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Title: 12-Year-Old Suspended for a Year After Turning in Knife He Found—It Wasn't Even His
Source:
Reason
URL Source: https://reason.com/blog/2016/09/20/ ... d-suspended-for-a-year-after-t
Published: Sep 20, 2016
Author: Robby Soave
Post Date: 2016-09-22 05:37:44 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 5774
Comments: 55
Twelve-year-old Kyler Davies found a knife in a leather case inside his backpack. He hadn't put it there—his mother bought the bag from Goodwill, and suspects it had been there all along. Kyler was at school—Coldwater Community Schools in Branch County, Michigan—when he discovered the knife. He promptly told a counselor about it. He was suspended for one full year. School officials later decreased the duration of his suspension to 30 days, according to wwmt.com: The issue wasn't just contained to the classroom; it also spilled over on to the football field. Davies tells us the school tried to keep her son from playing football. "The school told me he could not go on their property, he could not play; he can't ride the bus with his team because it's a Coldwater bus," she said. We spoke with Coldwater Rocket Football, the organization that runs the local football program. It is independent of the district and tells us the school wanted the rocket program to kick Kyler off the team, but they refused. Emphasis mine. The school is certainly going to extraordinary lengths to punish a child who did absolutely nothing wrong. On the contrary, he did the right thing. We want kids to feel comfortable talking to adults about difficult or dangerous circumstances. They should feel like they can trust their teachers and counselors. Coldwater is sending the opposite message. The school is teaching children that if they find a knife in school, they should keep it to themselves or pass it off to someone else. Nobody wants to be suspended for weeks for something that wasn't their fault. There's no upside to overreacting about weapons in schools. It's not as if failing to sufficiently punish Kyler is going to result in a sudden increase in knives appearing in backpacks. Coldwater officials have made a really stupid mistake here—no doubt thanks to the district's zero tolerance policy toward weapons. 
Screenshot via WWMT.com
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
The school officials are obviously STUPID !
Bullshit. The kid gets a backpack and doesn't check it out? If nothing else, to see if the previous owner left anything inside -- maybe money? Then he loads it with books and school supplies and still doesn't notice the knife? Something isn't right.
Bullshit. The kid turned the knife in, and you want to see him suspended from school? You zero-tolerance fascists are despicable.
He brought a knife to school. He was suspended for 30 days. Seems fair. Had he found the knife on the playground and turned it in, that would be different.
#5. To: misterwhite (#4)
(Edited)
He didn't know it was in the backpack you blithering ninny.
Your displayed lack of common sense strains believability. You have bragged about how harsh prison sentences are needed to send the right message. What kind of message does it send to suspend a student for 30 days because he voluntarily reported a knife he accidentally brought to school? The inane message being broadcast by the school authorities is that any student who turns in a knife will be suspended. So if anyone else should accidentally bring one to school, he should either keep it hidden and take it back home, or perhaps hide it somewhere, maybe throw it in the bathroom trash, the latter solution being the worst, as then some other student will find it which will, quite naturally, cause him to turn into a raving lunatic and start attacking everyone he sees. Because that's what knives do. And if a student finds one in the playground, do you really think the smart thing to do will be to pick it up and turn it in? Hell no! A student doing that will be seen by other students in the school on his way to the principal's office and would be stopped by a teacher before he gets there, and then who's gonna believe him when he says he found it in the playground? And even if they did, they'll admonish him for picking it up and bringing it into the building and suspend him for a few months or a year. And don't even try to stupidly pretend that wouldn't happen. If you're going to say that bringing knives to school should be prohibited (something I myself certainly did, openly, with a retractable knife in a belt looped sheath when I was in high school) then fine, whatever. But it should also come with an amnesty program where anyone voluntarily turning in a knife is not punished. Otherwise, you encourage students who accidentally bring knives to school to keep them hidden or place them in the trash or elsewhere, which is NOT supposed to be what's encouraged.
I'm going to take a wild guess that you're among the suburban pussy herd for whom it was never common to see shotguns in the gun racks of trucks in the school parking lot during goose / duck / pheasant season.... Run along now and obey your masters. They might not feed you otherwise!
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest" Coldwater officials have made a really stupid mistake here—no doubt thanks to the district's zero tolerance policy toward weapons. "
#2. To: Stoner (#1)
"Twelve-year-old Kyler Davies found a knife in a leather case inside his backpack. He hadn't put it there—his mother bought the bag from Goodwill, and suspects it had been there all along."
#3. To: misterwhite (#2)
"Twelve-year-old Kyler Davies found a knife in a leather case inside his backpack. He hadn't put it there—his mother bought the bag from Goodwill, and suspects it had been there all along."
#4. To: Deckard (#3)
"The kid turned the knife in, and you want to see him suspended from school?"
Replies to Comment # 4. He brought a knife to school. He was suspended for 30 days. Seems fair.
#11. To: misterwhite (#4)
#44. To: misterwhite (#4)
He brought a knife to school. He was suspended for 30 days. Seems fair.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 4.
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