As a 17-year-old Eagle Scout continues to wait out a one-month suspension from his upstate New York high school for having a 2-inch pocketknife locked in a survival kit in his car, the U.S. Military Academy says the missed school days could pose a big problem when it reviews his application.
Pressure is mounting on a Troy, N.Y., school board to overrule Matthew Whalen's suspension from Lansingburgh High School, which was issued because of a zero-tolerance policy that is facing increasing opposition from parents and education advocates.
Whalen, a senior, says he stocks his car with a sleeping bag, water, a ready-to-eat meal and the small knife, which was given to him by his grandfather, a police chief in a nearby town.
But Lansingburgh High has a zero-tolerance policy for weapons, and when school officials discovered that Whalen kept his knife locked in his car, he says, they suspended him for five days — and then tacked on an additional 15 after a hearing.
On Wednesday, West Point's director of admissions told Foxnews.com that Whalen's suspension alone wouldn't be a "show-stopper" and "didn't appear to be a big issue" for the youth, though it will appear on his record as the military academy considers his moral and ethical fiber.
"My concern would be, how does this impact on his academics?" said Col. Deborah McDonald, the academy's head of admissions. "Because 20 (school) days is a long time to be suspended."
But the Lansingburgh School District is not budging. A person reached at the home of a school board member referred all calls to the superintendent, who told a local newspaper he thinks the punishment was "appropriate and fair," and that it was necessary for the district to enforce its zero-tolerance policy evenly.
"Sometimes young people do things they may not see as serious," Superintendent George Goodwin told the Albany Times-Union. "We look at any possession of any type of knife as serious."
When I was in the fourth grade a girl in front of me was goofing around with a pencil and it ended up stuck in my palm. I can still see the mark left by the lead in the pencil. A sharpened pencil is as dangerous as any knife, and yet we not only allow kids to carry them, we provide them the tools to sharpen them to a tiny point.
It's all silliness.
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4 comments:
The fact that he is an Eagle Scout probably has more to do with this than anything else. If he were a gang member they would have probably patted his hand and expelled him 2? days or not at all.
LOL. I still have a lead mark in my knee from an elementary school playground run-in with a pencil which was in another student's back pocket. Had to go to the doctor and have the lead removed.
Life has risks, period. The way some school administrators try to legislate away only certain risks with crazy zero tolerance policies reflects poorly on our country and the direction we're heading.
Best wishes,
Laura
I do not understand this story! His 2" knife was in his car, which was locked! Do the teachers open all the cars and inspect them? Is this student doing so well, the school wanted to discredit him?
WHERE IS THE COMMON SENSE IN AMERICA?
Linda has raised my question too. What about laws against unlawful search and seizure? How did they know anything about the contents of his car? Where was the probable cause?
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