According to the New York Times (and I saw this on yahoo news too), Zachary Christie, a six year old, was suspended from going to school in the Christina School District, Delaware, for bringing a camping utensil to school. Zachary had gotten a multi-tool from his boy scouts group and was excited to eat using said tool at school. Unfortunately, the tool is also a fork and a knife, which caused the boy to get suspended. His school district employs a zero tolerance policy on weapons.
However, where do you draw the line at zero tolerance? Apparently, Zachary's mom draws it far away from her son's action, since she feels it is absolutely ridiculous. Lawmakers are also scrambling on young Zachary's case, since they have been trying to make this zero tolerance policy dependent on a "case to case" basis. Last year, another girl was suspended since her grandma sent her to school with a knife, with the intent to KILL. Just kidding, it was for a cake that her grandmother made. Apparently the teacher had first used the knife to cut the cake, then called the principle to get this girl suspended (presumbly using one hand to fork a huge piece of cake and the other to complain to the principle about the tremendous danger of this generous girl).
Although this seems very unfair especially to our nation's very young people, it is not unjustified. Many incidences of school dangers have occurred very recently. Columbine, Virginia Tech and our very own Hillsdale High School. Although many people doubt that these small toddlers are insane and capable to bringing guns to school and shooting up the place, it is nevertheless, better to be safe than sorry.
However, I do think that a case to case basis should be considered, since it is really not fair to six year olds who probably do not even know of things like Columbine or Virginia Tech. Now, poor Zachary has to get home schooled, which may not be a bad thing, but is nevertheless missing his experiences of being a young student. If you want to help out Zachary, or find out more from his mother's side, click here.
Where do you draw the line?
-Henry Zhang
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15 comments:
Well you're talking about a six-year old who was just excited about bringing a food utensil to school...easily understandable. Its not as if the kid was threatening anyone at the school right? If the school is so strict on weapons they might as well ban forks and staplers because you can still hurt people with those too.
Although you have to admit, the knife part of the camping tool might freak some teachers out.
I read this too! We should draw the line on sharp pencils. xD. Lets all just type our way through school or photograph it in my fifth period class' case.
I don't think that it was right of them to suspend a kid who is obviously just excited about his new spoon/fork/?. A better alternative is to state in a handbook that these things are not allowed. This reminds me of ex post facto laws. ;(. For those that don't remember, those laws made acts punishable as a crime even if the action was legal at the time it was committed. Bringing a fork & spoon to school I believe is legal?
OK! WATCH THIS! I think that we don't realize how dangerous schools really are... If these are ten third graders in elementary school, then what about ten, far more capable, seniors in high school?!!
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AsSeenOnGMA/story?id=4602938&page=1&page=1
Well, the kid did bring a knife to school when the school's zero tolerance policies were in full play. However, he realize what he was doing was wrong, and it is really hard to draw the line this issue. I mean the kid did bring the tool only for the eating utensils, so I feel that there should be a "case by case" basis regarding the tolerance policies. However, I do see where the school officials are coming from when they suspended Zachary.
-Henry Zhang
I Think This Is SOOOOOOO the moms Fault (well not really) There was a zero tollerance policy at the school and it was a knife on it soo that sucks for henery. P.S why would anone give a six year old anything with a knife attached to it HES FRIKING SIX!!! If I was that Kids mom i would have never thought about the knife but i would think that my son just got this and i wouldnt want him to lose it so he should have left it at home. but it is Delaware what else is there to do but join the scouts.
Hmm I understand suspension if its like for a day ...really what serious damage is a SIX YEAR OLD CHILD going to do
I remember in my elementary school they used to give us plastic knives when we were eating lunches. That's strange.... Well obviously things like knives in a school are always a bad thing and the student should always be subject to some sort of discipline. As for the case with the girl with the cake, obviously that grandma should have known better to begin with. However, I do feel like there should be some sort of leeway in these cases. Obviously Zachary did not have any malicious intents, but the fact is that he still brought a knife, something that can be used as a potential weapon, to school. Even if he was just planning on using the knife to eat, what if it fell into the hands of someone else? I agree with this zero tolerance policy, but I feel like administrators should be a little more lenient with their discipline. An action like Zachary's is subject so some sort of discipline but suspension seems a little too far. Administrators should consider the circumstances before administering the punishment and grant some sort of leniency.
Whoops i forgot to leave my name for the previous comment
-Michael Chan
The Zero-Tolerance policy most schools have was obviously instated with the intention of doing good. However, suspending a six year old for inadvertently bringing a small knife to school seems a bit ridiculous. I think instances like these make a "case to case" policy much more appealing than a complete zero tolerance policy.
On the other hand, I do agree with Amanda that the Zero-Tolerance policy is pretty well known and the mom should have thought about said policy before sending her 6 year old to school with, what I am assuming is, something along the lines of a swiss army knife. Because the policy is so obvious and clear, I'm afraid I agree that Henry and his parents are just going to have to deal with the suspension (whether it was truly merited or not).
Um...regarding the post, the little boy's name is Zachary. Some of you wrote my name. I don't know if that is a typo or it was just not clear.
-Henry Zhang
A case by case basis, although sounds appealing, is just too much trouble to actually try and implement. The point of zero tolerance policy is to prevent any kind of violence from happening, even if it means a couple of kids getting in trouble for bringing small things to school.
It's easy to get outraged over a ridiculous story as this and start calling for a more lenient policy, but it's also easy to get outraged over a story where some kid brings a knife to school and slits his/her teacher's throat. Which story would you rather have happen?
Francis Wang
To everyone who says we should review each case individually:
"Education experts say that zero-tolerance policies initially allowed authorities more leeway in punishing students, but were applied in a discriminatory fashion. Many studies indicate that African-Americans were several times more likely to be suspended or expelled than other students for the same offenses.
“The result of those studies is that more school districts have removed discretion in applying the disciplinary policies to avoid criticism of being biased,” said Ronnie Casella, an associate professor of education at Central Connecticut State University who has written about school violence."
Right from the article. It's hard to believe a kid would bring a butter knife to school to kill everyone, but there is reason to think that bias will take place if the cases are reviewed individually.
I am pretty sure a young little six year old is incapable of having killing intent. Although it is true that school have to be extra cautious. scenarios such as this one and the girl with the cake and knife are ridiculous.
There are also other "weapons" that are already present at school. A ruler, a stapler and even a mechanical pencil can be used as weapons why should a multi purpose spoon be any different.
I'm sorry, but really people?! You suspend a child because he has a camping utensil?
Yes, I understand that peopel are on edge because of the attacks that have happened at school, but he's a freakin' first grader!! CHILL!
All they had to do was explain to him why he shouldn't bring it to school. Suspension is a little much.
Although there may be chances of six year olds coming to school and shooting up the place, c'mon really? Besides, giving such a severe punishment to a child puts the school image in the garbage and gives said child at least some emotional harm. I feel that there should be a case to case basis, even though it might put the school at a little more danger of a homicidal first grader.
-Henry Zhang
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