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Question: Which is worse — breaking a rule to do something she can do at home or destroying a child’s life by tossing her in jail? The child broke the rules and should be punished. But arrested? |
Marion Country schools where the motto is “Where every child can learn.” |
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What worries me is the school employees turned her in. We expect the powers-that-be to come up with incredibly insane rules and laws, but when every day people start acting as informants for those powers, we know we’re in trouble.
I saw the same thing happen in grade school – only then, it was a butter knife.
Of course, that kid was pretty messed up all around. I’m pretty sure that he’s in prison by now.
Words cannot describe how insane this is. I don’t live in the US, but I brought a Victorinox swiss army knife to school every day for as long as I can remember (probably from fifth grade or so), and it was never considered unusual or somehow threatening. I do however recall having my train set confiscated back in first grade…
Seems rather funny coming from a country that considers owning a gun a right.
Cheers
Amerika 2007.
Does anyone really believe that Americans (real Americans, that is, from as recently as 30 or 40 years ago) would tolerate what the government in the form of the KGB (FBI), the rest of Homeland Security, let alone all of the rest local and state black booters doing what they feel is their “obligation and right” to keep us safe.
And what is really scary are all of the people who go through the degradation at the airports and all of the rest of this BS and do feel “safer”.
The end of any individual freedom (except abortion) is literally in sight.
Arresting children? My God!
The school’s inconsistencies will be their undoing. Since they allow scissors, paper cutters, sharp pencils, and any other numerous “tools” that may be used as a weapon, they will have a difficult time defending this policy as “zero tolerance”. So, the resulting law suit will end up costing the School District a fair bit of money in the end, they will be laughed at, and the Board ultimately could lose their seats.
Yup, in the end the taxpayers will end up paying the salary of a few teachers just because of a stupid policy.
We are headed into the next dark ages. I guess Osama bin Laden got what he wanted.
When Vicki Gabereau interviewed G.Gordon Liddy for radio, she asked if he was carrying a gun. The thought that somebody might be carrying a gun is pretty exciting to us Canadians. Instead Liddy, taking an ordinary pen out of his breast pocket, said “I could kill you with this.”
I’d also like to see the lawsuit from concerned parents that their children are at risk because the school board allows other children to bring pens to school.
Bring it on! Everyone is a criminal!
In a couple of weeks, we’ll begin to celebrate the 60th anniversary of 1948, the year when G.O. wrote his chilling classic.
This “zero-tolerance” viewpoint is utter crap. There needs to be a context-orientated tolerance factor figured in for this sort of thing.
Unfortunately, US law doesn’t recognize context. Good judges do, and so do intelligent jurors who understand jury nullification.
Alas, right-wing extremists of a religious bent have an absolutist paranoia: in lieu of God bothering to return, man can only damn, not forgive. (In other words, thou shalt not allow context to cloud the act of violation.)
Zero-tolerance should be changed to contextual-tolerance or better: wait for a knife-wielding threat-to-life incident happens rather than assuming the intent is probabilistic.
Express your displeasure at this policy.
Sunrise Elementary School
Principal/Director: Isaac Burgess
352-671-6200
Jim Yancey, Superintendent
352-671-7702
This zero tolerance crap is driven by trial lawyers. Those slime creatures live off administrative inconsistency.And if you will never hear about any law suit because the school board has to keep them secret to “protect the child”. You would be surprised the number of frivolous lawsuits these school boards have deal with and pay out and you can’t find out about them
This is complete bullshit. Our country is turning into a bunch of gutless, scared pansies. Perfect match for our leaders who want to turn this place into a police state.
Run and hide! It’s a 10 year old with a dinner knife! Pathetic weak scum.
Well, we have a couple of issues to deal with here.
The school administration who ratted out the 10 year old vicious criminal to the sherrifs dept. And then if the local prosecutor decides to proceed with the felony charges against the girl.
First question I have is a by whose definition a steak knife is a deadly weapon. Is a butter knife allowed, or what about a plastic knife? If I write “knife” or “gun” on a piece of paper, does that become a weapon? Wouldn’t a contractor with a set of deadly sharp tools be violating that policy? The questions go on and on.
Second, zero tolerance poicies are idiotic at best, and destroy young lives at worst. This CRIME warrants a 1 day suspension at worst. Not a felony conviction, and probable expulsion. I thought the punishment was supposed to fit the crime in this country? When did the constitution get dumped on the scapheap of history.
Oh well, I am middle aged, and will be dead before things get really bad. I just feel bad for my daughter and any future grandkids.
Don
I bet the school administration is comprised entirely of individuals who have never been spanked by their parents when they were kids.
@9 – And at what point in any of the story above did right-wing extreemism enter the picture? ….complete silence…
I thought so.
The US is officially a defunct country with no future, all downhill now. All hope is gone. The entire planet hates you for good reason. “Come and visit the US – we’ll only take your fingerprints, scan your face biometrics and eventually take your DNA because you’re all criminals”. Yumm..what a nice country to go to.
And if your kids even think of eating with utensils we’ll get Blackwater….er..private scumbags after you to kill you.
I mean, I don’t see the downsides to visiting, do you?
#15: It came in the form of one more piece in the growing Big Brother, totalitarian state being created by the right-wing authoritarians (with the puzzling acquiescence of the left) like Cheney down to locals who would rather control the population than allow the populous to be free. Zero-tolerance programs and unbending adherence to rules no matter the consequences are hallmarks and this story is one example.
I and the other editors here on the blog have posted far too many items describing how this kind of thinking is spreading across the country in all forms. Silence? We shout about it every day here on DU. That’s why I posted this egregious example.
I see calls for “context-oriented” decision-making. Here in the liberal U.S. of A., doing so results in being suit for discrimination.
OK,
I THOUGHT you couldnt put a CHILD in jail without the parents PERMISSION.
#15 – Calls for zero tolerance, especially when applied to law and order, tends to start in right wing camps. Not always, but usually. Listen to talk back radio on any day for an example.
Politics aside, this is what happens when people get so worked up over perceived safety issues that they forget what’s actually important. Like not sending 10 years olds to jail.
#20 –
The belief is that : “If you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about and MY kid NEVER does anything wrong”. I don’t think many people know they aren’t the ones who will determine what constitutes “Wrong”.
As Alfred E. Nueman said : “What ?” “Me Worry ?”
I think this guy was related to Alfred E. Einstein, ’cause he was pretty smart.
I used to bring a single edge razor blade for sharpening my pencils. Most teachers didn’t seems to have problem with that then.
I saw an article about a kid who was arrested for threatening his school whilst playing on an Xbox game. He was traced on Xbox live.
http://fatalblade.com/?p=200
I guess my question is how big was the knife? 12-inch militarys style? Did she say things like “You ain’t takin’ my sandwich Bitch” to her friends as she cut her food.
I’m sure the girl isn’t sitting in a jail now.
WTF??? Do that to MY son; I dare you. I WILL have my lawyer with me when I pick him up!
I used to carry a small knife on my keychain when I was in school. You only got in trouble if you pulled a knife on somebody.
They did have a rule against knives longer than 4″ or switchblades/butterfly knives. You also couldn’t bring nunchakus, throwing stars, or other asian weapons to school but ya know, thats just common sense eh?
So, when the principal goes out to eat at the local steak house, he should just have to eat his steak like a caveman, as the steak knife and fork are weapons and therefore no longer accepted as useful tools to eat with. And, by goodness sake, don’t let him drive his car to work or anywhere else for that matter. It can be a deadly weapon.
I believe all the teachers at that school should be executed.
What is the world comming to?