10 year old arrested for bringing steak knife to school

[coaster05]

I can understand why the teachers may have been alarmed (Some kid here brought in a knife and tried to kill someone), but still they should have just confiscated it and dealt with the girl themselves rather than call the police if they were that worried about it.

 

Maybe because it is against the law to bring a weapon into school. Seriously people this really can't be this hard to understand!

 

I just don't understand how this is not 1000% the kids fault. There is no one else to blame, at all. WE CAN"T HAVE WEAPONS IN SCHOOL.

[speedracer]

I'd also place some blame on the general economy of the country. With factors such as illegal immigration and a general increased cost of living, families are more strained then they were 20-25 years ago.

 

Without going too far off subject I'd doubt illegal immigration has much to do with the economy. Most illegal immigrants are getting jobs that most people DON'T want. I believe the reality of tougher immigration laws is higher prices for products because you'll have to pay those people working in kitchens, landscaping and on farms the minimum wage instead of "under the table". Even the percentage of illegals getting healthcare is small compared to people legally in the country and citizens unable to afford insurance. Immigration is just another hot topic to get people to vote for politicians in election years.

 

Outsourcing jobs to other countries has more effect on the economy. Those are the jobs people do want and companies outsource so they can save money. With the cost of living going up and companies paying people less for more work, parents has less time to spend with their kids and give them the guidance they need. So that ties in with other things "babysitting" kids instead of the parents--videogames, internet, TV, etc. Even though times are harder for parents, it's even more important for them to give their kids guidance and make time for them. Parents have to be the ones to set a the example for kids... sit them in front of a TV without guidance, then Jamie Lynn, Britney, Paris, and all sorts of ex-con rappers will be their example. Videogames without guidances becomes some kid's reality. And so on.

 

Very well said Terry, so tired of the conservative bandwagon blame game to distract from the actual issues and causes. Outsourcing equates to higher profits for big corporations, so you won't ever see any politicians going after that hand that feeds them. Much easier create a divisive issue by blaming hard working minorities that'll do the jobs lazy Americans won't do for pennies on the dollar. The Bushies have everyone believing illegal immigrants are the absolute cause of all the problems in this country. Just like they did before with the gays, liberals, conservationist, human rights advocates, the list goes could go on and on. Since accountability is no longer required of our leaders and politicians, they have to distract and divert the blame somewhere else.

 

As far as this topic goes, consider the "news" source. Want to bet as many details as possible were left out to make this all sound as much as possible like some liberal nutjob of a teacher going overboard? Possible there may have been more details and a justifiable reason for her to call the cops, but Faux News won't report any of that since it wouldn't be the story THEY want to report (just ask Robb).

[larrygator]

You break the law you pay the consequences. If it was a innocent mistake, the girl is not going to suffer later in life.

 

As others have said intent to injury is not the issue, breaking the rules/laws is the issue. Sure the adult who noticed the knife realized he/she was not in immediate danger. However, imagine for a second that before the knife is noticed another student who was a bully had stolen the steak lunch and that bully had used the knife on the girl who tried to get her steak back.

 

Laws and rules are well thought out and not arbitrarily decided upon. Weapons are dangerous and have no reason to be in a school.

 

Why arrest her, because if you don't the next person (who might be dangerous) that does this sues because he was treated differently.

 

Since when do kids bring steak to school for lunch. I used to get peanut butter and jelly or a fluffer nutter. If you don't know what a fluffer nutter is, I feel sorry for you.

 

No! A fluffer nutter is not something out of Boogie Nights.

[niiicolaaah]

...There's too many parents who really shoudn't be having children...

 

That is the root of all America's problems. It's like natural selection in reverse. The dumber the person, the more kids they have!

 

And I am totally behind Rich on this one... you can't blame the teacher at all, they were only following the rules! Policies about things like that are very black and white.

 

Why are more people in this thread blaming the teacher than blaming the parents? They sure sound like a couple morons, with all this crap over the past years about school violence, why would they think it was OK to send their kid to school with a sharp knife?? And why would you send your kid in with steak for lunch?

 

Things like this piss me off so much because the lack of self-accountability parents and people in general have nowadays. They expect to be able to do whatever the hell they want and not have any negative consequences whatsoever. I hate America.

[the sound]

Maybe because it is against the law to bring a weapon into school.

