Monday, December 17, 2007

10 Year Old Faces Felony Charge For Being Smart Enough To Bring A Utensil With Which To Cut Her Food

A 10 year old little girl brought her lunch to her elementary school in Ocala, FL and in that lunch was a piece of steak and to cut up the steak a steak knife was packed. She did not use the knife in any way other than what was necessary for cutting up her food but according to Sunrise Elementary School, the knife is considered a weapon and not permissible on school grounds.

"Anytime there's a weapon on campus, yes, we have to report it and we aggressively report it because we don't want to take any chances, regardless," Christian said.
But the sheriff's office said the extreme measures in what some may say was a harmless incident had to do with school policy, not theirs.
"But once we're notified, we have to take some type of action," Pogue explained.
The student now faces a felony charge for the possession of a weapon on school property and the principal suspended her for ten days. The parents of the girl could not be reached for comment.

You can read more here.

Some questions:
-Should this be a no tolerance offense?
-If you were her parents what would be your thoughts?
-Does this seem over-bearing?
-If you are a teacher, what are your thoughts on this?
-Can you blame the child for using her commonsense and using a knife to cut her steak?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey here's a good reason why someone might want to homeschool... They can cut their meat at home and not go to jail.

Timm said...

I can understand taking the knife away from her. I can even understand, (hard as it may be to swollow,) a suspension. I can not understand a felony charge. To put it in lamens terms, that's just stupid.

j razz said...

I wish more details were released as to whether or not the child picked up the knife and placed it in her bag or whether the parents packed it. I think that would weigh in on the suspension but I think this situation speaks greatly to the state our culture is in where a teacher cannot use commonsense to determine whether or not a hostile situation will arise. Yes, err on the side of caution but come on, there has to be some understanding on the part of the school officials as well as the police department.

j razz