ZeroIntelligence and MyShortPencil are all over this one - there's not much I can add.
The only saving grace is that this particular tale of zero-tolerance idiocy is featured in an article entitled, "Have Zero Tolerance Policies Gone Too Far?" The fact that the mainstream media are just now asking this question is a reminder of how far behind they curve they are from the bloggers who have been highlighting such idiocies for quite some time.
The story:
Jacob Finklea, 12, was expelled for bringing scissors to his sewing class at Lincoln Middle School in Pike Township.
"I put them on the desk because she said, 'Get all your supplies ready to make the pillows,' and I put the scissors on the desk and she just freaked out," Jacob said.
Jacob's mother, Chrystal Finklea, is upset with the school rules that say scissors are a weapon requiring up to a two-semester expulsion.
"They were making pillows and the scissors he had hurt his hands. So when he went back to school he took my sewing scissors to school so he could finish making his pillow," Finklea said. "It's been a complete nightmare, It's been a nightmare for both of us."
From ZeroIntelligence:
Scissors, in Home Economics class, are a weapon and possession of them requires expulsion? We've gone from "Don't run with scissors in your hand" to "You can't come to school if you use scissors". Scissors are not a weapon. They are a tool, just like a chair or a pencil or a pointer or the cord from the window blinds. All of them have proper uses and all of them can be used to hurt another person. In fact, can you think of any common scholastic item that can't be used to hurt somebody?
And MyShortPencil chimed in with:
Ohh! Yess! Any student who brings scissors to sewing class is making a desperate plea for help. His life must be in such turmoil from all the planning, reasoning and logical thinking done to smuggle scissors into sewing class! It's a warning sign of another Columbine massacre.
Call the counselors! Call the police! Somebody take 27 8x10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one is to be used as evidence against Jacob. This kid might be a mother-stabber. A father-raper! He might even be a litterer!...
There aren't enough counselors in America to help students survive the mental torment and idiocy inflicted by master-degreed professionals who only care about students.
To expel a student for having scissors in sewing class is nothing less than bullying.
The teacher should be disciplined, at the very least, for "freaking out" at the image of a pair of sewing scissors in a sewing class. Regardless of whether she was following school rules by reporting Jacob, she obviously doesn't have the intelligence to understand the context in which the scissors were introduced, and I wouldn't trust her to teach anything, even sewing skills.
Oh, and MyShortPencil links to some nifty things, like this "Students Right to Remain Silent" card.
Posted by kswygert at March 4, 2004 03:56 PM