scout arrested for taking nails to school

[torribug]

This is just an FYI, if any of the boys you work with are doing Eagle projects that involve nails or something similar. Make sure that they know they can't bring them to school: http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3313972&nav=0RaPZaCA

 

(Rock Hill-AP) May 7, 2005 - An 11-year-old boy was arrested this week for carrying ten nails in his pocket at a Rock Hill middle school and charged with carrying an unlawful weapon.

Dianne McCray, assistant principal at Rawlinson Road Middle School, asked the child Wednesday what was jingling in his pocket and the student gave her the 3.5" long nails.

A school resource officer arrested him. His father picked him up and he was not taken to the police station. The father said the nails were left in his pocket after a Boy Scout outing. He says it is ridiculous that his son faces an unlawful weapon charge. He says the boy threatened no one.

 

One would hope, however, that a boy would wear clean pants to school! But I also have to wonder why sharpened pencils aren't also considered dangerous weapons at this school.

[evmori]

Another reason my zero tolerance doesn't work.

[dan]

Ten 3.5 inch nails in his pocket. That is a lot of weight not to notice. There has to be more to this story than what is written.

 

Wow Ed! your zero tolerance policy! Good to hear you got on the PC band wagon!

[ScoutNerd]

Well, if it makes you all feel any better about it...

I was suspended back in Middle School for accidentally bring a pocket knife. It was the monday after a campout, and I hadn't learned the value of using something besides your school backpack for a camping day pack. The knife was a small dinky one that couldn't cut a finger with a sawing motion :-D and I had forgotten to take it out of the small pocket at the front that morning before school. A friend saw it in there and "jokingly" made a big deal at lunch calling out "he's got a knife" at the same time the asst. principle was walking by. I spent the rest of the day in the office, and my mom had to come pick me up, and I got from that day thru christmas break (two weeks) for a homework filled vacation (how I choose to see it in retrospect :-D). So don't think that being a scout can't get you in trouble :-P

I actually fully realize it's my stupid fault, but still it's kinda funny to mention :-D

They admitted that they only suspended me because they had a no exceptions rule. They later (about a year later) started saying at the beginning of every year that "if you ever accidently bring something to school, as soon as you realize it, come to the office (before you're discovered :-D), and we'll keep it for you, so you don't have to get in trouble". So perhaps a good plan of attack for such a problem as the article talked about would be telling our kids to do such a thing (go to the office with it prematurely). I bet it could have been different.

Also about the "not realizing they were there". I don't think that was the issue, the article didn't say anything to that effect. In my experience 11 yr olds typically don't care what's in their pockets, so it probably just didn't matter, and since they were nails, he didn't think it would be a problem (when in fact it turned into one)

well that's my (slightly more than) two cents :-D

-Curtis :-D

[Prairie_Scouter]

A perfect example of why zero tolerance doesn't work. Regards the nails being hard to miss, for an 11-year-old, carrying a bunch of nails in his pocket might be the SMALLEST thing in his pocket

 

Nails are a weapon? And what, "Pop Rocks" fizzy candy is an explosive???

 

This ranks right up there with the asthmatic girl who lent her inhaler to a friend who had forgotten hers and had an attack. The girl was declared a hero for saving the other girl's life and then was suspended for drug dealing. Duh.

[evmori]

dan,

Sorry to disappoint you but I am in no way a PC person. Zero tolerance is stupid.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Torveaux]

Teachers and administrators do not want to have to actually evaluate things. Much easier for them to overreact.

 

I guess it all depends on where/when you went to school. Back in the day, everyone in my HS had a rifle or shotgun hanging in back of their pickup trucks. Pocketknives were carried by almost all boys and likely a couple of the 'girls'. It was what you did with things that was important. Now it is the objects people fear, not the users.

 

 

[GopherJudy]

I think the school resource officer should have asked the boy why he had nails in his pocket before arresting him! (If that was mentioned in the article I didn't read it yet so sorry!) Then when the boy said it was from a Scout project, he could have been taken to the principal's office, called a parent & have the parent come to the school to verify instead of arresting the boy! I think they overreacted! I'm lucky that Mark rarely puts things in his pockets!

 

Judy

 

 

[NWScouter]

Zero tolerance is the easy way for administration to avoid the appearance of or actual discrimination. The old way many good kids get away with a lot, while bad kids got jumped for everything. It only takes one incident to put the school district in a deep legal problem. Either a good kid goes off or a bad kid sues for discrimination.

 

It is a kin to the laws for possession of Eagle feather it doesnt matter that you pick it up of the ground, you're still breaking the law.

 

[Eagledad]

Hi all

 

>>Teachers and administrators do not want to have to actually evaluate things. Much easier for them to overreact.

[dan]

Ed

Did you read what you typed?

Here it is

my zero tolerance doesn't work

It was a joke.

 

I am really disappointed that a scouter could not come up with a better work than stupid.

 

But I should not think that eveyones ethics are the same as mine.

[evmori]

Oops! Missed that! Thanks dan.

 

Yeah stupid. Best word to describe the situation. Would not intelligent be nicer?

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Laurie]

http://www.beaufortgazette.com/state_news/regional/story/4842701p-4447287c.html

 

The above link shows there's a bit more to the story (the articles vary in the amount of detail):

 

"The boy offered different explanations of why he had the nails: they were left over from a project 10 days earlier; they were for self defense because a suspicious man was seen in his neighborhood or that he needed the nails for a weekend Boy Scout outing."

[Trevorum]

Torri,

This reminds me of a certain newly-minted Life Scout who was sent to the principal's office last month for spontaneously turning a cartwheel in the hallway after getting an 'A' on an especially tough test ...

[torribug]

Whether this is an egregious abuse of school administrator's power or a dumb (or even calculated) mistake of an 11-year old boy is not the point of this post. I honestly didn't post this to make the school look bad (although I think this news article or even the one Laurie posted doesn't make them look GOOD either). There are plenty of anti-ZT websites out there that already do that.

 

My point of posting this information was that if your troop is working on a project involving tools (think service hours here), you might pass the word on to your scouts that nails are now considered dangerous weapons, and that they shouldn't be taking them to school (even if they ARE shorter than pencils and less easy to wield than a fine-tip pen with a large gripper handle).

 

Another thought: when my son was in 5th grade and had just crossed over to the troop, he occasionally used his school backpack for scout outings. If you know of a boy who does that, it might not be a bad idea to caution them at the end of the campout that when they get home, they ought to take a good look at what's left in their pack before using it for school the next day. Yes, even the mess kits with a dull knife can be considered a "dangerous weapon".

 

Bug