What do you think about knives on school grounds?

colubrid said:
I did also. But that in the 60's and early 70's. Boys and pocket knives just went together.

We just live in a messed up world today....and what I mean by that is the way government controls our kids and public school system. Everything they teach has a political and anti God motive behind it.
Click to expand...

This is exactly the sort of partisan rant we cannot have here. Stop it.
 
Just read a news article that a kid brought a small knife into class and when it was discovered, the teacher called the cops and the kid is looking at suspension for the rest of the year. Talking of a young man who has had no problems and generally good grades getting the book thrown at him. What your school is doing is a good common sense way to handle the knife in school problem.
I grew up carrying a knife to school, usually a slip joint. In junior high I got a wild hair and kept 2 Buck 110 style knives in school for no apparent reason. These days with the attackers being victims and victims being guilty I'd say your school is doing you alright.
 
Kids do dumb things without thinking through the consequences. I don't think changing the rules to allow knives on campus for students is a good idea, even though I often had a pocket knife growing up. What I would like to see is the end of Zero Tolerance (no pun intended) rules that allow--and sometimes demand-- administrators to level severe consequences for tiny infractions. Common sense goes right out the window when admin decides a plastic knife is a weapon worthy of expulsion.
 
Vote yes to allowing them for adults if needed, but no for the students.
If they're taking a class that requires cutting, the cutting tools should be provided and maintained at the school.
There really is no necessity for a student to have a knife at school, and it'd be just another unneeded distraction.

I'm also for disarming them of cellphones, handheld video games, smart watches, etc., except during lunch break (or recess for the younger ones).
It's not a political thing, it's a common-sense thing.
 
I can honestly think of many times where a leatherman micra could've been the perfect thing to have with me at school, wether it be unclogging a bottle of glue to opening a pack of pencils or stubborn chip or granola bar package, not to mention tightening the blade on my pencil sharpener or using the tweezers to remove a splinter I got from the jungle gym bark box.
It may not be a super important thing for a kid to have, but I would never have needed ( and didn't have ) a cell phone that much.


I don't like the whole zero tolerance policy, because some things aren't as bad as others. my friend once got suspended for having a small multiplyer that had no knife, because " someone could think it had a knife " and I got suspended for a Lego figures gun ( less than 1/2" long )
Because again " someone could think it's a gun ".
 
Last edited:
I went to school in the 60's and 70's also, and carried a knife everyday. I can't remember a single instance of one being used as a weapon against another student or teacher. We didn't shoot up the school either. While I wish I could say students should be able to carry knives, I don't think it is workable any more. It is just a different world. I do think they go way overboard when they suspend students for pictures of guns and knives.
What can I tell you, there is much in the world today that makes me shake my head, and I do long for the good old days. I guess I am just getting old.

I think the problem the schools have is they want to treat everyone as equals. Unfortunately they are not equal. Some are responsible knife owners, some irresponsible, some hoods, and some just plain nuts. The easy way is to say no knives at all, then there is nothing to determine, and no one can claim wrong or prejudice .
 
Last edited:
Hickory n steel said:
I think they should at least be allowed to have a say classic or leatherman micra.

I would probably only let a kid have a full sized multitool if they ride a bike , scooter..ect to school otherwise some troublemaker might take his leatherman to school and take the screws out of a bathroom stall.
Click to expand...

What about us mechanic kids who have the security bits that can take out the weird screws anyway.
 
Peter Hartwig said:
I went to school in the 60's and 70's also, and carried a knife everyday. I can't remember a single instance of one being used as a weapon against another student or teacher. We didn't shoot up the school either. It is just a different world. I do think they go way overboard when they suspend students for pictures of guns and knives.
What can I tell you, there is much in the world today that makes me shake my head.
Click to expand...

I'm a high school junior. My principal here in souther Cali loved the pic of the knife I made. She's one them common core liberal supporters but I told her I used math to sharpen it at an angle and she saw it much differently than making a "weapon". My idea of rules. If you got caught with a knife at school then you obviously did something wrong and shouldn't have it at school
 
Carried a knife since 2nd Grade, still carries one now everyday. I think school should teach proper knife using techniques, and knife safety, it will be a better solution than just banning them.

-Kevin
 
If it ever were legal I'd make sure my kids have some too and know how to draw and use it fast. Can't have mine to be the least armed ones, that wouldn't be very responsible.
 
My knife use education began around 4 y.o., and when I started 1st grade (1961), my grandfather gave me my first knife with the statement - "We can't have you borrowing anyone else's knife at school." Every day until 5th grade, I carried a knife. 5th grade on, I carried 2, one in each front pocket.

Until 9/11, I carried at least 2 pocket knives every day, with few exceptions
- when wearing Dress Whites in the Navy (no access under the tunic),
- when going on liberty in foreign ports (local law compliance),
- when in the hospital wearing one of those split-up-the-back hospital gowns (no pockets).

