Thursday, December 30, 2010

A paring knife?

I've been reading about this high-school senior who was suspended during her senior year for possession of a paring knife at her high school.

A paring knife? Really? That's idiotic. The administrators at that school should be suspended. Indefinitely. Pending termination. If they are unable to distinguish between a real threat and a paring knife in a lunchbox, then they have no business teaching students.

I work in a high school and while we don't want students stabbing or slicing each other, you've got to understand that a sharpened piece of steel is not necessarily a weapon.

Matter of fact, just last month, a parent approached me all in a tizzy. "There's a knife laying on the sidewalk in front of the school."

I didn't want to look at the parent with disbelief and say, "So, who gives a shit?" but that's exactly what I was thinking. I went outside and sure enough, found a knife on the sidewalk. A cheap paring knife. A cheap, dull, paring knife.

I took it into the principal's office and dropped it in the trash can.

4 comments:

Old NFO said...

Zero tolerance=100% stupidity on the part of schools/administrators...

Termite said...

I have a question that maybe you can answer, Pawpaw: Exactly how are the HS graphics arts students supposed to cut out and trim their class projects, if the teacher is not allowed to let them use Xacto cutters/knives?
Inquiring minds want to know.

I swear, nearly no teachers/administrators in elementary/secondary education have "horse sense" any more.

JPG said...

Oh, my! Don't you just LOVE it when some low level functionary gets to exercise some of their limited power? I think "Zero Tolerance" is mainly a way to avoid the need to THINK. And the low level etc. gets to say, "No, see - - I'm being even-handed and applying the rules across the board. No favoritism here!" So, he/she doesn't need to weigh all the factors and exercise that ever-rarer commodity, JUDGEMENT.

But, why is it that the real trouble makers are seldom confronted? Why are those who suffer the "even-handedness" of ZT so often the pretty good kids who have a minor, non harmful, lapse of judgement?

JimB said...

Too many people consumed by PSH (Pants $hitting Hysteria)over the smallest thing. We are becoming a nation of wimps and fools.