Student Suspended, Then Expelled, For Bringing Butter Knife To School

Ken McCracken • October 22, 2007

The sort of ignorant nonsense government employees get up to never ceases to amaze me.

Amber Dauge says that stupid decision was taking a butter knife to school. Amber ran out of the house to meet the bus while making a sandwich. When she realized she had the knife, she put it in her bookbag..then put it in her locker at Goose creek High school. She forgot it was there…until a few weeks later ..when the knife fell out of her overstuffed locker.
“A kid behind me yelled out a comment that I was going to stab someone with the knife and everyone started laughing and the teacher saw it”, Amber told us.
The teacher told the principal and Amber was suspended and recommended for expulsion.
She attended an expulsion hearing last Thursday..and it was made official.

Here’s the worst part.

“We got the paperwork for the expulsion Friday in the mail. So they had sent the paperwork out before they had even doen [sic] the hearing saying she was expelled”, says Amber’s mother Kristi Heinz.

No due process. Just a stupid “zero tolerance” policy and a poor girl’s education record and reputation impugned over a butter knife. And this wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction by some teacher or principal either. This was the result of a system of bureaucrats following the inane policies they developed.
You know what would cure this? Education vouchers. School teachers and administrators wouldn’t be able to get away with this kind of nonsense if they didn’t have a monopoly on education. You give parents the power to pull their kids out of schools when stuff like this happens and it will stop happening.

Tags: Asshats, Cultural Marxism, Education, Nanny State, Politics

http://Array docdave

There really is no justification for stupidity.
TSC

I could cause as much damage with a friggin pen or pencil as I could with a butter knife.

Do they wanna ban those too? While theyre at it why don’t the buy us all tablet PC’s and with stylus’s so even our writing utencils don’t have points.

Unbelievably stupid.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I meant the top guy.
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

We can point out the poor mean SAT scores and high pay per hour actually taught all day, but again, the fact of the matter is that all too often, it’s the government that commands “zero tolerance” policies, and what teacher can work around that?
2Hotel9

Ignorance is run amok in our schools and government. ‘Nuff said.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

That’s just it. If the system goes by those standards then you have the civil rights crazies out there saying (and bring lawsuits against) unfair … you’re doing one thing for some students and not the same for others.
Mr. Bruce

“When she realized she had the knife, she put it in her bookbag..then put it in her locker at Goose creek High school. She forgot it was there…until a few weeks later ..when the knife fell out of her overstuffed locker.”

Umm…not to sympathize with the evil bureaucrats or anything, but the knife was in her bookbag, and weeks later it fell out of her locker?

As Ricky Ricardo was wont to say, “Lucy…”
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

No it’s not, however I think I find myself as a strong supporter of doing what’s right (expelling troublemakers) and a critic of doing what’s wrong (expelling a student for bringing a butter knife.)

It takes a bunch of stupid twits (not all in the school system by any means) not to see what is right and what is wrong.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

The story failed to mention that it was an assault butter knife, capable of spreading peanut butter AND jelly!
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I think it’s easier to bully the good kid that makes a mistake then do something about the bad kid.

Of course that doesn’t do a darned thing for making schools safer (except perhaps for school administrators.)

I seem to recall where a student found a dangerous item and turned it in to the school. Right thing to do, right?

Wrong he was also punished under the no-common sense rule.
http://massbackwards.blogspot.com/ Bruce

All she had to do was claim the knife was for jimmying open her birth control pill dispenser, and she’d have been on her way.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Ooops, I don’t have the patients to be a doctor. I don’t have the patience to teach.

I can promise you that if teachers didn’t get a break… a true break, from the darling, lil’ sweetheart children, not many teachers could make it.

That very well may be true, but having so much time off is a lifestyle benefit too. People are paid for the time they are productive, not the times they are not.

Besides I’m sure there are plenty of things about my job that teachers wouldn’t like and I have to deal with them all the time; even on vacation.

Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, but your job is not harder than mine, only different.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I need to lock up the family butter knives so that they don’t fall into the wrong hands.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

EWS:

Teachers on a whole make more money per hour worked then nearly any other white color profession.

I don’t have the patients to teach a bunch of kids, but I sure wouldn’t mind all the time off.
http://ewebsmith.com/ ews48

This is just absolute stupidity.

More stupid is the rationalization for idiotic things like this. What’s really frightening is that these protectors of our children don’t realize the damage that they have done to this child’s life by being stupid and they don’t care.

Because the salaries haven’t kept up, the school systems haven’t attracted the most intelligent or ambitious for decades. As a result, our schools are now run by people less intelligent than the pupils they’re supposed to be teaching. As a student, I sure wouldn’t trust one of them with a butter knife.

“Zero Tolerance” is never evenly enforced.

Morons.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Good point bike bubba. These are policies set by well paid administrators.

In GF they’re currently making almost 200Ks.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

Steve L., EXACTLY! Also excellently explained and thank you for that. I agree. Even though it becomes ridiculously insane at times … what can we do when, for every move we make, there is a threat of a negative reaction?
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

Regrettably, vouchers would NOT solve this problem, as the ‘no common sense’ (no tolerance) policy is a federal regulation that applies to the government schools, charter schools, and private/parochial schools as well. I’ve known a school security person who would take a student aside and say “kid, I didn’t see that, but get it out of here before I do,” but that’s about the most “common sense” that is possible unless the child is home-schooled.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

Common sense has fled this place.

