knives at school?

I was in high school in the late 90's and I carried as SAK through out most of it. It was against the rules, but it was a bit before the whole zero tolerance BS as well. I used in mostly in my shop/tech classes. Certainly not every day, and I was careful who was around when I took it out. In English class, we were reading a book, "The Things They Carried" which is about the Vietnam War and what soldiers remembered about what they had over there. We had to write an essay one day about what we carried every day. I wrote about my knife along with everything else. The teacher pointed out my essay as being one of the strongest ones he had received, and went on to read a bit off from it, including a part about my knife. He then asked me if I had it on me right now, I was pretty scared because I figured I was going to get in trouble. I told him (and the entire classroom of students) that I did, and he even asked to see it. So I took it out of my pocket. Nothing happened and I never did get in trouble, luckily. But if I was back there today, I think my choice would be different, with all that has happened, and the rules and views of society, I don't think I risk my education just to carry.
 
I'm prolly not going to have to worry about it. I graduate highschool this year and im homeschooled, so having a knife at school isnt that big a deal lol. when i go to college im most likley going into the navy rotc program. im going to have a knife on me. anyone has a problem with it, then they can take it up with my instructor, who, in turn, will prolly just laugh at them telling the person to get a life and that its the military.
 
I really don't want to sound stupid, but I have to ask: what is the purpose of carrying a knife at school? I've never been in the US but I believe that a school is a school, it doesn't matter where it is. You're supposed to show up on time, listen, learn and date girls. That is all. Maybe having a knife looks cool, but it can get you into trouble. And if there is a fight (which happens quite often between kids) the last thing you want is a knife: if you use it "right", you kill somebody, go to prison and you can say goodbye to girls, fun and all that stuff. If you use it and miss, the other kid takes it and gives you a present you won't ever forget (if you survive). If you don't use it, you still can be kicked out of school forever if they find out you carry it. All three options won't look cool in the eyes of other kids, girls and people in general. So, what is the purpose of carrying a knife at school? When I was a kid, we used to punch each other in the face while rolling on the floor: that was the common kind of fight, at that time. I've never seen a kid with a knife. This is probably the reason why we all had a chance to become adults and grow up. Now, I understand that there is a huge difference between Europe and the US about the "right" to be armed, but I'm sure that parents are the same all over the world: they care about their kids and don't want them to stab somebody or get stabbed and die. I'm not yet a father, but I agree with those who said that kids+knives+school is a dangerous combination. Because carrying a knife can be useful sometimes, if we talk about a responsible adult with a Leatherman (or better, a Victorinox! ;) ) multitool on his belt and a job to do that requires that kind of tool. But if we talk about kids, knives should stay home.
 
At my university the rules state that you can't carry a weapon, but specifically exempt a pocket knife with a blade under 4". So I carry a knife around. 99% of the time it's pretty useless. At a high school even more so. In middle school I brought in my swiss army knife a couple of times by mistake. I used it over the weekend and left it in my jacket pocket. I just left it in my locker and no one knew. In high school I brought the same swiss army knife to school a couple times to use after school for physics olympics. The teacher didn't care, and it was useful for a screwdriver or to strip a wire. But a "tactical" knife would be mostly useless in high school, and the administration will probably see it as a weapon. My advice is don't do it. When was the last time you used it at school? Is it necessary or worth it?
 
the european, if you read this entire thread, you should see that many of us grew up at a time when no one worried about knives and we all carried them. And I went to school in New York City, I wasn't exactly a country boy.

Yes, times change, and many administrators have overreacted. Reasonably, schoolchildren today have to follow the rules that evolved. But those rules are NOT a natural outgrowth of what knives do, only that people no longer discipline themselves how to behave.

What need for a knife at school? Maybe none. As a free citizen, I don't like being told I NEED a reason for what I do, as long as I am not hurting anyone else by doing it. What about on the way to school or home? You can't have a knife with you then and have it teleport itself away when you walk into the school.

Besides, what's wrong with using a knife in school, if the knife is an effective tool for the job, instead of plastic scissors or a wood chisel? Schools teach. Let them also teach proper use of the knife.
 
Well said, Benyamin.

I carried a knife every day at school, from age 8 when I got my first one, through high school, and college, on till today. The only break in there was when I was in basic training for two months. As soon as I got to my AIT station, I bought an SAK at the PX.

