ONE FOR CAROLE & TRACI
Idiots run the Christina school district. They made a newbie homeschooler, so our team wins.
Marie Perkins’ seventh-grade daughter had no history of school disciplinary problems.
Generally an A and B student, she made the sixth-grade honor roll twice. She served as treasurer of the school’s chapter of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America.
Teachers had noted her good behavior on report cards dating back to kindergarten. Even at home, her greatest offense was a messy room.
Yet in April, Christina School Board members voted 5-1 to expel the then-12-year-old from Shue-Medill Middle School for one year.
Her crime? Using a utility-knife blade from home to cut windows out of a paper house for a class project.
…The Newark mother acknowledges her daughter shouldn’t have had the blade in school. Unbeknownst to her, the girl had stowed it in her book bag after a scrapbooking class, she said.
Thinking of it as a crafts tool, not a weapon, she pulled it out when scissors weren’t working to make the detailed cuts on the class project.
Perkins thinks a five-day suspension would have been a just punishment.
“She wasn’t threatening anybody. She wasn’t causing physical harm,” she said. “They wouldn’t consider her intent.”
District leaders, who can’t discuss individual cases because of student privacy laws, said they must enforce Christina’s Student Code of Conduct consistently.
“If we did not have zero tolerance, how in the world would we make a determination of which student should be expelled and which student should not, which student it is OK for to bring BB guns and knives to school and which it is not?” asked Sharon Denney, who oversees the district’s school climate issues.
Not having a zero-tolerance policy “leaves room for a lot of subjectivity, and we’re trying to be as consistent and fair as we can to all students,” she said. “If we opened that can of worms up and did not have the same expectations for all of our students, it would be a real mess.”
Yeah because if they had to actually think about each case individually that would take a lot of time and effort and they might miss Monday Night Smackdown on teevee!
10 Responses to “ONE FOR CAROLE & TRACI”
 Comment by sam October 10th, 2007 at 2:36 pm |
Zero tolerance is the exact opposite of fair. What was wrong with explaining to the girl why she wasn’t allowed to have that particular knife and helping her find another way to finish the project followed by a call to the parents to explain what had happened and to ask if perhaps they could keep this put up for now? |
 Comment by COD October 10th, 2007 at 3:45 pm |
Sam, that wouldn’t be fair to the bureaucrats that thought up the zero tolerance policy. |
 Comment by Nance Confer October 10th, 2007 at 5:11 pm |
Why did they give her a project to do without the correct tools? Idiots! Nance |
 Comment by JJ Ross October 10th, 2007 at 8:42 pm |
More Death of Common Sense! |
 Comment by Traci October 10th, 2007 at 9:40 pm |
So glad to be homeschooling! I almost choked when I read the zero tolerance comment…. It just offends my Libra sense of justice. I am thankful for everyday I don’t have to deal w/ that kind of stuff anymore. |
 Comment by freerangelife October 10th, 2007 at 11:09 pm |
//Sam, that wouldn’t be fair to the bureaucrats that thought up the zero tolerance policy.// “Thought?” That’s pretty generous of you, Chris. |
 Comment by Marie Perkins October 11th, 2007 at 6:30 pm |
Hello my new brethren! I, if you don’t recognize the name, am the mother of the little knife-blade wielding terrorist that has been expelled by those oh so wise administrators. The reporter that wrote the story has asked us to put her in contact with others who have been affected by zero tolerance or otherwise extreme and severe (and absolutely asinine) punishments.. So, if you or anyone that you know is willing to share their story we would be most appreciative to hear from you. In addition, we have a homepage, I won’t call it a website but we’re working on it, which has a link to an online petition if you would care to sign. Or you can go directly to the petition: ipetit...petoc/ And please, feel free to contact us at petoc@comcast.net Sincerely, |
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Comment by JJ Ross October 11th, 2007 at 8:43 pm |
Plenty of asinine around!
I’ve long thought this toe-the-line mindset goes beyond “school” to affect us all one way or another, from hassles boarding airplanes to losing our privacy, driver’s license or job. |
 Comment by Karen E October 11th, 2007 at 10:05 pm |
I have zero tolerance for zero tolerance policies. That’s probably against the law. |
 Comment by Carole in DE October 14th, 2007 at 12:29 am |
I’ll make sure that my camo-wearing-and 4-pocket-knife-carrying DS stays far away from CSD. And Marie, welcome to hs’ing in Delaware. Unskate at the roller skating rink this Friday, 1-3. Lots of HS’ers will be there. |