My son the marine gets caught with a KaBar in his dorm room

J

jbarch

Joined
Feb 16, 2007
Messages
13
Maybe I'm doing a little venting. Mt son is in the marine reserves, did a tour of duty in Iraq and just got back to the states last spring. He enrolled at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He had a little display in his dorm room of Iraq memorabilia (including his KaBar). The school asks the students to sign a document giving permission to the school to inspect rooms during Thanskgiving break to inspect the rooms for things like fire safety, etc. (sure). Anyway, they got in my son's room during Thanksgiving break, saw his KaBar, called the police to search his room and they confiscated his KaBar and Leatherman multi tool. He now has to appeard before the school disciplinary board for his "offense". The worse that could happen is him getting kicked out of school, the best would be a "warning". Somewhere in the middle is being put on probation which would kill his chance of being Resident Advisor (which he applied for to help with housing expenses). Fortunately his floor RA is standing by him and is testifying that my son is one of the best residences he has. Yeah I know he was careless in having a KaBar in his room and letting the school have access to his room during Thanksgiving. I'm just a little ticked at the heavy hand being demonstrated by the school.
 
Colleges/universities are often hard to figure out! I do medical research at a private university. For many years, all they did in the university policies on weapons was quote the state gun law (which allows you to have a gun properly stored in your car).

Recently, they have a new policy that prohibits "weapons of any kind" (even with a CCW), and they reserve the right to search your person, belongings, backpacks, and vheicles parked on univ property. This is subjective, because almost anything can be considered a "weapon", including your hands. This leaves it up to the security personnel to decide what is a "weapon"...not a good thing!
 
http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/sa/studentdiscipline/
http://www.bgsu.edu/studentlife/organizations/anime/animarathon/archives/2007/cosplay.html

Apparantely, he did break the University policies with his Kabar. However, I have a feeling that he's getting the shaft for the Leatherman tool, as their policy seems to allow knives with blades under 3". Pretty much every Leatherman I can think of is less than 3". If his model was actually under 3", make sure you get it back. If the refuse to return the Leatherman, and it was permissible under the policy, file a small claims case against the individual who confiscated the tool (Actual Damages + Punitive Damages) and a criminal complaint (larceny)- the Universtiy can not be allowed to overstep the bounds. If a law enforcement officer took the knife, make sure the Department's name ends up on the civil case as well as the individual officer, add the University for good measure (if university employees were involved in confiscating the knife). If a Police Officer was involved, file a complaint with his department's internal affairs people as well (against the specific officer).

I sound like I'm recommending a harsh course of action, but if he's going to get screwed, for what he did wrong, they need to do the same.
 
If its legal according to the law of the land, I would tell the university or whatever that their rules violate your rights. Tell them you have a rule too, that you follow the laws of the land, and not some campus rule that tries to supersede the laws of the land.

The knife is being safely kept in your room (temporary home), and is not carried around on the campus. So I don't see what the fuss is all about.
 
What the fuss is about is that he is not living in his home. He is living in on-campus housing being provided by the school, and subject to school regulations of what's allowed on campus.
 
Rules are rules and everyone should follow them having the exact same treatment and consequences for not following them, especially when items that could endager the lives of others are involved..... but lets be honest. To deny any sort of activity denoting any kind of special privelege what so ever that may be in the face of said consequences is pretty naive. Had this man's son been of an affluent family making financial contributions to the school in some way I doubt the formalities and consequences of this infraction would be carried out. Although he may only recieve a slap on the wrist it will surely be a punishment that is more than some and less than others. All things are not equal and regardless of what we may think there are always exceptions to these rules. BTW it is disturbing that the Leatherman may be an issue.
 
What the fuss is about is that he is not living in his home. He is living in on-campus housing being provided by the school, and subject to school regulations of what's allowed on campus.
Click to expand...
I agree.

If the school has a No Weapons policy, as most schools do, the Ka-Bar was clearly a violation. It's designed, marketed, and issued to troops as a weapon. I can't think of a legitimate non-weapon use for a Ka-Bar in a dorm room.

But the Leatherman? I think that's a stretch. Even though it has a knife blade, the blade is probably under 3". And a leatherman, including the blade, would have many legal and functional uses in a school dorm. I kept a small toolbox in my dorm, but I probably could have gotten by with a Leatherman or other multi-tool.
 
