Wednesday, October 14, 2009

In case you haven't already heard or read about the six year old boy who was suspended from school for bringing his boy scout utensil - which happened to include a knife, to school, here's the link to The Early Show on CBS. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/13/national/main5382972.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea Now, I've got to tell you, I am NOT happy about this at all. Let me start by saying that I believe all Zachary Christie learned is that if you make enough noise, you can be relieved of your responsibility to own your transgressions. Not a great lesson to teach a six year old.

While I believe the 45 day suspension was probably not commensurate with the crime, and for an otherwise good kid to be placed in juvenile detention isn't the answer, what Zach Christie's family did was clearly wrong. His parents KNEW the school had a zero tolerance policy for knives. Maybe Zach isn't the kind of kid who would ever hurt anyone with a knife, but did his parents ever think they still were breaking the rules when they allowed him to go to school with the knife? Did they ever think what might have happened if another child had taken possesion of the knife and been hurt, or hurt another, either accidentally or intentionally? And what would they have felt had the schoolboard not reversed it's decision and sent Zach to juvenile detention for 45, or even ONE day?

If his parents disagreed with the rule, why didn't they petition the school board to review the policy, instead of breaking it and then complaining it wasn't fair. Would they have petitioned the school board as strenuously as they did had another child been subjected to the same disciplinary action under the same terms? Would they have championed the cause had another child been injured, even unintentionally?

I don't like rule breakers. If you don't like a rule, the best way to change it is from within. You honor it, you petition it, you march against it, you demonstrate, but you don't break it because you don't like it or think it's unfair. There are a lot of rules in this life that are unfair and seemingly arbitrary. That does not give you the right to break those rules, nor does it give you the right to endanger anyone else as a result of your not following the rules. Keep the knives at home folks. They don't belong in school...not even if you're a Boy Scout.

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