A Rant about Zero Tolerance In Schools Today

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tomx

Member
My sister calls me to tell me that her 11 yo son brought a knife sharpener, that he had inherited from a friend of the family, to school with him. As he was showing it to a classmate his teacher sees the "weapon" and sends him not to the principal's office but to the local police station where my sister has to "bail" him out. Now keep in mind my nephew did not have a knife just the blunt ended knife sharpener. He ended up being suspended for 5 days!! There was never any agressive behavior displayed by my nephew with the implement in question. He was also terrified and confused when my sister picked him up as he, and I agree, did nothing wrong. To me this is total overkill. If it's inappropriate send him to the principal's office and have him/her explain why this is not acceptable. But how is a 5 day suspension furthering my nephew's education? Do the people in charge of our schools today have zero common sense. Please chime in and tell me what you think so I can forward the thoughts of good people like yourselves to his schoolboard.

Thank You,
Tom
 
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dab102999

New member
Yea I know exactly what you mean. Not that this exactly purtains to what happened to your nephew but kids can't even be kids at all. My boy told me about a kid in his class that got suspended for 3 days for tossing a hard eraser to a buddy a few seats over. They said because it was a hard eraser that it was considered a dangerous object. This also was a student that is not a troubled student at all. He is an honor roll student who is a good kid.

Just think of all the things we did in school. **** I would be looking for a job in the 8th grade now days since I wouldn't be allowed to go to school. I can remember taking my shot gun to school and carring it in to take to the shop teachers office to put it in there for the day so it wouldn't be left in the truck (since I couldn't lock my truck) because an bunch of us would be going hunting after school.
 
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kevisip

New member
When I was in scrool, we were able to bring guns in the back of our pickups. Some of us even had competition classes we attended. But now that this country has has moved so far
in the wrong direction. Welcome to the new America. Vote these zero tolerance people out.
 
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mxz_chris

New member
My son got a transformer toy taken away, and we got a call from the school, because the toy had a 1/2" plastic gun on it. A transformer action figure was a weapon.
 
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samc

New member
When I went to School you were able to bring your shot gun to school (left in your vehicle) and after school we would head out hunting. Things are totally getting out of hand now days. I'm waiting for the schools to take away staplers, etc.....
 
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russholio

Well-known member
Tom, I agree with you completely. And I understand that for some people, it's easy to blame politicians and school officials. They have a duty and obligation to make schools a safe environment. To be sure, though, they've gone overboard in some cases. But as much blame, if not more, should be on parents who have no knowledge of or control over what their kids are doing in school or out of school (like the creeps who did the Columbine shootings). Unfortunately, many parents lack basic parenting skills and Big Brother has stepped in to fill the void. And that's scary.

Note to all: this is not a slam against anybody in particular, or against Tom's sister. Obviously there are many parents who do a wonderful job, but as in anything else, a few bad apples spoil the barrel.
 
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borderstaff

New member
About 18 years ago a friend and I did a mock old 1800's duel at our junior high school, and shot each other with black powder pistols. 3 times, on school grounds, in front of a few different classes, and with not only the teachers permission but his encouragement to show it a few times so a lot of students could see what it looked like. We loaded the pistols ourselves and obviously only had cotton wadding in the barrels, but we did this with no supervision at all. So...do you think I could go back to my high school and do that today. And, no, this wasn't a small high school. We had a class of 650 and there were about 1300 students at the school at the time. It was a metro MN school.
 
indy_500

indy_500

Well-known member
I got sent down to the principals office when i was in about 1st grade for pretending to have little "gun fights" with people, as in shaping you hand like an L to make it look like a gun. yeah, well, there's obviously something wrong with these schools.
 
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yamahauler

Active member
I agree, completely handled the wrong way. To the police station, are you kidding me.

I think a lot of schools have become gun shy because of the shootings that have happened so instead of using some common sense, they go overboard.

Who is to blame....don't know, some you could say would be parents, the kids that did the shootings, politicians, school board, police, teachers, principals, superintendents, etc....

Another way to look at it may be if something bad did happen at the school or any school would you rather be safe than sorry. If your kid was the one not coming home, thoughts then change.

But my opinion is first use common sense. In this situation if what you say is true..I would of sent him to the principal and had the parents come into the school. Then principal explains why this is a problem and why it isn't tolerated. No suspension....maybe detention at most for breaking the rule if it is stated in the 'rule book' they have.
 
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frnash

Active member
High School indoor rifle range!

Geez, I yoosta bring my match grade .22 cal. target rifle to and from the ROTC rifle range in the basement of my high school (Mumford HS, Detroit, MI)¹, circa 1955-1958, and we yoosta also take 'em to rifle matches at various other schools as well.

This was no small school, enrollment then was around 3500 or so.

I'll betcha they don't do that today! {smile}

(¹ Yes, if you've seen the film Beverly Hills Cop, the T-shirt that Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) wears in the film is from Mumford, which was attended in the early 1960s by Jerry Bruckheimer, one of the film's producers.)
 
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olsmann

New member
I have a question? When i was in high school and middle school, we had archery class in gym? Not with broad heads but still?? Target tips with haybales Do they do that anymore? It got me interested in bow hunting? I suppose that is gone now. I think the world is going to **** and I actually feel sorry kids these days. Unfortunatly things will never be the same again, I just hope there are some parents left out there with common sense and they raise their kids to have some as well. Otherwise we really are dommed! Schools are NOT going to teach that to our kids for us, and I have seen plenty of adults and kids where its clearly to late for them.
 
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T

tomx

Member
Thanks for the feedback guys. They're probably considering going back to chalk only since a pencil could be considered a deadly weapon. Where will the line be drawn?
 
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yamahauler

Active member
now it's dry erase, with boards that when you write on them, you can then print what you wrote on the board...kinda cool actually.

Oh wait, then you have the huffers...sniffers...whatever you call them...yup, back to chalk.
 
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frnash

Active member
tomx said:
… a pencil could be considered a deadly weapon.
Click to expand...
A pencil could indeed be considered a weapon.
Some clown in my English class in elementary school reached over and held a pencil under another student's corporeal sitting-down apparatus as that student was sitting down.
Yes it did cause injury to the victim!
 
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skutr

New member
yamahauler said:
now it's dry erase, with boards that when you write on them, you can then print what you wrote on the board...kinda cool actually.

Oh wait, then you have the huffers...sniffers...whatever you call them...yup, back to chalk.
Click to expand...

Nope - can't use chalk. The dust is a respiratory hazard. Oh wait - yes you can use chalk, but you must use a damp cloth to erase the board and then dispose of the used cloth and any excess liquid in accordance with federal, state and local regulations.
 
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yamahauler

Active member
skutr said:
Nope - can't use chalk. The dust is a respiratory hazard. Oh wait - yes you can use chalk, but you must use a damp cloth to erase the board and then dispose of the used cloth and any excess liquid in accordance with federal, state and local regulations.
Click to expand...


lol
 
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