It's a knife. End of story. Regardless of the intent of the person carrying the knife it is still a kinfe. I have known someone killed during an arguement over a cannabis joint using a swiss army knife with a blade length of about 2.5 inches. The knife in question did not belong to either the killer or the boy who was killed but to another person who happened to show it off in class.

These children were 12 years old. I know this isn't the same as the six year old in the post but the fact remains. Knives are knives and there are people who will use them for the wrong reasons.

Totally agreed, but the punishment needs to fit the (intended) crime. In this case I would say, a note home to the parents and maybe one day detention. 45 days in reform school is idiotic, brainless following of the rules solely for the sake of the rules existence.

If I were to steal a CD player I would likely get a different penalty than if I stole the same value in food because my kids had nothing to eat. Why can't school officials see the same reality here?

They need bring back whipping like when I was in school. Give the kid a good beating he'll think twice before bringing dangerous lethal weapons like that in.

/sarc

Where do you draw the line though?

This kid an get away with it because he is a model pupil This kid can't because his family are known trouble makers. The third kid well we don know much about him so what do we do?


The kid I knew who stabbed one of his mates was a straight A student who had been in no trouble before and was just carried away and egged on by his peers.

This. At a high school, it's fine if half the students carry multitools with blades on them (provided they have a reason for the tools), but you can't trust very young children with knives.

And if that kid had been reprimanded once, he might not have brought it in the next time. Punishment is not based on who the kid is or what his GPA is. I would base it on how often the offense occurred. First offense, a letter and one day detention. Second offense a stronger letter and a week's detention. Third, a meeting with the parents and so on.

We don't have a kid who brought a Glock to school here. This is a f*cking 6 year old who was excited that he became a Cub Scout and got a camping kit. Please explain to me how expelling him and sticking him in juvie for 45 days will help anything at all.

People MUST use their f*cking brains before blindly following (or making) zero tolerance rules.

I'm maybe assuming too much in thinking his parents knew the rules? I also think that it should be the parents that are punished and not the child but there are rules and the rules were broken.

I don't know how things are in the states but here in the UK knife crime is at record levels and the message is pretty clear to anyone who carries a knife. You will get caught and you will face the full force of the law.

I have had to change the Multitool that I have always carried to one with a blade which is less that 2.5 inches to stay within the law. I still have the one with the 4 inch blade but there is no way I will do time for carrying it.

Boo! NY Times requires registration! Boo!

All Hail Moe. The creator of the 'we tolerate it up to a point' rule.

Sounds like a real winner. Actually, sounds more like the 'slap on the wrist' crap that drunk driving gets.

Make a rule, stick to the rule. If he carries a knife into airport security they aren't going to go "Whoops, first time!" If he carries said knife into the capitol building it's not going to be a "Haha, you're a good kid, just don't do it again."

Zero tolerance isn't something that only exists in schools. It's life.

And so what Should the rule be? "No weapons of any kind except knifes which are kinda dull which aren't really weapons and they're only ok if they are on a swiss-army setup. Guns are allowed as long as they're squirt or rubber-band guns but no BB guns (someone will complain about how BB guns don't hurt people) unless you're a good kid and are just there for show and tell in which case you are simply sent home for detention."

Or should it simply be "No weapons, no exceptions."

I would hope that when the schools instituted their zero-tolerance policies towards weapons, drugs, violence, etc, they sent notices to the parents, and that the children were required to bring those back, signed by same parents.

It's been a long time, but that's how my school made sure that our parents knew something they wanted known.

If this policy was properly communicated to the parents, then they have only themselves to blame. A knife is a knife, regardless of how long the blade is or how many other things are attached to it.

Unless you provide a list of exceptions, you're going to keep reading stories like this and the ones that have preceded it (e.g. the kid who was suspended for having a plastic knife in his lunch bag, the kids who were suspended for possessing aspirin, throat lozenges, and birth control pills, etc.).

Perhaps you should check an airport: They wouldn't send you to jail or ground you for 45 days for having a knife. They'd just take it.

Same with most city governments: They'd find it, and confiscate it. Maybe search you for more.

Which would be a perfectly fine solution for this situation, too. But 45 days punishment is definitely overkill.

Another kid in this story got the 45 day punishment because SOME OTHER kid dropped a knife in his lap. Sooooo I guess that would be warranted too, eh?

Oh but no, because it was some other kid right? But no, a rule's a rule right? No? Well where do you draw the line then?

I'll you where. You use your head. Common sense. Don't act like a robot. Don't make idiotic rules that punish the innocent. Grow up and think for once.

The kid is 6 years old. 6. All of you who say a rule is a rule...do you have kids? If so, have you never broken a rule in their presence? Are you saying that we should teach a 6 year old that everything is either black or white? If you have jaywalked or gone over the speed limit or not worn your seat belt you have probably put more people at risk then this 6 year old did.

Have any of you ever seen one of these Cub Scout spoon fork and knife mutli tools? If it's anything like the one I had as a Boy Scout and when I use to backpack then it's a freaking dinner knife. Are they not allowed to use pencils either? Seeing as how they are pointy and all I'm surprised they allow them in school. Think of the children!

The only thing zero tolerance ultimately teaches is zero tolerance. Tolerance, discretion, judgment and common sense are still considered good things in human society? Right?

Zero tolerance is just an excuse to be lazy.

So this kid brings a knife, fork and spoon he is proud of to school to eat his lunch with, and they suspend him. He's gonna miss 6 weeks out of a 40 week school year... great job of crippling his education and crushing his spirit.

Zero tolerance is a crutch for the walking brain dead so they don't have to actually do their jobs or think anything through. You can't be an authority on something if you have no power to exercise your judgement - these school officials that make these policies need to lose their jobs.

The kid's punishment has been reduced dramatically.