Collectible knives in car lead to recommended expulsion
Joshua Smith Case Bound To Grand Jury
Joshua Smith was a student at Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences. He allegedly broke into school property to get information on some students who were flirting with his girlfriend. That’s some serious stuff and he is being charged in criminal court for it. It’s not what is going to get him expelled though.
County school officials said…”The police officer also searched the student�s car, which was on campus, and discovered a set of collectors� knives. The student was then placed under arrest.
“CSAS Principal Steve Ball has recommended the student be expelled for one calendar year under the district�s zero tolerance policy, which is also a part of state and federal law. The student has the right to appeal the administration�s decision.”
The quoted school official needs to brush up on his laws. There is no federal law regarding knives at school. The Gun Free Schools Act, which is what he is trying to refer to, deals with working firearms. Tennessee state law provides Principals with the power to suspend a student for up to 10 days for possession of a knife but does not mandate expulsion.
The CSAS zero tolerance policy goes well above and beyond any legal mandates. In this case it will mandate a year long expulsion for having collector’s knives in a locked car.
Again…. of what use are weapons in school? I would guess the student knew the rules and the consequences. He chose to violate them anyway. I have no sympathy for bringing weapons to school for any reason, nor does the school district. If they are in the car on school property they are readily available to commit a crime. He got what he deserved.
barry
It’s not a question of sympathy, Barry. It’s a question of tolerance. They could have oodles of sympathy with much hand wringing and ululations of grief but they are locked into a policy of no tolerance.
I don’t have any problem whatsoever with not allowing weapons at school. I just think it is insane to expel a kid for a year because he had some collectible knives in his car.
I can offer a personal example of how easily these kinds of zero tolerance policies can backfire. I graduated valedictorian of my class and never, ever got into trouble. I used to car pool to school with two other neighbor kids who went to the same school. We used a car my dad provided for us.
One day, my father came to school and substituted the car we normally drove with another one. In the process, he inadvertantly left his .32 caliber pistol on the floor in the back seat!
Fortunately, nothing came of it. However, if our school had had zero tolerance rules back then and if someone walking by had seen that pistol lying in a car we didn’t even come to school in that day, we could have all been suspended and had our academic records tarnished for an action we had no control over whatsoever. Would that be right???
There has got to be common sense applied to these cases. If a security guard sees something lying in a back seat, where things sometimes end up, there needs to be a benefit of the doubt applied. When draconian measures are used on otherwise good kids, it’s nothing more than institutionalized child abuse.
This guy didn’t bring knives to school, he had them in his car. It /could/ have been on school property. When I was in high school, it didn’t matter. If it was the car you came to school in, they considered it a school matter. This means that when illegally parked in the parking lot across from the school (which we were not allowed to park in, because it was not school property) they would still punish students for items found in the cars.
More than that, these policies spread to areas that aren’t involved with the school at all. You can be suspended for rules broken while at a bus stop. You can be suspended for getting into a fight at your own home after school if the conflict began at school. It’s obscene.
Upon searching the student, the police officer discovered several keys belonging to CSAS.
How’d he get those keys. Was CSAS making a reasonable effort to protect the privacy of the students. I would really hate seeing school authorities placed under the same zt scrutinty immature kids are. I don’t think they could cut it. What a terrible statement that would be.
Kids in school nowadays are going to be nervous wrecks when they graduate. Constant scrutiny, constant supervision, strict rules. I really feel bad for today’s kids.
I feel for them, too. I think that the guy was just careless.