Story from my town; local kid punished for being honest

I grew up in the 70's and would give up everything I own if we could go back to the way things were then. No computers, no cell phones etc. I would give it all up. People are way to critical, rules and laws have gotten out of hand. I was trapping while in Hi school and checked my traps before and after school and kept a 22LR in rack by the rear window of my pickup which I drove to school every day along with ammunition and sometimes a shotgun from hunting grouse before school. I also kept a knife in my pocket. Everyone knew and did not care or bother them. People were honest and trustworthy in general. Arguments were handled in words or on an occasion with a fist but no one pulled a knife or gun. I don't think it even entered anyone's mind. As I said and I say it all the time. I would give it up and go back in a heartbeat. The world was a simpler place. Some of the things are better for sure but I am afraid we have it all wrong now. My wife works for the local school district and everything she does or says including how she says it is directed by the district in order to keep them from being sued.
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Totally agree with this. My wife also is a school teacher and I could not do the job that she does.
 
I'm not sure I would go as far back as the 70's. Word processors were a major improvement over Ticonderoga #2 pencils. But, I remember the physics and chemistry teachers doing stuff that would probably get them fired today. High pressure air (60-100 psi blowoff caps) rocket launchers to teach parabolic trajectory, bringing in a pellet rifle to teach momentum (1 gram lead pellet at 100 m/s into a wood block on an air track weighing xxxx....), having bottles of sodium bicarbonate(?) at every lab table in case of an accident with acid, not letting little Johnny near the stick welder if he didn't qualify first...
 
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that's a sad story, sure sounds like punishment for doing the right thing. I hope it gets resolved so he can get back in school & there is no long term detrimental effect. Like being something on his school record a college or trade school would immediately disqualify his application on. You would hope someone within the school district might have the courage to stand up and say "hey, this seems wrong. Let's think/talk about this incident" instead of hiding behind a policy. Good luck to him
 
I don't see it as a matter of honesty. If the kid broke a neighbors window playing baseball and admitted that it was he that broke it, I would call that honesty and commend him for it.

But to surrender ones own property to someone else, in compliance with a stupid and irrational rule, when it wasn't necessary, frankly, I would call that an act of poor judgement.

I don't mean this as a knock against the kid, but the way I was raised, unless a person has a gun and a badge, I don't give up what's mine, EVER. The way I see it the kid had options- 1. Don't go to the game. 2. Leave the knife outside the venue. 3. Keep the knife in his pocket where no one would ever know he had it. After all, it's not like we're talking about a Federal building where it's a crime to carry a knife.

The kid made a mistake by trusting an already irrational school system to act rationally. Sounds like a hard lesson learned.

Like I said, I'm not knocking the kid. I just disagree with framing the issue as a matter of "honesty". I'm sure there are many people on this forum who carry a knife at work in violation of company rules, or who carry a knife into other places that have "rules" prohibiting such items. I wouldn't describe those people as "dishonest". In my opinion, stupid and irrational "rules" should be ignored.
 
I think it sad to say that I could tell with both my kids when they had enough " life experiences " to know when to lie to an adult. It doesn't take much.
 
jjoanty01 said:
I wonder if we will progress to the point where only crayons are allowed in school because, after all, a pencil or a pen can be used as a stabing instrument.
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I was stabbed in he hand with a pencil by a girl in grade school.I still have the piece of pencil lead in my hand to prove it. My Mom said the girl must really like me and did not know how to show it. I still think my Mom was wrong about that one. :D
 
I was stabbed in he hand with a pencil by a girl in grade school.I still have the piece of pencil lead in my hand to prove it. My Mom said the girl must really like me and did not know how to show it. I still think my Mom was wrong about that one.
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Thought you were going to say you ended up marrying her :D
 
flatblackcapo said:
I was stabbed in he hand with a pencil by a girl in grade school.I still have the piece of pencil lead in my hand to prove it. My Mom said the girl must really like me and did not know how to show it. I still think my Mom was wrong about that one. :D
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I had a girl "show how much she liked me" by pulling the chair out from underneath me which resulted in my noggin sporting a rather large bump for a while. She also liked to carry me around. She'd come up from behind me while I was just standing there, she'd wrap her arms around my body pinning my arms to my side and carry me all around. She was much larger than I was if you couldn't guess.

luckily, she never thought to stab me!!
 
