The "Three "R's" of 21st Century Schools

High school senior jailed, kicked out of school and may lose Army dream because of pocket knife in car | Fox News:
 (March 18, 2014)

An Ohio high school student has already been jailed and kicked out of school for having a pocket knife in his car, and now he fears he could lose his dream of serving in the Army. Jordan Wiser, a student at Ashtabula County Technical School in Jefferson, is finishing up his senior year from home after school officials searched his car in December and found the folding knife and an Airsoft gun. School officials called police, who charged him with illegal conveyance of a weapon onto a school ground based on the three-inch knife.

I love Zero Tolerance Rules, don't you?   They're so charmingly ... all-inclusive!

Remember Switch-Blade Knifes?  Back in the Fantastic Fifties and the Sexy Sixties, even Russ Tamblyn had one!

Even I had one.  Well, not a switchblade. Just a little pocket-knife that I carried because .. well, every boy did.  (I mainly used my pocket knife for cleaning the crud under my fingernails, and sharpening my quill pen in school.)

Today, students use G2 flow-tip pens and never never carry a knife.  After all, nobody has to skin a squirrel for dinner hardly ever anymore.

The thing is ... the knife in THIS story was  " ... part of his first responder's kit and can be used for slicing an accident victim's seatbelt, [and] was found tucked inside his EMT medical vest in the trunk of the car."

Doesn't sound like a reasonable placement if you expect to use your knife in a fight on the schoolgrounds.

In fact, the school didn't even try to make noises about it being an offensive weapon.   That's the really neat thing about Zero Tolerance.  It doesn't have to make sense, it's just what it is, and the Zero Tolerance rules can be applied freely without any expectations that it might meet conditions of reasonability.

School Administrators are like Politicians; what they do doesn't have to make sense, as long as they demonstrate the appearance of  "doing something".  (Hmmm .. sounds like Gun Control laws, doesn't it?)

You have to wonder, when school administrators shy from judgement calls, exactly what lessons they are teaching our children and grandchildren.

Rigidity, Righteousness and Rules.  

That's a LOT easier to teach than "Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmatic.


Don't we pay these people enough, to attract intelligent people?  Or, do we pay them too much?

========= UPDATE (March 20, 2014) ============

According to "Bizpac Review":

The school administrators, who justified their car search based on rules in the student handbook, found the knife, called the police, and refused the teenager the right to call an attorney, according to Wiser. Arrested and placed in jail, a judge ordered a psychological test and a half a million bond, and when the youngster passed that, another judge reduced bail to $50,000. But he conditioned that on an ankle monitor and the removal of any guns in the home to his grandfather’s house.

“The next judge freaked out about me even knowing what a gun is and put a no-contact order against me and my grandparents. My grandfather is dying right now and I can’t get within 500 feet of him,” Wiser related.

Ironically, at his rural Ohio school, kids get caught with pocket knives all the time Wiser told The Post, but they’re only suspended. Thus, a petition that sprang up afterwards calling for a reduction of charges to a misdemeanor garnered a quick 1,349 signatures and inflamed Harold Specht, Chief Assistant Prosecutor for Ashtabula County.

 It's still too soon to tell what the real story is, and if young Wiser has exaggerated the circumstances and conditions of his arrest and subsequent actions by 'authorities' ... it's still too soon to tell.

We will be following up on this story.  Personally, I'm curious about what laws in Ohio makes it a felony for a teenager to carry a knife (either 3" or 4" blade ... reports vary) in his personal automobile ... and what arbitrary school rules obviate Constitutional rules against Search and Seizure in a Felony prosecution? 

Never mind the question about "knives" vs "guns".

It's not about guns (or knives) ... it's about "Control"