In all of those learning environments, it was never once a problem that I had one, and was frequently useful. Teachers used my knives, on the rare occassion that they didn't have one of their own, because I always had one. We used xactos in art class and biology, but sometimes my pocketknife was sharper or more useful for the cut we were doing. Physics class, I always used my own knife.

My daughter has a knife, has had since she was 8. She is carrying it every day, but not to school by her own choice. I told her that if she did carry it to school, she was not to tell anyone nor take it out of her pocket. This year, she is learning to keep it sharp herself.

People are tool users. The knife is the most basic real tool that a person can have, and is the most useful. It doesn't matter how old a person is, they should have the right to carry a tool in their pocket.
 
RedEdge77 said:
Dude it doesn't matter if your on good terms with them. The whole zero tolerance policy will leave them with no choice but to punish you, maybe even being expelled.
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This quote made me actually laugh out loud. At least here in AZ schools don't actually enforce the zero tolerance policy on ANYTHING unless it's brought to public light, case to point, I know of about 20 kids who got a week of in school suspension for smoking weed at school. Supposedly we have a zero tolerance policy that if you have drugs you're expelled, the only problem with that is that the school gets money for every kid enrolled so they don't want to expell anyone. BTW I use my gerber gator in school pretty much every day. I'm the go to guy to get things done because the maintenance people at my school think they should get paid for sitting on their butts and not doing anything, so all my teachers know I carry and occasionally ask to borrow it.
 
the european said:
I really don't want to sound stupid, but I have to ask: what is the purpose of carrying a knife at school? I've never been in the US but I believe that a school is a school, it doesn't matter where it is. You're supposed to show up on time, listen, learn and date girls. That is all. Maybe having a knife looks cool, but it can get you into trouble. And if there is a fight (which happens quite often between kids) the last thing you want is a knife: if you use it "right", you kill somebody, go to prison and you can say goodbye to girls, fun and all that stuff. If you use it and miss, the other kid takes it and gives you a present you won't ever forget (if you survive). If you don't use it, you still can be kicked out of school forever if they find out you carry it. All three options won't look cool in the eyes of other kids, girls and people in general. So, what is the purpose of carrying a knife at school? When I was a kid, we used to punch each other in the face while rolling on the floor: that was the common kind of fight, at that time. I've never seen a kid with a knife. This is probably the reason why we all had a chance to become adults and grow up. Now, I understand that there is a huge difference between Europe and the US about the "right" to be armed, but I'm sure that parents are the same all over the world: they care about their kids and don't want them to stab somebody or get stabbed and die. I'm not yet a father, but I agree with those who said that kids+knives+school is a dangerous combination. Because carrying a knife can be useful sometimes, if we talk about a responsible adult with a Leatherman (or better, a Victorinox! ;) ) multitool on his belt and a job to do that requires that kind of tool. But if we talk about kids, knives should stay home.
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I take exception to this actually, I know most of the kids at my school carry knives, but I really don't think anyone would pull one out in a fight, and if they did they'd quickly find themselves fighting everyone, not just the one they meant to. It's one of those unwritten rules like no kicking someone in the nads. Besides, you're voicing what unfortunately I think has become the main sentiment in todays time that knives are DANGEROUS UBER WEAPONS that need to be destroyed or we'll all kill ourselves. If you think about it a knife is not much more "dangerous" than a hammer or screwdriver which we use all the time in shop class(I actually have carried an 8 lb sledge hammer in my backpack the last two years because it gets used once or twice a week) and yet I don't see anybody trying to outlaw these things, and despite them being universally available you really don't hear about people being attacked with them in school. I carry a 4" blade because it's a TOOL and I use it as one, simply because I am a high school student an therefore a "kid" doesn't mean I am an irresponsible punk who'll whip it out the first time my temper flares. Unfortunately your government seems to have decided that all europeans are that way and should not have pointy objects, you've let them do that to you and will now have to live with that.
 
It is known as "projection". When a person can only guess what they would do in certain situation while carrying a certain item, they are certain everyone else can only behave in the same way.
 
I carried a knife to school with me everyday.from about 4 th grade untill i graduated.I never had a problem but that was a different time.Anyone who thinks that they can pass a knife off as "something else" or talk there way out of trouble because they think someone likes them needs to realize that they are not facing reality.zero tolerance seems pretty easy to understand to me,but I guess some lessons must be learned the hard way.what exactly are you going to claim that a knife is.I know kids think teachers are dumb but come on,and if push come to shove your principal will choose his job over an imagined friendship 100%of the time.Leave the knives at home.
 
