Category: Dumbing down America

Anal school rules broom 6-year-old for knife, fork, and spoon

So now a public school district, in its infinite wisdom, has kicked out a six-year-old cub scout because he brought his camp eating utensil to school.

It's a weapon, gasp school officials, referring to a fork, knife and spoon set.

Europeans may be right. Americans are losing our edge.

The ousted student, Zachary Christie, wanted to show pals his new Cub Scout widget. But district rules seem to equate to equate a knife, fork and spoon with, say, the high powered pistols used at the Virginia Tech campus shootings.

Zero Tolerance. No automatic pistols, no handgrenade, no knife, fork and spoon.

Nevermind the effect of an unfair suspension or expulsion on Zachary. It's the same rule that got a little girl broomed from school because her grandmother sent her class with a cake, and a knife to cut it.

Exactly when did we lose common sense? I'm not sure. But I'm fairly certain absentee parenting and U.S. public education had something to do with it over the years -- not teaching critical thinking, or much else worthwhile for that matter, if student test scores are any indication. Generally speaking, of course. Some of my best friends are K-12 teachers.

K-12, and college to some extent, has become something of a warehouse. A place to stash offspring while they take an ungodly amount of time to grow up.

My dad gave me a pocket knife when I joined Cub Scouts, at age 8. I've carried pocket knives for decades and have cut neither myself nor anyone else. A useful everyday tool. Millions of others use one, too. Perfectly safe activity. Scouting used to teach knife safety, and I suppose they still do.

In Zachary's case, anal-retentative school rules projected unreasonable adult fears on a decent kid. A knife, fork and spoon is, per se, not threatening. Nor is Zachary.

In meting out punishments, how about considering Zachary's intent? Does anybody give a kid a break anymore? In the real world, the one removed from school board meetings, you can even kill somebody and not serve a day in day in jail. Self-defense is accepted as necessary from time to time. Intent counts.

And this from the New York Times: There's no evidence that Zero Tolerance makes schools safer.

Here for story.

And here for a website to free Zachary Christie.