A knife is a tool is a tool is a tool, UNTIL someone uses it with malicious intent. I don't see why ANYONE is defending this assinine rule when we're trying to keep our rights to a useful tool.
Would they have confiscated a hammer? Can you not kill someone just as good(if not easier) with a hammer? Do they have a "no tools" rule?
This is administrative dickitry at it's worst.
What's next, bannig STUDENTS because they're "dangerous" due to advanced martial arts training or hugeness?
Disgusting.:thumbdn::mad:
 
stabman said:
I don't see why ANYONE is defending this assinine rule when we're trying to keep our rights to a useful tool.
Click to expand...

Nobody is defending the specific rule. What we are defending is the responsibility of the school to set standards in the student housing it provides. The time to dispute a rule is before violating it.
 
jbarch said:
Maybe I'm doing a little venting. Mt son is in the marine reserves, did a tour of duty in Iraq and just got back to the states last spring. He enrolled at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He had a little display in his dorm room of Iraq memorabilia (including his KaBar). The school asks the students to sign a document giving permission to the school to inspect rooms during Thanskgiving break to inspect the rooms for things like fire safety, etc. (sure). Anyway, they got in my son's room during Thanksgiving break, saw his KaBar, called the police to search his room and they confiscated his KaBar and Leatherman multi tool. He now has to appeard before the school disciplinary board for his "offense". The worse that could happen is him getting kicked out of school, the best would be a "warning". Somewhere in the middle is being put on probation which would kill his chance of being Resident Advisor (which he applied for to help with housing expenses). Fortunately his floor RA is standing by him and is testifying that my son is one of the best residences he has. Yeah I know he was careless in having a KaBar in his room and letting the school have access to his room during Thanksgiving. I'm just a little ticked at the heavy hand being demonstrated by the school.
Click to expand...

Good luck to you & your son; my advice would be to tell your son to go to this disciplinary board in full uniform, all decorations. Let them see what kind of service he's given.

Also - give your thanks to your son for us - tell him we're all rootin' for him!

thx - cpr
 
Unfortunately, The same law (this schools bylaws, restrictions) that applies to police officers in most states seems awfully familiar here. If an officer is invited into your home and sees something in plain view that is illegal, then charges can be applied. No warrant is required since you allowed him access. Under Zero tolerance it doesn't matter if there is mitigating factors involved. Hopefully your son will only be warned and use this incident
as a wakeup call to be more discreet in the future. After Va. Tech I'm surprised the school did not blow this way out of proportion to set an example on how vigilant they are when it comes to (possible) weapons of any sort. Just makes me glad I'm past my school years and not having to deal with all this P.C. baloney.

Peto the Point
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I believe Los Angeles law is more restrictive than California state law.
Click to expand...

UCLA is in Westwood.

LA city has a 3" rule, and there is some confusion whether LA county has that same rule. (Have heard different things in here...but haven't had time yet to look at the statutes in detail for myself!) In LA city I carry the Emerson Combat Karambit, which at 2.6" is unfortunately just over the UCLA limit. In any case, and "the claw" is 1.75" so I am way safe on that one.
 
I'm actually a student here at BGSU, and the campus regulations here are total crap. I use the 2 knives I "do not" keep here several times a day to open food for the microwave and open my mail, but if the university found that I had them, I'd be in a ton of trouble. I hope everything works out for your son, may I ask which dorm he is in? I haven't heard any news about anyone having a Ka-Bar in their room, and typically news travels very fast here.
 
One more note...had a friend who did his med school at UCLA. He had to leave the windows of his car open all the time. If he didn't (even with an alarm), they would get broken by somebody trying to see what he was trying to protect.

Really sad, but that is where cities like Westwood and lots of universities which are bastions of liberal left wing thinking have brought us!
 
California has a law that says that Colleges can't force college students to give up 4th amendment protections in their dorm rooms. Any generic waivers required for all students are void, no matter how voluntary the school claims they are. This does not mean the students can't give permission for a search, but the police must do it like they would for any other residence.

If you are not in California that does not help you. I wish more states had this law. College students should be be learning to stand up for their Constitutional rights, not learning to mindlessly give them up.
 
reconranger said:
He had to leave the windows of his car open all the time. If he didn't (even with an alarm), they would get broken by somebody trying to see what he was trying to protect.
Click to expand...

Typical. I had a friend with a convertible in NYC that he never locked, so they wouldn't cut the top open. It was on a Citroen, which would have been hard to replace.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top