… before she does something stupid like this … and gets sent off to Gitmo by even more stupid people …
OCALA, Fla. (AP) – Marion County school officials say they seized a 4-1/2 inch steak knife from a 10-year-old student. She was using the knife to cut her steak. She is facing a felony charge of bringing a weapon to school.
School employees at Sunrise Elementary School told Marion County sheriff’s deputies the girl was eating lunch and using the knife to cut her steak when she was spotted by two school officials. They took the knife away from her.
The sheriff’s office says the student told deputies she brought the knife to school so she could use it for her lunch.
Several students told the deputy the girl never tried to hurt or threatened anyone with the knife. The girl was arrested on the felony charge and transported to the Juvenile Assessment Center.
Kevin Christian, spokesman for Marion County Public Schools, says the district : “has zero tolerance for weapons on school grounds.”
Would Mr Christian like to provide the public with a definition of what Marion County Public Schools considers a “:weapon”? Because I’m pretty sure I didn’t buy my steak knives at the Weapons Dept. at Target.
Now, yes, this was stupid, and unsafe of the girl. At age 10, she should be smarter than this.
(Side note: steak in the school cafeteria? Or was it leftovers? What’s with that?)
But to arrest her on a felony charge, and send her to Juvie — and, probably suspending her for some prolonged period of time — is just goofy.
UPDATE: According to this story:
a. It was indeed leftovers from home.
b. The parents couldn’t be reached, at which point the arrest and transportation took place.
d. She has indeed been suspended for ten days. Which I’m sure will teach her many valuable lessons, except, of course, what she could be learning at school.
It’s still not a “weapon,” either in use or in origin.
UPDATE: The school board is reconsidering its “zero tolerance” policy. Though one board member suggested that while some steak-knife-toting students might be innocent eaters of steak, others might be more sinister. “Yes, in this case, there was no intent, but how do we know that for sure?” Um … you use your best judgment? Like, y’know, adults do?
Meanwhile, the School Board will have to decide whether the girl’s being sent off to an alternative school. Swell. That’ll teach that little terrorist to eat the leftover steak!
This happens at least once a year in some school district somewhere in the country.
Here in Colorado a few years back a girl was arrested and suspended for bringing a knife to cut her fruit with.
Again, Zero Tolerance struck, and the girl was another victim of “We must do something to protect the children!”…and not thinking trough the consequences of such an action.
One of these days the stupid parents that insist that these laws be passed will figure out what “Zero” means and go back the way things use to be before the stupid struck the country and look at things with a case by case situation.
Personally I hope that this is a learning opportunity and the girl gets to spend some quality time in jail and the parents get to dish out for quantity cash dollars for legal fees, the school board gets sued for doing what the parents all wanted to have done to begin with….after all…Zero Tolerance.
Or gee…maybe there was something about Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth leaves everyone blind and toothless.
“She has indeed been suspected for ten days.”
I suspect you meant suspend…
🙂
Now *that* would be a reasonable suspicion.