I had other knives on my EMS duty belt.

After 9/11. I started carry dual fixed blades EDC, just because I could and I no longer worked in a corporate environment the banned knives. (Although I carried them anyway as part of my EMS gear.:D)

That's all back ground as to why schools have their policies (and some states actual laws, re: knives on school properties) - lack of early education in the proper care, feeding and use of knives. The lack of training leads to improper use and hence the bans.

Since the local schools banned the carry of ANY knife on school properties, I have voted with my pocketbook and refused to attend or support ANY school sporting event or function.

I was recently asked if I could come to one of the local schools to talk about bees and beekeeping (I'm currently the only known beekeeper in the school district).

My response was "Sure, if you can get the School Superintendent to provide me with advance permission, IN WRITING, to bring knives onto school property."

When asked why, I simply said "My knives are tools that I use on a daily basis for beekeeping, as well as many other tasks."

Still waiting, but not holding my breath.
 
Last edited:
Obviously, the school budget should include classes in "knife skills". Some other things sadly lacking in modern education:

Hydrozene handling and storage.
Sign language.
Kurdistan history.
Noodlin'.
Laser hair removal.
Sod house Habitat for Humanity.
Orchid care.
The novels of Steam Punk.
Numismatics.
Free diving.
Heraldry.
Aquaman.
Falconry.


And I think we have a real shot of getting these in, as long as the "special interest people" don't get in our way.
 
RX-79G said:
Obviously, the school budget should include classes in "knife skills". Some other things sadly lacking in modern education:

Hydrozene handling and storage.
Sign language.
Kurdistan history.
Noodlin'.
Laser hair removal.
Sod house Habitat for Humanity.
Orchid care.
The novels of Steam Punk.
Numismatics.
Free diving.
Heraldry.
Aquaman.
Falconry.


And I think we have a real shot of getting these in, as long as the "special interest people" don't get in our way.
Click to expand...

More trolling. Don't press your luck.
 
RX-79G said:
Obviously, the school budget should include classes in "knife skills". Some other things sadly lacking in modern education:

Hydrozene handling and storage.
Sign language.
Kurdistan history.
Noodlin'.
Laser hair removal.
Sod house Habitat for Humanity.
Orchid care.
The novels of Steam Punk.
Numismatics.
Free diving.
Heraldry.
Aquaman.
Falconry.


And I think we have a real shot of getting these in, as long as the "special interest people" don't get in our way.
Click to expand...

If you cook you need to be able to properly and safely handle a knife. If you don't cook, why the heck not? And proper knife safety and care in the kitchen translates quite well to knives out of the kitchen as well. They teach amny things that are a lot less useful than how to dice an onion quickly and safely.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
If you cook you need to be able to properly and safely handle a knife. If you don't cook, why the heck not? And proper knife safety and care in the kitchen translates quite well to knives out of the kitchen as well. They teach amny things that are a lot less useful than how to dice an onion quickly and safely.
Click to expand...

Didn't you have home economics? It was mandatory in for us middle school, and there were high school cooking/food service classes as electives.

I learned to sew in home ec, too. Shop was mandatory as well.
 
Home economics and shop go back to my high school in the 50's. But like typing, home ec was only expected for the girls. Boys had to push to get in. Some years later, the school added personal business skills, like budgeting and balancing a checkbook.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Home economics and shop go back to my high school in the 50's. But like typing, home ec was only expected for the girls. Boys had to push to get in. Some years later, the school added personal business skills, like budgeting and balancing a checkbook.
Click to expand...

In 1984 Wisconsin, there were no separate boys and girls classes. The girls used power tools and the boys made potato salad. With knives and everything!



To be honest, I didn't think the OP was about learning about knives at school, but simply being able to bring them to school. If this thread is about bringing cooking knives to home ec or carving tools to shop class, please correct me.
 
I don't think its a knife problem. I'm kinda glad kids are not allowed them, but I also won't bust a kid who decided to bring a pocket knife on camp if they are being smart about it. That's really the test.

With home-ec and shop not being part of most schools anymore, the place to learn those skills is gone. Add to that Zero-tolerance and its even harder. Many of the teachers I know would love to put their kids into those more physical classes, but there is just not the resources. If kids at the middle school level could go back to cooking and basic shop class, then by high-school a knife is nothing different than an eraser shield or a thumbdrive, just something to use to make the day easier. But that tide is slowly turning. little by little.

But as has been pointed out, home is for teaching things that are not in schools. And influence goes much farther than you think. I have it at the front of my mind due to training, I'm nearly like a parent in a lot of ways at work. Showing kids things that others have not. And when we take kids out in the field, guess who chops the onions? not the instructor or teacher that's for sure. For some of the private school kids, Mom and Dad can't teach them those skills because they no longer have them. They'd get better training from the chief and maid, unfortunately they don't always think they need to learn them...... hunger fixes that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top