Zero tolerance is only for administrators and leaders with zero sense and zero ability to soundly judge. It's the easy reach to the lowest common denominator of leaders and administrators vs the hard work of developing or disciplining leaders and administrators who lack sense, judgment, or the ability to use either.
 
gedlicks said:
I grew up in the 70's and would give up everything I own if we could go back to the way things were then.
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Excepting the '73 oil embargo and '79 energy crisis; the recession; inflation; loan interest rates, even mortgages, at 13%; double digit unemployment; disco; leisure suits; the stupid hair and fashion; the slow decline of the American auto industry; the rise of radical Iran; Watergate; Jimmy Carter; the gutting of the military; the rise of plastic surgery; feminism; Roe V. Wade; and on and on. Return to the "me decade"? No thanks.
 
Zero tolerance policies tend to preclude rational, critical thinking. They diminish higher brain functioning, and further down the tree, wisdom itself. It's another attempt to standardize human behavior in a very rudimentary manner, (and is not helping.) When slightly unusual and/or remotely complex sets of circumstances cause a system to penalize a young person for doing the right thing, that system needs to be amended or eliminated.
 
Just a sad story. Being a good guy and following the rules. I try to follow rules like these but i do agree some rules can be ignored and zero tolerance policies are ridiculous.
 
I wish folks would stop blaming all the teachers for this lunacy. Administration
and Boards of Education and state administrators are the bane of most teachers.

They've managed to cow many on their staffs by threatening jobs, teaching loads, etc.
The average grunt in the classroom does not agree with PC and other crap. We just want
to do our jobs and help kids to grow and grow up in an intelligent manner.

I was assigned lunch duty for 150 seventh graders for years. The kids cleaned up, washed
tables and generally policed the area because I EXPECTED that of them. New principal, "Oh, my.
You can't have the children clean up after themselves, that's the custodian's job."

I bitched and she put me on roving hall duty. Me with two bad hips and a bad knee. Oh, well.
Within a week the cafeteria was a disaster area, but the students had their rights protected.:barf:
 
Zero Tolerance policies are the new catch phrase for this generation. And if that is the rule one must abide by, then one must do so. It is as simple as that. What the young man should have done once he discovered he had it was to go back to his vehicle and place the knife inside it.

Don't get me wrong as I also think a state of lunacy exist with the already mentioned Board of Education, and the state officials that oversee our public schools. But they have been empowered to make the rules, some by appointment, and others by election, and for change to come and common sense to be the rule of the day it has to start here.
 
mqqn said:
I had my ZT0600 with me when I went to a major golf tournament - I just carry my knife with me everywhere and did not think twice.

On entry, they were "wanding" people with metal detectors.

I just pulled the knife out of my pocket in my hand with the program for the tournament and held the knife and program over my head while they wanded me, and then I entered and re-pocketed my 600.

I wonder if our friends at Knife Rights will intervene on the subject of the original post?

best

mqqn
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lol....I had my Ruger LCP in my pocket when entering a haunted house town last year. Didnt realize they would have guards at the door. didnt feel like walking back to the car so I did the samething.....pulled it and my wallet out. Had it in my hand behind my wallet. He ran the wand across my waist and waved me on. Guess I could just buy one of those all plastic knives just in case I want to carry a knife this year.
 
I remember as a kid in the 90's smoking cigarettes in the stands at games and just being told to stop a lot. Even then most kids carried knives but were smart/distrusting enough to keep them concealed around authority figures...That said, it would be kinda funny if it was a Zero Tolerance knife in question.
 
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