I'm convinced that some schools don't have any actual adults running the show:
An 11-year-old boy was arrested this week for carrying ten nails in his pocket at a Rock Hill middle school and charged with carrying an unlawful weapon. Dianne McCray, assistant principal at Rawlinson Road Middle School, asked the child Wednesday what was jingling in his pocket and the student gave her the 3.5" long nails.A school resource officer arrested him. His father picked him up and he was not taken to the police station. The father said the nails were left in his pocket after a Boy Scout outing. He says it is ridiculous that his son faces an unlawful weapon charge. He says the boy threatened no one.
Yup, you read that right - "arrested." For nails. In his pocket. Bothering no one. Does this school district just have a lot of extra cash lying around that they're hoping someone will sue for?
The school's defense seems to be that perhaps, in one explanation, the boy said they were for self-defense, though they weren't used as such:
The boy offered different explanations of why he had the nails: they were left over from a project 10 days earlier; they were for self defense because a suspicious man was seen in his neighborhood or that he needed the nails for a weekend Boy Scout outing.His father said the nails were in pants worn on an earlier Boy Scout outing. They "were not to be used as a weapon at school." Lt. Jerry Waldrop of the Rock Hill Police Department said the nails could been used against other students. The boy "did state he had them for protection against a suspicious male in the neighborhood."
I could state that my stapler and pen were for self-protection, too; would that have put me at odds with the ridiculously-broad school rules?
Posted by kswygert at May 9, 2005 12:28 PM