Students: Do You Carry At School

medusaoblongata

medusaoblongata

Joined
May 1, 2000
Messages
2,259
Specifically, do you carry knives at school that are illegal or against school rules to carry there?

I got kicked out of eighth grade for carrying a locking folder with a blade under two inches, and majorly failing an attitude test. Funny thing was, when they searched me, I had two switchblades, two pocket knives, and a set of spiked brass knuckles on me. They asked me to empty my pockets and backpack and I gave them one of the pocket knives as a sort of consolation prize or appeasement attempt - bad move!!

Anyway, that was ten years ago and now I'm a university student and even though I think folders are legal in universities by state law, they are against school rules, and not worth getting kicked out of college for, IMO. Rarely I will carry one folder if I'm leaving from school to go straight downtown or something, but I try to stop at home first to pick something up instead if I can.

Anyway, I'm just wondering what other students do...


------------------
Jason aka medusaoblongata
-----------------------
"I have often laughed at the weaklings who call themselves kind because they have no claws"

- Zarathustra
 
I only carry at school if I forget to empty my pockets before I go. Especially nowadays in the wake of Columbine. Teachers and principals are very, very jumpy now. Also, the general population just has different views regarding what's dangerous and what's not. I've had people ask if it's legal for me to carry that bad-ass knife I've got. It's a serrated Delica. I've also had some people try to tell me my CRKT PECK is a deadly weapon. Maybe to a mouse... Personally I find standard issue pencils to be much more dangerous and more frequently used weapons than knives.
 
Hello folks,

I am also a university student, but on a special one. Leuven is a city with about 50.000 inhabitants, and 100.000 couting all students in. All university buildings are scatterd trough the historical centre of the city. So in general there is no campus or ground were university rules are to be followed. The general (Belgian) rules appy there, and they prohibit the carry off (this is a quote) "any sharpened object that is solid or can be blocked by any mechanism."
Literarly that includes pencils too. But there is a hole in this system. If you take an Opinel, and remove the blocking ring, and keep it apart in your pocket, and assemble it before use (just hit it on by hitting your knife against something hard), this is not an illegal weapon. A 1 inch linerlock is. And the last one could even get you arrested if you get cought in the wrong place.
frankly, I don't care. I carr, on a daily basis, to any place or occasion, a small AFCK, a spyderco Endura or a spyderco Native.
And there's a CRKT M-16 on the way to join this club.

greetz, Bart.

greetz, Bart.
 
I'm in grade 12 and in my province there is a zero tolerance policy. No knives. For the past year I took a SAK or a schrade stockmen to school, and left my AFCK at home. How many times have you been asked to empty your pockets(not including medusa
smile.gif
)? Are they legally allowed to search you if you havn't done anything wrong, or without suspicion?
 
Only on accident. I routinely take a knife to the barn with me in the morning when I go out to feed my horses before school, I need it for opening bales of hay and things like that. The problem is once in a awhile I forget that its in my pocket and it ends up going to school with me. And a couple times after working late the night before I was so tired that I just put the knife in my pocket or on my belt out of habit and didn't realize I had done it until I was at school. That kind of leaves you with an Oh **** feeling the whole day because there is a zero tolerance policy with serious consequences. I haven't got in trouble as of yet though.

------------------
It'll feel better when it stops hurting.
 
After the spree of school violence I decided carring a knife on school grounds was a bad idea. Granted I live in Maine but when I got back to the High School after summer vacation I recieved the pleasant surprise of a LEO at the front door. ( It appears my town felt justification for hiring a full time Police Officer just for the school. I'm sorry but a 21 year old overweight cop that actually goes to some of the parties we have is not my idea of sending the right message.

My school has had an extensive past with guns and fights but last year the only person to find a gun was our assistant principal while he was doing his parking lot rounds (read as smoking a cigarette)and everytime there was a fight the LEO was there when it was all over.