 

I didn't know that, so i know think that yes, they were right to call the cops. We deal with this sort of stuff differently here, so i didn't know it was against the law.

[phazan]

I can understand why the teachers may have been alarmed (Some kid here brought in a knife and tried to kill someone), but still they should have just confiscated it and dealt with the girl themselves rather than call the police if they were that worried about it.

 

Maybe because it is against the law to bring a weapon into school. Seriously people this really can't be this hard to understand!

 

I just don't understand how this is not 1000% the kids fault. There is no one else to blame, at all. WE CAN"T HAVE WEAPONS IN SCHOOL.

 

Well she obviously wasn't going to hurt anyone. You ARE right that we can't have weapons in school, but the whole point of not allowing weapons is to stop the violence. She wasn't planning on using the knife for violence (obviously), so why should she be punished? I agree, she should be talked to, and be let known how serious it can be bringing a weapon to school, but punishing isn't doing anything. That's where whoever called the cops, should have used some common sense IMO.

[BeemerBoy]

I'd also place some blame on the general economy of the country. With factors such as illegal immigration and a general increased cost of living, families are more strained then they were 20-25 years ago.

 

Without going too far off subject I'd doubt illegal immigration has much to do with the economy. Most illegal immigrants are getting jobs that most people DON'T want. I believe the reality of tougher immigration laws is higher prices for products because you'll have to pay those people working in kitchens, landscaping and on farms the minimum wage instead of "under the table". Even the percentage of illegals getting healthcare is small compared to people legally in the country and citizens unable to afford insurance. Immigration is just another hot topic to get people to vote for politicians in election years.

 

Admittedly, my post, as viewed in this form here may seem a bit vague or disjointed. My train of thought didn't necessarily construe what I was leaning towards, so let me clarify a bit. The mention of illegal immigration was mostly directed towards the plight of the school system (as it pertains to my current residence).

 

Terry, even living in South Florida for 28 years didn't prepare me for what I've come to learn about immigration by living in "small town USA." In my five years of living here, I've witnessed exactly what effects a huge influx of legal, and illegal immigrants can have on society, and in the case of this thread, specifically, families and the school system.

 

First, let me give a quick background into where I currently live. Dalton, Georgia is a "small town" of around 40,000 residents, with an ever-growing population of mostly Mexicans seeking industrial postitions (and let me state, most of whom are hardworking good people). Dalton is considered the "Carpet capital of the world." It's our main industry, and chances are, if you look down right now, the carpet you're standing on came from here. Obviously, it goes without saying that here, and any industrial town is ripe for low-wage immigrant workers.

 

Fortunately, I married into a large family of highly intelligent people; many of whom have been lifelong educators in the public school system. From all accounts, immigration is the number one problem facing the school system. With the ever-increasing number of immigrant children, schools and teachers become strained trying to effectively create a positive learning environment.

 

The language barrier is the first hurdle. The second is the unfortunate climate of most of the children's home lives. There are so many fractured home environments due to these children's parents both working two to three jobs each in many situations, as well as day/night shifts at the numerous industrial plants around town. It's also fairly usual that many are single parent homes. As a result, it's fairly predictable, and understandable that so many immigrant children have a hard time adapting to school life in this country.

 

The next largest factor is an unfortunate one which plagues many cities, crime as a result of clashing cultures. I can't dance around the fact that illegal immigration has caused a disturbing trend of gang violence and drugs in our area, which has naturally infiltrated the public high schools.

 

Add up all these factors, and it's easy to understand why school teachers are faced with a very demanding, and stressful job. In talking with my relatives (I have about 5 off the top of my head who currently teach), it's clear that the school environment has become a no-nonsense one. It's becoming a balancing act of educator and "warden," and I personally attribute most of the blame to bad parenting for one reason or another.

 

 

Immigration is just another hot topic to get people to vote for politicians in election years.

True, but a hot topic worth looking at. Overpopulation is a serious issue. The trickle down effect of not managing and educating a nation's people will always eventually hurt an economy in one way or another.

[terrancew_hod]

^I won't give a long answer, as (1) this will take this thread off topic and (2) I just got home from a drinking spree and I'm tipsy and tired .

