overturning it

 

if i was a kid i would bring a knife to school just to have a month and half off.

 

If I was the kid I would have thrown my knife on the floor maaaaan, you can't trust the system.

 

in a case like this sitting down with the kid and talking to him for 30 seconds and using common sense would have solved the problem. to avoid conflict you remove the knife from his possession, explain you cant take it to school and have his mother pick it up at some point.

you dont throw the book at a 6 year old who made an innocent mistake with no prior history.

it's like giving the guy who got his first DUI the same punishment as the guy who's on his 4th ... it doesnt make sense

 

if you had given the guy wth 4 dui's the punishment on his first dui, would he have gotten 4 dui?

 

maybe maybe not but why are we giving the guy with 4 the same as the guy with 1 ... obviously at 4 something more should be done

 

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...2burrito1.html

I guess the kid had better not bring a burrito into the school.

 

Common sense is too subjective. You cant sit down with every student that breaks a zero tol. rule and determine whether or not the rules apply to the person. If the rule is "no weapons"...then no one should be bringing a weapon...a knife is a weapon whether its intent was to cut fruit at the moment. A kid who brings a knife to school with the intent to harm someone can easily lie in that 30 second interview saying it was for his lunch.

You cant create a zero tolerance policy and then have tolerance. That is all I am having an issue with.

Oh well. I got dinged for "running a stop sign." I got the same offense as someone who completely blew through a stop sign...while I stopped beyond the white line. Stupid, yes. But do I understand that I broke the same law? yes.

 

yea but a knife used to cut my steak its a utensil not a weapon. yes its a word game but its still there.

the point is zero tolerance is stupid because it removes all common sense. you can just say this is the law no exceptions ... it doesnt work. theres always exceptions to every rule

and they damn well should take at least 30 seconds to find out why a kid brought a knife in. and so the kid lies ... you take the knife, explain he cant do it and that if he does again what will happen. next time you throw the book at him. at 6 its awefully hard to expect a child to fully understand these things.

a kid who's bringing a knife to school to hurt someone isnt going to be stopped by a 5 day suspension ... and 45 days in alt ed. i know plenty of kids who got sent to alt ed and within a week of being back got sent again for the same thing. if a kids bringing a knife to hurt someone he'sgoing to keep bringing it till he gets the job done or he gets expelled permanently. so should we permanently expel every kid on his first offence? harsh no?

 

ya know will i dont think its possible for us to the same on this ...

i went to school where the graduating class was 102 and on Nov 15 (opening day of deer season) classrooms were half empty at least. to have a zero tolerance policy like this would result in half our school being suspended on aregular basis ... we all carried pocket knives and never though twice about it. people always were finding ammo in pockets in the fall becuase they wore their coat out hunting and forgot they had shells ...

i do see your point but with where i come from i just see it differently. it wasnt weird to see people walk into school with even a ax, heck i brought a chainsaw to school once walked right in noone even questioned it.