A prophet is without honor in his own country!
WETBACK

Ridiculous.
Andrew

Hopefully she’s a minority. When I was in school, a black kid was found with a loaded police-issued handgun with the serial number scratched off in his locker. He was expelled, but it was later overturned because the family threatened to sue for racial discrimination.
Steve L.

It is very easy to criticize when you don’t find yourself in the position of being the one to make the call on what action should be taken. If you want school officials to make rational decisions, then immunize them from fear of lawsuits from those decisions. 99.9% of the rules that people feel are stupid, such as zero-tolerance rules, are designed to protect administrators. Let’s assume that the prinicipal had done what everyone consiers the “right thing” and let the girl slide. What happens when the next kid brings a knife a little sharper? Does it only count if they actually stab someone or is possession the determining factor? How many warnings do you give before you take action?

The problem is that each of those questions is subjective. That’s where the problem lies. If the principal is in a good mood, he might make one decision about a given knife. If he is in a bad mood, he might make a different decision. As soon as that happens, the district and the principal end up in court, sued by a disguruntled parent. Their dissatisfaction may be justified or it may not. Either way, it costs the taxpayer money to resolve the complaint.

This is at the core of the problems that kids have today. Parents are no longer parents. They are their kids’ friends. As a result, they rush to the defense of their children regardless of the facts. ids are learning that they can behave however they want, and Mommy will come defend them.

Zero-tolerance rules do, at times, produce outrageous results. However, those results are consistent and defensible in court.

Tammi

You are completely full of yourself!! School Boards and administrators with like power are nothing more than rulers over kingdoms of slavery!. You have forgotten that kids are learning or at least trying to do so in a swamp of muck. God love those that succeed in this world with people like you pushing them under. It must be very lonely on your cloud of perfection. Kids make mistakes. It's how they learn. There is not a parent out here that would disagree with you when wrongs are done with malice. That is not what I am saying. Our national govt has a system of checks and balances. Why in the world do We, the People, allow the systems who determine whether our children succeed or fail, based on words on paper and not there efforts and hard work, to "rule" and "pass judgement" with that same system. "I HAVE SPOKEN"….serves no one but those that say it and then stand and beat their chest. So, to you, Steve, and all others like you, "you are man, hear you roar." ….my God have mercy on you for the cruelty with no wisdom you inflict on all "Mother Teresa" could have beens ……….

edie

While watching cspan a few years ago a man was escorted from the balcony for hanging a banner over the edge of the balcony. I was a simple message only 6 words long and spoke volumes. The banner simply read. Common sense has fled this place. Gee, it looks like it is running and screaming from the seats of education too.
http://www.nd-center.com/ Fake College Degree

Amber says that stupid decision was taking a butter knife to school. She ran out of the house to meet the bus while making a sandwich, when she realized she had the knife. She put it in her bookbag, then she put it in her locker at Goose Creek High school. She forgot it was there until a few weeks later when the knife fell out of her overstuffed locker.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

(excuse me while I go check to see if your ip matches robert108)
LOL
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

As they say .. a few bad people can ruin it for a lot of good people. It’s not easy these days for anyone, especially the good guys.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

You’re right 2H9, but just because she doesn’t have documented (or what we don’t know,etc) discipline trouble, doesn’t mean a rule still shouldn’t stand. She could have easily given the knife to an authority when she realized her mistake.
Of course I don’t believe she meant any harm to others but having the knife on school grounds opened the opportunity for danger, whether from her or someone else getting a hold of the knife.
People need to realize that the school authorities are stuck between a rock and a hard place … it’s not easy these days

Tammie

I've read several of your replies, Anna, and I have yet to read anything that speaks to the "person". It's easy to say that there are bad kids and therefore all kids must be treated as bad kids to prevent one slipping thru the cracks. However, the truth is that not all kids are bad. Some just make mistakes that turn big and hairy when the path to the circumstance was very innocent and "nothing". The problem isn't just that this girl's future has been ruined because of a piece of toast but that the administrators are allowed to make such foolish decisions with no allowance for appeal to higher powers.

http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

I don’t have the patients to teach a bunch of kids, but I sure wouldn’t mind all the time off.

That’s just it. I can promise you that if teachers didn’t get a break… a true break, from the darling, lil’ sweetheart children, not many teachers could make it.
Think about your own children and admit it’s tough sometimes. It’s amazing how children of all ages can reach nerves you didn’t even know you had until it’s your last one, it’s fraying and a child is gnawing on it.
2Hotel9

So, protecting administrators from the negative reactions produced by their stupid decisions is the driving imperative?

Sorry, far too many times actual dangerous students do “slide”. Look at every single school shooting of the last 30 years and you will find that. Teachers and students had all seen danger signals, and they were not allowed to act on them. Or they were ignored. In some instances people who tried to do something about such students were harassed and punished.

Show me that this girl had a history of discipline problems and mental instability and I will wholeheartedly embrace kicking her out. Otherwise I call bullshit.
WOOFX

She’s probably on the no-fly list.

School vouchers won’t help her.

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Student Suspended, Then Expelled, For Bringing Butter Knife To School

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