 

I took a quick glance at your thread and I don't think it's still an issue of illegal immigration. It's more of a diversity issue. I remember my aunt, a school teacher of over 20 years, telling me about a plant in a town outside springfield, MO having a shortage of workers, thus a influx of Hispanic workers took the vacant jobs. Once again these are immigrants (not not illegal though) taking jobs that people didn't want. However, this created issues within the educational and healthcare systems as there needed to be bilingal healthcare workers and teachers brought into the town to support the workers. This town was had a largely white population, so for a sudden influx of a minority workers to migrate to this town caused all kinds of issues, which is similar to what you are speaking of. In the case of this town however, the plant assisted in bringing in bilingal workers and educators for the town; but I'm sure there were some resentment and bias from those who had lived there all their lives and haven't been in contact with minorities. So one from that town could think or assume that these people are illegal immgrants here to steal jobs that in reality no one wanted, the plant couldn't find workers to fill positions, so the plant found people from outside the community that would work the jobs.

 

Also the town and Springfield had to deal with language barriers of their new citizens. And to be honest, these people probably need to speak English since that is the native language, but living in South Florida, we both know that some people live here all their lives and have yet to utter one word of English, because it's not necessary in their respective communities. But beyond that it was more of southwest missouri's tolerance of other cultures being a problem than anything else. And that sounds like the same issue with Dalton no matter how you dress it up. It's not really overpopulation, it's just a redistribution of population, where there's an introduction of a new culture to a small, established town and that's causing issues that some are incorrectly addressing.

 

Anyway, back on topic. It just sounds like things got blown out of proportion. If the girl was in class and the steak knife fell out, I could understand her getting into trouble, but the punishment she got was a bit excessive for someone using a steak knife to chow down on a steak she brought. Usually I would support the teacher, but in this case he should be reprimanded for overreacting.

 

And as for the 10 year old, I'm guessing she was naive enough to think a steak knife wouldn't be considered a weapon in the school's eyes and probably slipped it in her lunch bag while the parents weren't watching. But then most parents wouldn't think small kitchen utiensils would be considered weapons either. That's like when i see parents cover their children's eyes so they won't see something. The child won't know it's wrong unless they are told it. It just sounds like a misunderstanding on the definition of what a weapon is. I would imagine the school rules don't specifically say that steak knives are weapons... maybe the rules should say no sharp object and spell out what those are so that everything is clear.

 

Now I'm taking my tipsy butt to bed.

 

Terry

[speedracer]

Compare this more complete account of events from another news source posted 4 days before Fauxs purposely abbreviated version:

But a couple of teachers took the utensil and called the sheriff. When deputies arrived, they were unable to get the child's parents on the phone, so they arrested her and took her to the county's juvenile assessment center.

 

"And we didn't handcuff her or treat her like a criminal. But, we took her to the assessment center to be assessed," said Capt. James Pogue, Marion County

 

School officials said it doesn't matter what the knife was being used for. They said they had no choice.

 

"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.

 

http://www.wftv.com/news/14858405/detail.html

 

Just another example of Faux telling the story the way they want you to hear it.

[coaster05]

I can understand why the teachers may have been alarmed (Some kid here brought in a knife and tried to kill someone), but still they should have just confiscated it and dealt with the girl themselves rather than call the police if they were that worried about it.

 

Maybe because it is against the law to bring a weapon into school. Seriously people this really can't be this hard to understand!

 

I just don't understand how this is not 1000% the kids fault. There is no one else to blame, at all. WE CAN"T HAVE WEAPONS IN SCHOOL.

 

Well she obviously wasn't going to hurt anyone. You ARE right that we can't have weapons in school, but the whole point of not allowing weapons is to stop the violence. She wasn't planning on using the knife for violence (obviously), so why should she be punished? I agree, she should be talked to, and be let known how serious it can be bringing a weapon to school, but punishing isn't doing anything. That's where whoever called the cops, should have used some common sense IMO.

 

They did use common sense they followed their school procedure. Why do none of the people on this thread who somehow believe this is ok ever acknowledge the fact that the rules must be the same for ALL the students? Why don't you guys realize they must follow the procedure this time, to be able to use the procedure in the future? I know why, because you are not looking at this from the teachers point of view.

 

Again knives ARE NOT ALLOWED in school. No exceptions, no reason.

