A student was suspended for having boxcutter in his car, violating a weapons policy.

[tannybogus]

A Blaine teenager has been suspended from school for 10 days and faces possible expulsion Monday after a box cutter was spotted in his car in the high school parking lot. Administrators invoked the school's zero-tolerance weapons policy, which allows little disciplinary leeway.

Blaine High School (MN) senior Tony Richard, 17, admits the box cutter was sitting in plain sight in the cup holder in his car in the parking lot Sept. 5. It was spotted by a security guard checking parking passes. But Richard contends that the cutter was for his after-school job on a Cub Foods clean-up crew, where his duties include cutting up cardboard boxes.

School officials didn't budge. They suspended Richard and recommended to the Anoka-Hennepin school board that he be expelled. The board will decide his fate Monday.
http://www.startribune.com/local/north/28586679.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

[barbtries]

that is going too far

give me a break. tell his parents to contact the ACLU

[Hydra]

3. I've heard of other cases of this

And generally the kids get put through the wringer.

[Hydra]

1. Keeping us safe from the terrorists

:sarcasm:

[UndertheOcean]

2. Bunch of Morons

[Wickerman]

4. I understand zero tolerance policies

and they can serve some good. However, there is no replacement for good old fashioned common sense and this is clearly lacking in this case.

[Cronus Protagonist]

15. I understand them too, and they can serve NO good.

The one or two times when something is actually prevented does NOT make the policy itself good in any way at all. A broken clock is right twice a day, but it does not serve to tell the time.

[Fuzz]

5. Zero tolerance = Zero brains

[Selatius]

6. Zero tolerance = excuse to act like a fucking bastard with the rules.

If reason were applied instead of stark terror, one might find a more appropriate measure for the crime of having a box cutter in one's own car. Unless this individual can be shown to exhibit a pattern of behavior that could lead to someone getting harmed, this is an absolute waste of resources. There are students who can't read and are falling through the cracks, yet the school would spend time and possibly money on ensuing civil litigation on issues such as this???

[hedgehog]

7. Sometimes a box cutter is just a box cutter!

[pretzel4gore]

8. 'nothing to fear but fear itself'...

who said that? Soon, we'll see citzens busted for 'making a fist'!
that's reaganomics fer ye

[MadrasT]

9. Are they going to expel kids for having pens and pencils next?

I mean, someone could poke somebody's eye out... :shrug:

If that's an accurate depiction of what happened, seems a little overboard to me.

Unless there's a published list somewhere that the school administration hands out that says, "The following items are prohibited on school property," and "Box Cutters" is an item on that list.

[holybarcode]

19. Well he's obviously a terrorist since he put it in the cup holder in plain sight

instead of under the seat.
:eyes:

[Nay]

26. They suspended my kid for having a ball point pen barrel with a BB in

it. He was waiting for me to pick him up and he was blowing the BB out, trying to hit leaves on the ground. He had a "weapon." Never mind that a spit-covered BB coming out of a pen couldn't hurt a fly.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

10. One of my workers

who had previously been busted for tagging (graffiti) was busted a second time because he had a Sharpie magic marker on him. A letter from me, his boss, describing the necessity of his possessing a Sharpie for work (lots of meat labeling in coolers) didn't help a bit.

[parasim]

11. He's a boxkiller! Lock him up and throw away the key!

Oh, those poor, poor boxes.

[tnlefty]

12. This is getting totally out of hand!

The student needed this for his job and didn't have it in the school...bullshit on this decision.

My youngest received an in school suspension and a detention for...wait for it... wearing a shirt with a collar on it (polo shirt that was within the dress code last year). I didn't have a problem with the detention, but in school suspension used to be for threatening or slightly violent behavior.

[endthewar]

13. Isn't the car a more dangerous weapon than a box cutter?

[VP505]

14. I wonder how many

box cutters, hammers, screwdrivers, awls, or any number of hand tools that could be used as a weapon the maintenance staff has in their tool boxes? Another case of inability to comprehend the intent of a rule getting in the way of sensible application of said rule

[Snotcicles]

16. What other tools can get you suspended from Blaine High? nt

[holybarcode]

20. Possession of rape tools.

:shrug:

[Swamp Rat]

17. Has Osama Bin Laden won?

:(

[TrogL]

18. A car jack handle makes a much better weapon

Are they going to ban them?

[DS1]

21. Someone should plant some box cutters on the Superintendent's kid

We'll see about this policy

[Flying Dream Blues]

22. Complete lack of critical thinking is due to our educational system and that is NO

accident.

[Initech]

23. If I were that kid, I'd be calling the ACLU ASAP!

That is a serious 4th amendment violation. Why were they searching cars in the first place?

[demigoddess]

28. we donate to the ACLU and I hope he does exactly that!!

this has gone way too far!!!!

[eppur_se_muova]

24. Mandatory sentences are just a way to pre-empt fairness and justice.

The people who enforce policies have to have *some* freedom to exercise their own judgement. Forbidding them any flexibility just guarantees more unfairness and injustice. The people who vote for "zero-tolerance" are the ones who don't mind that, because they just *know* it's never going to be applied to them.

[bertman]

25. Thank Gawd someone is saving us from that kid. He might've hijacked an airliner, or somethin'

[Beam Me Up]

27. Looks like a terrorist . . .

It's in the eyes. That bare glint of mirth.

http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/395*500/cutter0918.jpg

YES, I'm being sarcastic for Kriste sake! What a cute kid -- AND he *had* a JOB!
Good going school officials, punish a student for being responsible. :eyes:

[JesterCS]

29. Definitely Too Far

I was in electronics my Junior and Senior year in highschool.. i had all sorts of sharp objects, a soldering iron, hemostats... i could have been arrested for something im sure.