This thread makes me sad, especially when there is a teacher here telling you how these policies work, and you all choose to ignore him. You know that if ANYTHING would have happened with that knife, even the slightest injury, that the local parents would have their lawyers all over that school a minute later. There is a reason it is called a ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY.
Don't blame the school for following their own policy, blame the kid for being dumb enough to bring the knife to school, blame the parents for not paying enough attention to their child, blame our "I'm not responsible for my own actions" society that has led us down a path like this where you need to have zero tolerance policies on all sorts of things.
I honestly do not understand why anyone wants to be a teacher, given all the crap that goes along with it, but I salute anyone that not only takes the job, but puts their total effort and commitment into it. Blaming the teacher for following the rules is just dumb.
dt