Remember this “man”?  Some kid named Zachary?  He was sent to “reform school” for bringing some camping gear completre with spoons and everything else.  ……

I would that nowould think that no child of his age is even legally liable for what he does.

What I meant…

As a former police officer and firsthand witness to the juvenile system in Hawaii, I will be struck by lightning if this child spends one second in reform school.

He has been inappropriately punished enough already.

I think school policies to keep weapons out of schools are okay, but they should not be directed at children of his age at all. As a matter of fact, I would that no child of his age is even legally liable for what he does. For example, in Hawaii, a child is not legally liable until he/she is 7 years old (which is still too damn young in my view).

I’m seriously tempted to by a box of these and hand them out on Halloween. Sheesh…
SPCOlympics on October 13, 2009 at 6:42 PM

Or, if you could find them, boxes of candy cigarettes. The horror! The horror!

When I was in school we could buy pocket knifes in the small store next door. We would carve, throw them into trees and play various knife games during recess. Many of us even sharpened pencils with them during class time. This was back in the early 1960s and I grew up just outside of Boston MA so I’m not talking about some small town in the south or mid-west.

RagTag on October 13, 2009 at 10:44 AM

I forgot about the daily game of mumbly peg.

The school where my wife teaches would have to send 3/4 of the kids to reform school. She teaches in a rural school where almost all the kids carry small pocket knives. When deer season comes around, the school is a ghost town since most of the older children are out hunting with either Mom or Dad.

Torch on October 13, 2009 at 10:27 AM

Somewhat similar situation when I was in high school, 30someodd years ago.

Except we didn’t take hunting season off, we just hunted before school, then drove our vehicles to school. Weapons and all!

Kids driving trucks with gun racks. Firearms in full view.

Occasionally a teacher would notice, ask us to retreive the firearm, and proceed to admire, or critique, our choices!

Even when hunting season was over, there were still .22s and various other plinkers and “snake guns” there too.

I’d like to invent a time machine, transport the zero tolerance proponents back to my school parking lot in December 1975, and watch heads explode.

We’re raising a generation of major pu…wusses.

In what industry would you expect a lot of cars with both “free mumia” and “jail Bush” bumper stickers?

Academia.

Explains it all – they don’t just lack judgment, they’re against it.

Merovign on October 14, 2009 at 12:30 AM

except of ‘conservatives’…

Academia.

Explains it all – they don’t just lack judgment, they’re against it.

What were they thinking, sending their six year old child to school with a knife? Were they trying to terrorize the entire school?

Do the parents hate black kids and want to show their racism?

Everyone knows that this was an unprovoked attack by a racist white family and their racist white child against innocent, non-violent, pacifist black children, Muslims, and homosexuals.

The kid should be charged with a hate crime, and so should the parents of the kid!

The parents should get the death penalty, and the kid should go to a maximum security prison for hardened criminals. The other prisoners should be protected from such a dangerous felon as this six year old racist, violent, hate filled psychopath who clearly entered the school with weapons in order to slaughter the entire school, killing as many kids, teachers, and others, as he could, before turning the weapon on himself in a final blaze of glory!

Clearly the kid wanted to make a name for himself and to mark his place in history, outperforming the attacks in Littleton, Colorado, and VA Tech and the Long Island railroad attack – Oh, Wait! The Long Island Railroad attack never took place. Blacks don’t do things like that. Only white racist haters with guns go out in public and kill people!

Just send the kid to life in prison at Folsom, or some other nasty place, perhaps even SuperMax in Colorado, and protect the other inmates from this scourge on society, for the other inmates will be in grave danger.

Better not drop the soap in the shower of this six year old terrorist will rip you a new one!

Death penalty for those horrible parents, and life in prison – maximum security – for the demonic kid!

I have more trust in the average Cub Scout with a knife than in the average teacher with a piece of chalk.

Russ on October 13, 2009 at 4:54 PM

or a politician with my tax dollars….

The real problem is hinted at in the NYT article:
““The result of those studies is that more school districts have removed discretion in applying the disciplinary policies to avoid criticism of being biased”

Again white children have to suffer because spineless politicians & public officials won’t admit the truth, do what’s right and fight these nuisance complaints. White parents need to trash their “white guilt” and insist on protecting their own children from such cowardly policies and blacks need to stop acting, as a group, like adversaries to non-blacks.

Before they had a chance to speak, the board voted unanimously to change its zero tolerance policy, meaning Zachary can return to school.

“Barack Hussein Obama…”
“M-m-m-m-m m-m-m-m-m m-m-m-m-m…”

“CASE DISMISSED! REFORM SCHOOL NOT REQUIRED!”

But it’s different here
Canadian Infidel on October 13, 2009 at 7:52 PM

My guess is that political correctness has not struck yet. I long for those days.

The first time I saw them, I was really surprised. REALLY SURPRISED. Seeing 10 year olds with box cutters at school was kind of shocking. But it’s different here. It’s not like Detroit where my mother was from. Kids walk through the streets coming home from school 11:00 PM at night. I see girls walking alone and think, if this was Detroit, you would be in such danger. Here, it’s 11:00 at night, and you see kids playing in the parks.

By the way, I’m staying here until the Messiah heals the world. I’m Canadian and American but South Korea looks really good.

highhopes on October 13, 2009 at 7:38 PM

Of course the zero tolerance policies are stupid, but do you think Zach’s parents were ignorant of the zero tolerance policies?

I got a pocketknife on my sixth birthday. Nobody gave me a talk on anything, as I already had enough common sense to handle a knife by then.

Vashta.Nerada on October 13, 2009 at 3:05 PM

I got a knife when I was seven, but it came with rules. I taught my 10 year old nephew to shoot a 22 rifle recently, and believe me there were rules. He’s a pretty good shot by the way. I don’t think that I’d ever attempt to teach a child how to use any tool without rules, and I’ve never met a 6 year old that can be trusted to use (and take care of) a sharp blade without some instruction.

warden on October 13, 2009 at 7:23 PM

Zero tolerance rules need to be created with common sense in mind. In some areas there shouldn’t be any latitude like getting caught with illegal drugs. In other areas there shouldn’t be hard in fast rules where little Zach is forced to go to reform school for behavior problem children. Imagine convicted of a “level III” infraction at the age of six! A felon before the second grade without, apparently, any sort of appeal process other than the public outrage that might change the rule. It’s completely absurd.

I’ll end with the wise words Russ provided: ‘I have more trust in the average Cub Scout with a knife than in the average teacher with a piece of chalk.’

Sucks to be you.

BobMbx on October 13, 2009 at 4:29 PM

You’re not a fan of personal responsibility? The true conservative response here is to lobby to change the stupid rule. Not to try to shield the parents or the child of responsibility for breaking said stupid rule. Everyone has heard stories about these moronic zero tolerance rules for years. You are an incompetent parent if you don’t make it clear to your kids that “you’ll get in big trouble if you bring this to school.”