And there in lies part of the problem:

1. We do not know what an individual is thinking when they made the decscion to bring xyz to school. Did he want to eat with it or did Johnny break his Transformer the day before and more dangerous thoughts are being had. We only know what they are saying once they are sitting in the hot seat. Rare is the kid who says, yea I brought moms zapper to school to get Suzi for dumping my food tray.

2. Or- even if he had no malice, listened pretty well at Scout camp on handle a knife but then gives it to Larry who wants to see it. Larry does damage to himself by accident to hisself or another individual. While intent is good and all that, bad $hit is known to happen with the best of intentions. A lot of things in my life I didn't mean to do, but still did the "time" for.

I'm not bright enough to have many answers but the one answer I do know that works most often and best is being involved. Either as the parent or the teacher. That's what you signed up to do, so do what is needed and expected of you.

Newwark can't be an easy place to try and make a difference, but I bet when they do it's huge.
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All good points.
All understood.

Going back to that day, so now they have him, was caught, had tool/knife taken away, parents called, suspended. All reasonable actions.
By now, they know what they are dealing with as they have spent time with him.
Question that would still linger is does it still merit 45 days in reform school, for a first grader?
There are folks that argue prison is no place for reform for adults but let's go ahead and place a 6 yr old with no history of violence or issues at school and place him with the worse of his kind and expose him to that?
Wouldn't want it for my kid and would fight it to death.
If my child, would give him a good punishment at home to coincide with a reasonable suspension from school.
Regardless of how we dissect this, 45 days in reform school across the board, with no other thought process is wrong.
In the final analysis, they too knew it was wrong as they succumbed to the demand to change it.
As I have said throughout this thread, his behavior was unwarranted and deserved punishment but the initial punishment did not fit the crime.
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I agree - rubber stamps rarely work. The admin at the schools should be given some grey area to work in. They know their kids and school better than some soccer mom or baseball dad elected to the school board who make this rules. At lest in this case some brighter heads prevailed. I really like one we had down here, elementary school kid had a "gun" that was cut out of a piece of paper.... Another bad topic..... Brighter heads here did not prevail.
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Now a days, it seems violence in the schools is much more common. I don't blame the school for their decision to punish the child. Taking that extra step, even if the punishment seems to be severe and uncalled for, can sometimes help.
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Good point! The knife brought by the cub scout could be lethal in another child's hands. Or what if the bully in school uses the knife on the cub scout... Bad day for everyone!!!:-)
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It just amazes me that I made it through childhood without the protection of anyone else other than my parents (and my brother on occasion :-)).
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Seems to me that the 6 year old bully in his class could use a chair, a pencil, a paintbrush, a ruler, or something else. In your example, the best solution is for the (most likely) Pansy running the classroom to deal with that kid first. (In restrospect, quite certainly, :-):-) )

The 6 year old shouldn't have a knife at school, I don't think it is unreasonable to restrict 6 year olds at school from having knives.



teenagers? sure... why not.:-)
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True that!!!

Unfortunately the "pansy" has to deal with parent's who are also (at times) bullies!!! I digress!!!:-)
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