They’ll let the punishment fit the crime, but only if they can treat all crimes like a felony
FdL student expelled for knife at school
A 15 year-old student brought a knife to school. There is no description of the knife so we can’t tell if it was a butter knife, steak knife, pocketknife or other. We can infer from the quoted remarks that he didn’t do anything with it except bring it to school. His punishment?
At a closed meeting held Monday, the Fond du Lac Board of Education decided to expel the student for the rest of this school year and for the 2005-2006 school year.
The entire remainder of this school year plus all of the next school year. There are felonies that don’t carry sentences that steep. The Board is destroying this boy’s public education because he created a dangerous situation. He didn’t actually do anything except possess a prohibited item but the Board is treating that simple possession as if it was aggravated improper use with malice aforethought.
The ONLY reasons I can come up with why people continue to send their kids to public schools when this kind of crap goes on are:
A) Political motivation (sucking the teat of the NEA)
B) Abject poverty and uneducation of parents (no private school or home schooling)
C) Societal ignorance (they don’t know/don’t care)
GAH!!!!
On another note, a friend of mine asked a question:
“Is it written in school policy that bringing ANY knife to school will result in 1.5 years expulsion? If yes, then it’s the stupid kid’s own fault. If no, then it’s just SCREAMING for a lawsuit”
When NYC experience a huge drop in violent crime that was credited to aggressively pursuing ‘quality of life’ crimes like jaywalking. This is the same kind of clouding the law. It is not punishing a crime, but creating an environment of fear and intimidation.
People usually don’t do well in a nasty, repressive atomosphere. They spend so much time looking over their shoulder, wondering if anything they say or do might OFFEND someone else, they don’t have any energy left to do anything worthwhile for themselves. They’re in survival mode only. One of the reasons Catholic schools are no longer considered by many parents to be an educational venue for their children (besides the rampant sexual abuse) is because how poorly kids were treated by the nuns. That experience alone turned a lot of people off to Catholic schools and the Catholic religion. Parents who have gone through that don’t want it for their children.
The same thing will happen with public schools that have unfair zero tolerance policies. Kids who were victimized by these policies won’t want their future children in public schools. Also, it’s beginning to dawn on many people that their children don’t have to go to either a public or private school to get an education today.
Bittina, good point! Around here the Catholic schools are now more lenient than public schools and the teachers are no longer nuns. But, they certainly had a reputation for harsh, corporal punishment when I was a kid. Anytime institutions become the controlling social authority abuse seems to be more common.
RE:”Is it written in school policy …If yes, then it’s the stupid kid’s own fault”. Identical circumstances happened to my son - he had left pocket knife left in dress pants and wore to school dance (last wore dress pants 6 mons ago outside school and so forgot about knife) now he is expelled for 1 year in middle of 10 grade so loses 10th and 11th grade education. The issue here is - yes the policy is on page 27 of the school handbook - however I (parent) didn’t know of the policy, not a teacher I have contacted (at least 15 so far) knew of the severity of the policy, one of the top administrators in the district did not know of the severity of the policy, 2 school board members I spoke to did not know of the severity of the policy - So how the HECK is the kid stupid if THEY do not know of the severity of their actions - when no one else does either?
Where I live we are told at the beginning of the school year of the zero tolerance policy. We are also told what cannot be brought to school and of the consequences.If all schools do this I dont see the problem.If a child breaks the rules he has been warned ahead of time what the punishment will be and there is no surprise.
Tina, the problem isn’t having a punishment for a misbehavior. The problem is having a single mandatory punishment for all misbehaviors. In some cultures the punishment for theft is hacking off the perpetrator’s hand. Is that appropriate? By your reasoning it is perfectly fine because the person knew about the penalty beforehand. In fact, by your reasoning it would be acceptable to kill a jaywalker so long as that person knew that the penalty for jaywalking was death.
Yes, this is a tough punishment, this is a tough situation. The rule is clear and the punishment is clear. It is unfortunate that this happened to anyone, regardless if it is a troubled child or a child that has never been in trouble. I believe what is more unfortunate is that the parents did everything they could to have the consequences overthrown. This is a sad lesson they are teaching this child. When she is on her own and responsbile for herself completely is a tough time to learn that a person has to deal with their consequences regarless of intent. I believe that our society has become what it is because too many are not held accountable. This could have been a good lesson for this student that could have been carried through life, instead what is learned here is that parents who yell and have money will get a child out of whatever they get themselves into. This is why we have so many people just standing saying “but I didn’t mean to” and expecting to be slapped on the hand and sent on to have a nice day.
Your comments don’t include the fact that the Red Lake Reservation shooting of 10 people occured just prior to this event. It may have been an extreem punishment, or a reaction to a trajic event on another reservation.
Thats bullshit!!! i go to private school and some 1 had gun but only got suspended.
Man thats just messed up with the Public School!!
That kind of crap pisses the hell out of me!!