I have been carrying a knife since I was 10 years old. I carried everywhere, including school. Being allowed to carry a knife was a mark of trust in me as a responsible person.Nearly anything can be used as a weapon, but knives are exceptional tools. I graduated high school in 1975. When I was in school most guys carried a pocketknife, that was never a problem because, as has already been noted in this thread, most kids were taught the proper and responsible use of a knife early on in their lives.
 
I'm a highschool student too and its stunning how many of my friends carry knives during school. Sure most of them are illegal autos or chinese pieces of s**t and they have no intention of using them properly as a tool but rather carry them because they think it makes them bad asses. I on the other hand carry a Kershaw Blur clipped to my right front change pocket where nobody will notice, and do use it from time to time for things such as sharpening pencils and the sort.
 
I always carried a knife through high school, just because i knew i would never take it out unless i absolutely had to. Plus, i usually didnt go straight home after school so i liked to carry it all day. I never once got in trouble with it, mainly because i was responsible with it and never took it out.
 
Carrying a pocket knife was never frowned upon when I went to school.

My dad was telling me about when he went to school today. They would go duck hunting before class, and when they got to school, they would leave their shotguns, waders and ducks in the superintendant's office and let him take home his pick of the sprig.
 
I'm a prof at a mid-sized university and carry a SAK worker on my keychain. It has the all important bottle-opener feature which gets well used on Friday afternoons with the graduate students (all within reason of course).

When I was in highschool I tended to carry a small folder, but then I lived in a northern Ontario town and walked through the woods on the way home. By that token, when I went hunting - I'd but my rifle in a case and walk out my door, keep walking, keep walking and after 15 minutes when I found myself on crown land, I'd start look'n for grouse.

Now days in S. Ontario I wouldn't let my son take a knife to school, even though I'm comfortable with him having one on his own time (he has a cheapo Machete that he is fond because he bought it himself even though it is duller than a hockey stick - the machete is the dull one that is :) ). In any event, we've had so many issues with ZT (even in Canada) that even a hint of aggression gets suspensions and worse. Teachers sometimes think a hint of sarcasm is abuse :(

By and large it would be most likely that a teacher would find a knife when the kid is getting in trouble for something else and that would lead to the wrong interpretation and escalation of punishments. While we all kid about sheeple on BFs, in the case of kids and safety issues I would suggest caution in this area. Schools are not the wilderness and they have clear rules regarding safety. When you attend one of these institutions you have to be aware of the rules.

That said, I won't kick you out of my university class for carrying a knife but then you wouldn't be getting bad social vibes from me - it would likely be from the other students. In that case - point to the bottle opener and comment 'its a tool'...
 
in the 60s I carried a 'jack knife' with me always. But, that said, today they have rules against that and though I'm a knife person, I find it ignorant to violate your school rules on purpose. Could be you hate school and subsequently you're trying to get yourself expelled? Not Smart!
 
When I was in HS (class of '76) lots of us carried a jack knife. During lunch and study halls we'd go out and sit out in the sun and do some whittling. Some of those guys were really talented.

In metal shop we even made our own knives to do it.
 
mrstenoien said:
Besides, you're voicing what unfortunately I think has become the main sentiment in todays time that knives are DANGEROUS UBER WEAPONS that need to be destroyed or we'll all kill ourselves.
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I simply don't trust people, but I don't think that knives should be destroyed: what would I be doing here on bladeforums then? ;-) I'm sure I won't kill somebody, I may be sure you wouldn't, but how can we (I mean me and you) be sure that some guy isn't waiting for an excuse to stab us both in the back because is pissed off about his miserable life? We can't. So, and this is just my opinion, I feel better if there are some small restrictions, at least at school where kids (the word 'kids' applies to all people under 20, in my opinion) are just too young and too unpredictable to let them carry things that see basically no use but can be very dangerous.

mrstenoien said:
Unfortunately your government seems to have decided that all europeans are that way and should not have pointy objects, you've let them do that to you and will now have to live with that.
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I don't think we've let them do that to us, I think we chose that. I guess we don't see the "government" like an enemy that's trying to take all the fun from our lives: we are the government, we make decisions. And judging by all the crimes, killings, gangs and stuff like that that I see on the US media, I believe we made a responsible choice. In fact, no school here feels the need to install metal detectors and kids don't feel the need to carry knives at school. Among the ocean of things that may not work here, this does and I'm quite happy about it. :)
 
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