 

As a side note for the immigration discussion. My school is 45% African American, 45% Latino and 10% white. My Latino students have easily been the best behaved and most motivated of all three groups during my career as a teacher.

[Moose]

Yes, she may have been planning nothing with that knife except eating, but you never know and because you never know, you have to assume the worst and treat it appropriately.

 

Try bringing a steak knife on a plane to eat something and see what happens.

[coaster05]

^Excellent point. Melanie also told me last night how about letting people into SF with knives to make their dining experiences better.

[larrygator]

Well she obviously wasn't going to hurt anyone. You ARE right that we can't have weapons in school, but the whole point of not allowing weapons is to stop the violence. She wasn't planning on using the knife for violence (obviously), so why should she be punished? I agree, she should be talked to, and be let known how serious it can be bringing a weapon to school, but punishing isn't doing anything. That's where whoever called the cops, should have used some common sense IMO.

 

Word to the wise. When you move to Europe make sure you learn the laws of the country where you reside.

[DenDen]

Someone just needs to go to this school, and slap the crap out of the faculty responsible for this. WTF! There should be a ZERO TOLLERENCE POLICY for stupidity, not steak knives.

[cfc]

^"Slap the faculty" for following school policy?

 

Yep--if you're a teacher, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[coaster05]

Someone just needs to go to this school, and slap the crap out of the faculty responsible for this. WTF! There should be a ZERO TOLLERENCE POLICY for stupidity, not steak knives.

 

You know what then you go work at the school where the weapon policy has loopholes based on which student it is making the infraction. I will continue to work at my school where we understand 100's of things can happen when any student brings a weapon to school and in all cases the school would be responsible. Seriously do you really not understand that if she would have hurt herself, or hurt another kid, or another kid would have picked up a knife and hurt another student the school would have been deemed responsible in ALL of those cases.

 

By showing the entire school that there is zero tolerance for weapons, of any kind, for any reason, they probably saved themselves more problems in the future.

 

Did any of that make sense to you or were you to busy calling my progfession stupid, when it is obvious you have NO idea what it is like in school. I love my job, but people with attitudes like yours is what makes it harder then it needs to be.

[niiicolaaah]

Someone just needs to go to this school, and slap the crap out of the faculty responsible for this. WTF! There should be a ZERO TOLLERENCE POLICY for stupidity, not steak knives.

 

Wow, after that post, if there was a zero tolerance policy for stupidity you'd be arrested pretty quickly.

[onewheeled999]

Nevermind.

 

I was an idiot that day.

[Wes]

Do any of you "OMG they overreacted!!!" guys actually read the thread before posting? What part of "following school procedure" is hard to grasp on this one, seriously?

[RIP Psyclone]

There are times when you need to make a big scene, and times when you should just discreetly put the offending object under the proverbial rug and hope no one notices. This one was a tough call.

[Wes]

Yeah, that's totally what zero tolerance means.

[cfc]

So, let me get this straight:

 

The girl got arrested when she brought a steak knife to school, to eat a steak, and the teacher WAY overreacted.

 

Isn't that like someone going to a dinner with the president and bringing a fork, and them getting arrested for it?

 

Hmm--seems to me that the administration would provide a fork. And, yes, you probably would be dragged off by the Secret Service for trying to sneak your own fork into a dinner with the president.

 

Choose your analogies carefully.

[coaster05]

So, let me get this straight:

 

The girl got arrested when she brought a steak knife to school, to eat a steak, and the teacher WAY overreacted.

 

Isn't that like someone going to a dinner with the president and bringing a fork, and them getting arrested for it?

 

Wow I am so surprised at your age that you find the teacher to be at fault. Why couldn't she have just used the schools utensils?

[Meteornotes]

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

[BeemerBoy]

^ Well said. Teacher or law enforcement....no thanks, but I appreciate those who do it.

 

They sure sound like a couple morons, with all this crap over the past years about school violence, why would they think it was OK to send their kid to school with a sharp knife?? And why would you send your kid in with steak for lunch?

After reading back over this thread, Nicole makes a great simple point that's overlooked. Who in the hell sends their 10 YEAR OLD child to school with steak for lunch? Through all my years of schooling, I never once brought steak, or knew of anyone else who had. Steak, really?

 

Yeah, the parents should be brought up on charges of stupidity. Plain and simple.