11 year-old Marylander suspended for show and tell knife
Student gets max for including steak knife in his project
The fifth grader at Grasonville Elementary School had a project called “What would you take on a camping trip and why?” and had assembled a number of tools in a decorated shoe box. One of the items was a steak knife. He turned in his project on May 10 and a week later he presented it to his class. The teacher then saw the steak knife and contacted Principal Anne Dodge. Things rapidly went downhill for the student.
“It was a tool. He brought in different types of tools,” Dodge said. She, too, said the student never threatened anyone.
The student and his possessions were removed from the classroom, a parent was notified and the sheriff’s office contacted, Dodge said. Dfc. Kristy L. Murphy investigated.
Parents of children in that reading class were contacted by phone and a letter went home to them, Dodge said.
He was suspended for 10 days. There is no note in the article about whether the police investigation ended with criminal charges filed.
The child had included a knife among tools to take on a camping trip. The teacher had possession of it for an entire week. Nobody was ever threatened. And they called the cops on him? Ah, the magic of zero tolerance.
(Tip credit to Best of the Web and Richard Emerson)
un-freaking-believable
Great… yet ANOTHER Maryland school in the news.
If teachers and principals (and cops) want to be respected, they should act in a respectable way. Children understand this in their heart. They are very sensitive to injustice. Every time an incident like this happens, some children lose faith in the school system.
What would you do if something like that happened to your child?
I would try and explain to him that a lot of grown-ups are cowards who hide behind regulations their lack of honour and their refusal to think; and that everyone who had the chance to speak out and say “perhaps calling the cops on a kid for putting a knife into a box of camping tools is completely insane” but didn’t, is in that category.
I would hope that by telling him this, I would minimize the damage. Zero tolerance is probably the most efficient ways of turning children into cynics and rebels.
I would seriously consider homeschooling. People who abuse authority like that are a bad influence on the children they’re supposed to educate.
What do those so-called educators think they’re doing? Oh, I forget, they chose not to think.