I also think that the schools are geting to gung-ho about the whole state of affairs recently at an elementary school a boy was EXPELLED for having toe-nail clippers with a VERY dangerous file. I think people need to come down and address the problem for what it is, a representation of the social state of quite a few students, but by putting schools under lock and key the schools are alienating everyone else. My 2 cents.

------------------
Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn my god do you learn.
C.S. Lewis
 
I used to carry a Super Tinker to school everyday. I am sure there was a rule against knives but every teacher that borrowed it was glad I had it. Not sure I would try it in todays enviroment.
 
If I was in the habbit of carrying a sharp object in violation of my school's zero tolerance policies, and I said so in a public forum on the Net, I would hope that my school's computers' Evil Web Site Filter would keep the administrators from reading about it here.
redface.gif



------------------
- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
Since he's not on the forum I'll answer for my son. I insist members of my family carry knives. I've given every member (including my wife) an Adventurer model SAK with locking 3.25" blade. We also all have small multitools for our keyrings. My high school age son is very technical and also carries a large multitool. If he's going out in the field he carries a Buck 110 that grandpa gave him. I was worried on his last church youth group rafting trip that he would sink like a stone if he fell overboard.

Up until last spring he always carried his SAK or multitool to school. He's very knowledgeable with computers and computer networks and would frequently fix things for teachers. Often times he would loan his multitool to teachers (his school district is full of air force personel and not easily distressed by pocket tools). However, at the end of the last school year district policy tightened some more and the principal was obliged to pass dire zero tolerance edicts to the school. Steve decided the risk is too great. I'm going to give him a multitool with the knife blade cut off for school.
 
I'm going to be a senior in HS next year. I've carried several things. Sometimes two or three knives at a time. None of them were weapons in my opinion though. Just very useful tools. My daily carry for the longest time (2 years, freshman and sophomore year) was a Gerber EZ-Out. I carried a S&W SWAT for about 3 months, during that period of time I decided it was unworthy of the space it took in my pockets. Next year, I have to tone it down a bit and so I can't mess around too much no more. I can only have a Leatherman Micra.... with the occasional hidden MT UDT or SpyderCard in my wallet!

Oh yeah... and I carrried a BM910 for the last part of my junior year, but will carry a leatherman micra tool only from now on (with a hidden MT UDT in my wallet).

------------------
Chang and the Rebels of the East!
Southern Taiwan Will Rise Again!
cst.jpg


[This message has been edited by Comrade Chang (edited 07-28-2000).]
 

I carried a knife every single day of my high school career (which ended about 10 years ago). First it was a little SAK that I would actually get out in science class and amaze classmates by playing mumblety-peg (or whatever that silly russian roulette with a knife game is called) with my eyes closed. (live blade!). Heh heh. Try that in a school now. Then I discovered Spyderco and it was a plain-edge Delica or fully serrated Endura depending my the mood after that. No problems whatsoever, although I'm pretty sure my actions were totally against the rules...

Really though, even if knife carrying were completely outlawed in society, it would not stop me from carrying whatever the hell I felt like. I'll just not go to areas where there are metal detectors, and not act or look like a troublemaker in public.

This policy has worked for me for many years now, and I see no reason for it to stop working unless they remove the provisions against unlawful search from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (Canadian bill of rights.) By then however, it would be time to start buying fertilizer if you catch my drift...

PM
 
Went to Catholic high school back in the late 80's. Usually carried a small SAK or a Buck Squire lockback. One day in the lunch room I was using the Buck to open something I bought from the machine, and a priest walks by.
"What's that?" he demanded.
"Pocket knife" I answered.
"Give it here."
Great, there goes my pocket knife, I thought.
He takes the knife, trims a finger nail and hands it back.
"Thanks" he says.

Bet that wouldn't happen now. Sigh.
 
Jason, you can't carry knives at your University? What kind of school do you go to, that they can do this to you?
frown.gif
I got out of school fairly recently, and carried at the very LEAST a Spyderco Endura at all times. Usually also a Leatherman and sometimes an old swedish bayonet. Would have carried more if I could have afforded it. Yes, I'm an addict.

