Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School officials have supplied yet another example of blind mindless application of policies. They has suspended a student for having a broken pencil sharpener.
The boy — a fourth-grader had no criminal intent and merely brought a broke sharpener to school. Officials in South Carolina treated the exposed razor as a weapon.
For the full story, click here.
I have to agree with activecatalyst on this one. The story gives us no indication that the boy brought the blade for the purpose of doing evil things with it. Fedup in SC, how is this related to 9/11? The bad decision is yours in trying to connect this situation to a terrorist activity. The only thing that was done wrong here is the over reaction by the school officials. They have the ability to remove the “offensive” sharpener and could have spoken to the child and maybe his parents and it could have easily been dealt with in that manner. Suspending a good student and not allowing him/her to come to school is admitting that we don’t have a clue on how to correct this situation in a way that keeps all students in the school. The suspension is the easy way out for the administrators.
Personally, I am fed up with hearing people using the Bush talking point,”in a post 9/11 world”. The talking point that this country needs is “in a post George W. Bush world”! Stop inventing boogie men and attempting to link situations to 9/11.
Fed up in SC: “I really wish that everyone would quit assuming that everything they read is true.”
Gladly. I’ll start by assuming you’re full of it.
Do you believe that the Hilton Head school is devoid of anything in everyday use that could conceivably be used as a weapon by one child to bully another?
Are you in favor of allowing children to use *unbroken* pencil sharpeners in school? If so, how do you propose to prevent dastardly 4th-graders from ducking into a bathroom stall, dismantling their evil pencil sharpener and thereby producing a weapon of mass bullying?
Finally, you neglected to state what evidence you are privy to that makes you think that the boy is not a “good student”. How do you know better than assistant principal Bratt?
So, do they play baseball during recess at this school?
Baseball bats make pretty good weapons, so I guess they’re banned. Maybe they use nerf bats.
Ladies & Gents:
Let me assure you that this story though based on a police report, was not correct. I really wish that everyone would quit assuming that everything they read is true. I applaud this district and administration for their decision and I think if you really think about it you should too.
Ask yourself: What would have happened if this boy decided to bully someone with that blade? An entirely different story, truth-be-told, but we hold teachers and school administrators responsible for students safety and then when they do their best to make sure they are safe, we throw them to the dogs? Seriously? Can we really afford to do that in a post 9/11, post Columbine, post VT world?
The teacher and the assistant principal involved in this situation did not ask for their entire week to be ruined because of this boys bad choice. Let me remind you that all of this HOPLA is over a 10 year old boys bad choice. He dismantled a pencil sharpener (AT home) then brought the blade to school (not the other pieces) then decided to play with it during instruction. The teacher then had to stop instruction to deal with the situation. No this boy is not innocent, he isn’t exactly what I would call a “good student” either.
I wish adults AND PARENTS would stop defending children for their bad choices, and actually PUNISH THEM for them for their mistakes. Maybe then we wouldn’t have the need for Safe School Acts or zero tolerance policies.
Thank you for your time.
I’m for sending my kids to that school. Apparently they have absolutely no real problems there if they can waste time on this nonsense.
We don’t want them reading any of those evolution type books, that’s for sure. He might even question his religion at that point!
It’s good they caught this fledgling terrorist. If left unstopped, he might have used a sharpened pencil to write an essay. From there, it’s only a matter of time until he turns to reading books. Then he might actually start questioning what he reads. Such a person would be dangerous, indeed.
I thought the kid seemed pretty sharp.
IL,
I am not sure that the kids even know what a “shank” is. I would be more worried about the plastic rulers being shaved to a point and used to attack the lunch ladies!
Thanks for the link Bob. I’ll read it.
I see now that this is a dangerous website. 1L has given children the blueprints for national security mayhem in the classroom. Some people fail to accord the pope or a certain judge his proper respect. Humph!
The most ridiculous part of this story has got to be the name of that school.
Jill,
ACLU v. National Security Agency: Why the “State Secrets Privilege” Shouldn’t Stop the Lawsuit Challenging Warrantless Telephone Surveillance of Americans
By JOHN W. DEAN
http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/dean/20060616.html
Of particular interest is the segment: “State Secrets: A Privilege Born on the Lips of a Lie”
1L:
“True, but had it been a functioning pencil sharpener, he probably would have just used it to turn otherwise harmless pencils into makeshift shanks. Nice catch.”
Seems to me a sharpened pencil would do far deeper/greater damage than a short razor.
Our post 911 “not so brave new world”.
This story doesn’t go here but I think it may be of interest to many. It’s from today’s Salon.
“Sept. 12, 2008 | For almost three years now, the Bush administration has insisted that the nation’s security depends on keeping secret a part of its war on terror that was first exposed in the media back in 2005: its extralegal spying inside the United States. Bush lawyers have relied on the state secrets privilege to block numerous lawsuits challenging the administration’s reported spying on Americans and others without warrants, claiming that even to acknowledge such allegations would put the country’s security in jeopardy.
A cornerstone case in this legal battle is that of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation Inc., an Oregon-based charity group, in which there appears to be the most known evidence of such spying. And, as it turns out, one need look no further than the FBI’s official Web site to find irrefutable evidence that surveillance of the group occurred — and that the government’s persistent claims of maintaining secrecy about it have been spurious.a”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/09/12/surveillance_alharamain/index.html?source=newsletter
Well said Pvt. Carry on!
“Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.”
—Douglas Bader
HHI school administrators are to be commended for their quick witted initiative in exploiting an unforseen opportunity to provide this youngster with a valuable “real world” lesson in the actual operation of contemporary American institutions.
It’s officials like this who’ve made America the nation it is today.
True, but had it been a functioning pencil sharpener, he probably would have just used it to turn otherwise harmless pencils into makeshift shanks. Nice catch.
This is downright crazy. These school administrators must be held accountable, if for no other reason but to be an example of what happens when the school world goes nuts. They are not only putting this student through something that is unfair and unnecessary, they are wasting time and energy and money that could be spent better to keep the school safe from real threats.