A defining, life-changing moment in a model student's life!

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8845676/

What a crock.  I still see males around here wearing coolats pretending they are shorts.  They could hide enough weapons in those things to arm a small army.

Then this girl gets tagged with no previous history for a lunch box with a small knife in it.  If this picture is accurate, that school needs to grow a brain.  Maybe higher education means the principal is smoking in the office and not tobacco.

They really need to learn the difference between kitchen utensils and weapons.  IDIOTS.

that poor kid. Hopefully someone with a brain will figure it out that it was a mistake.... I fear the damage is all ready done though.
;)

As a former superintendent, I fought against these stupid "zero tolerance" rules.  In my current capacity as headmaster and principal of a private school, I have managed to keep the board out of the zero tolerance business.

There are some odd things about the case in question; perhaps it is faulty reading on my part; but I saw no where that the parents had appealed the case to the board or to the district court.  Although I do not agree with federal courts being involved, I do know from bitter experience that federal courts could be involved because the young lady is a protected class and her expulsion is denying her a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), unless the online courses are the districts remedy.

Were the case taken to state court, which would be the proper venue, I would argue reasonableness, i.e. the punishment - a year's expulsion - zero tolerance not withstanding, was not reasonably applied to a pin knife inadvertently brought to school.

I would like to know more facts about this case.

The pics I saw showed a small paring knife, EXACTLY the sort of thing you'd use to strip the skin off an apple, as her father claims he does every day.

What is FAPE? Never heard of it.

Schools are out of control, this idiotic exercise with the "knife"and the post the other day about the kid arrested for using a magic marker?

What the hell is going on?


Billy

One of my favorite stories from the Christmas season of 2010... High school kids busted for handing out those deadly candy canes.

It seems that in Haymarket, VA, candy canes are potential weapons because they can be "sharpened using the tongue" and be employed as daggers.

Now, I'll admit that there are accounts that these kids may have conducted themselves with a lack of decorum. But STABBING devices made of tongue-whipped candy canes!?

My guess is that the old Pop-Sicle stick carefully honed to an arrow point on the concrete sidewalks of my youth is likely to be banned too.

Holy shit.

Here's the whole tale: http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=126671&catid=188

You guys have to keep in mind that public education professionals above the level of school principal don't have a real job. They may be all sorts of busy but a school needs a superintendent - sorry Berggie - about as much as a horse needs a fifth leg.

So you've got this whole crowd of quite well paid people whose only real job is hanging onto their jobs. Since they don't get a nickel extra for doing a good job educating kids their only professional motivation is to hang onto those jobs. Zero tolerance, to these folks, looks like a godsend because all they have to do is stick to the letter of the law and they're safe.

No fooling around with judgment calls. No hoping things will work out. There are rules and as long as you stick like glue to them you're just that much closer to making it safely to retirement.

Arpad, is this your long-winded way of describing that school principal in Virginia as an asshole?
:P :P :P :P Say yes, say yes, say yes, say yes.......

Quote from: tbone0106 on December 29, 2010, 05:40:25 PM
Arpad, is this your long-winded way of describing that school principal in Virginia as an asshole?
:P :P :P :P Say yes, say yes, say yes, say yes.......

Nope. The principal may or may not be an asshole. I don't really know. What I do know is that the public education system doesn't reward competence and when you can't get credit for doing your job well what's left but to try to hold onto your job?

Quote from: arpad on December 29, 2010, 05:30:06 PM
You guys have to keep in mind that public education professionals above the level of school principal don't have a real job. They may be all sorts of busy but a school needs a superintendent - sorry Berggie - about as much as a horse needs a fifth leg.

So you've got this whole crowd of quite well paid people whose only real job is hanging onto their jobs. Since they don't get a nickel extra for doing a good job educating kids their only professional motivation is to hang onto those jobs. Zero tolerance, to these folks, looks like a godsend because all they have to do is stick to the letter of the law and they're safe.

No fooling around with judgment calls. No hoping things will work out. There are rules and as long as you stick like glue to them you're just that much closer to making it safely to retirement.

That is quite alright.  I am very used to the insults, warranted in most cases!

Quote from: arpad on December 29, 2010, 05:51:47 PM
Nope. The principal may or may not be an asshole. I don't really know. What I do know is that the public education system doesn't reward competence and when you can't get credit for doing your job well what's left but to try to hold onto your job?

Shit.

You were supposed to say 'yes.'

Quote from: tbone0106 on December 29, 2010, 07:17:23 PM
Shit.

You were supposed to say 'yes.'

Arpad attempts to drown his kittens in the warmest of milk! ;D

Quote from: Berggeist on December 29, 2010, 07:19:37 PM
Arpad attempts to drown his kittens in the warmest of milk! ;D

:D :D

And Berg bops his beloved victims around with the softest of kid gloves...
;D ;D

I guess you guys can take comfort from the fact that between mocking dismissal and imperturbable condescension you've bracketed the responses to criticism of the public education system.

On the one hand we have tbone's response which is that of someone who understands nothing can really be done so the only response to someone who is a bit passionate on the issue, which puts your apathy in high relief, is mockery.

On the other hand we have Berggie whose long since lost the ability to give credence to anyone else's point of view which is the response of a long-time monopolist to disagreement.

Who cares about criticism of the public education system, especially if it falls outside the bounds of the few criticisms that are allowed? The public education system is forever. It's as much a feature of landscape as the Rocky Mountains. No amount of discussion is going to make them go away and no amount of discussion is going to make the public education system go away.

By the way Berggie, care to speculate about the impact of charter schools on the public education system? As a former superintendent.