I carried anywhere from one to eight knives every day of high school. Well, whenever I showed up for it, anyway, which wasn't often..
wink.gif
They ranged from some POS itty bitty non-locking folders (mostly for novelty value) to a Buck 110 to a SAK. People sometimes saw them, but didn't comment unless we were doing set construction, in which case I'd get asked to loan them out. I'd usually hide them if I got called into the office for something or other ("we hear you're planning to wear a cockroach costume to prom") though, one can never be too careful when dealing with the administration. But I never got into trouble for them.. then again, these were the days before Columbine and knee-jerk zero-tol laws, so...
 
I'm starting a sophmore in collage. I ve carried a knife for the last 3 years. I started with a little light scrimshaw lock back. I then moved to a Spyderco Endura for all around use but it bets a little big sometimes. I'm in the prosses of looking for another knife maybe a four incher just as more a gentlemans knife. I'm a good kid and i made the deans list last year. But i broke all the rules when it comes to something like that. I carried a in school when i wasnt alowed and i kept a big bowie in my dorm room. I dont really think there is a question. I will continue to do so. BUt if you do feel so hesitant, leave something in the car
Any way, thats my 2 cents
J MCBang
 
University and college rules and regulations are public record, and often available on the net. These rules generally forbid knives, and the penalties are severe.

I would read the rules applicable to me, and then do a risk/benefit analysis. Walt
 
When I was in HS, my teachers realized they could do nothing about the weapons situation. Every noon, bricks would be flying through classroom door windows and showering glass everywhere. The school employed armed off-duty police officers for added security.

My American History teacher was pretty cool about it: anyone that would voluntarily give him their gun, knive, pipe, stick, etc. would get it back at the end of the day rather than have it taken away for good by security or what not.

Now in college, I carry what I want. I love the inner-city.
 
My US History teacher was pretty cool with my knives too. He knows about my balisongs and the only thing he said to me was "you never know when you might need to shave, right?".
smile.gif


------------------
Chang and the Rebels of the East!
Southern Taiwan Will Rise Again!
cst.jpg
 
I'm going to the local communicty college, and I haven't had any problems yet. I used to have a Spyderco Delica clone, which got used to free the cord for a pull-down projection screen that someone had tied to a blackboard, the clone is gone and now I have a REAL Delica, and I recently got a Remote Release and some more Spydies are on the way soon, and maybe a Benchmade or two. I'm taking the summer off so I haven't dealt with it for a while, but I did carry the Delica around for a while at school. Nothing really got much use. Also carry a SAK, Maglite, and Gerber multi-tool, and recently got a Leatherman Micra. Besides my parents thinking I'm some sort of nut, I've never had any problems. But then going back to the original question, very little is actually illegal around here, just autos(state law) or big(over 3.5 inches by city code) knives beaing concealed, and I don't have anything that would be capable of breaking those laws. Yet...
smile.gif


And woe be anyone who thinks that my knives are a problem! I have zero tolerance for zero tolerance policies...


------------------
John Rollins Jr KD7BCY
http://jrollins.tripod.com/
http://www.geocities.com/jrollins.geo/
 
There really is NO comparison between high school in the 80`s and modern day, post-Columbine high school. My son`s Spyderco knife in his jacket pocket, found during a random locker search (don`t get me started on the search policies!) cost him a month`s suspension, a trip to the police, an ARRAIGMENT, and a couple thousand dollars in lawyer`s fees. This locker search occured the week after the Colombine shootings. Everyone was ready to over-react and cover their own butts.

Chang, it didn`t matter that I didn`t consider this knife a weapon. I`ll never forget what the principal told me when he called me in to pickup my kid. He refered to my son breaking the no weapons policy at school. I told him I didn`t consider his knife a weapon. He said, and I quote, "I don`t know what planet you`re from, but here a knife is a weapon." How do you deal with THAT attitude? What do you say to THAT?

Bottom line; don`t get caught carrying anything, even fingernail clippers, in post-Colombine US high schools!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top