Some Things Are Just Too Outragious To Ignore

This story in the NYT left me momentarily speechless, then I found my tongue. Zachary Christie was suspended from his school in Newark, Delaware.

“Zachary’s offense? Taking a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary was suspended and now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.”
See the entire article here: It’s a Fork, It’s a Spoon, It’s a… Weapon?

Really? REALLY?? When zero-tolerance turns to idiocy, someone needs to think again. As an alumnus of Virginia Tech, I understand the concern over weapons at school, but when a 6 year old faces 45 days in reform school for being so excited about his new camping utensil that he brings it to school to use at lunch, something is amiss. Are school employees really so inept that they can’t be given leeway to use common sense in such situations? And if they are that inept, why are they responsible for children in the first place?

“For Delaware, Zachary’s case is especially frustrating because last year state lawmakers tried to make disciplinary rules more flexible by giving local boards authority to, ‘on a case-by-case basis, modify the terms of the expulsion.’

“The law was introduced after a third-grade girl was expelled for a year because her grandmother had sent a birthday cake to school, along with a knife to cut it. The teacher called the principal — but not before using the knife to cut and serve the cake.

“In Zachary’s case, the state’s new law did not help because it mentions only expulsion and does not explicitly address suspensions. A revised law is being drafted to include suspensions.”

Have we made so many laws in knee-jerk reactions to horrible events that we have boxed ourselves into a corner and have to make more laws just to get out? If we have hired capable people, can’t we just depend on them to make intelligent decisions? Because all of these laws don’t seem to be slowing the tide of school shootings, they are just sending innocent 6 year olds to reform school (or homeschool in this case, since Zachary’s mom had the sense to pull him out of school).

Zachary’s mom has set up a website to recruit supporters of overturning the law (unfortunately the server seems to be overwhelmed since the NYT article ran, but I’m listing it here because I’m sure it will come back up eventually):
http://www.helpzachary.com/