RSSWTF: 10 Year Old Florida Girl Faces Felony Weapons Charges for Bringing Small Steak Knife to School to Cut her Lunch
With all the things that are going on in our schools, this is what they deem important.
What is going on in our schools? The fact that school administrators and teachers 
can not discern between what is and is not a perceived threat in truly unbelievable these days. A 10 year old Florida girl is facing felony weapons charges for bring a steak knife to school to cut her lunch. You heard that correctly, they arrested a 10 year old girl who school officials stated had done nothing inappropriate with the knife except cut her food as she does every night at home.
A 10-year-old Florida girl faces felony weapons charges after bringing a small steak knife to school to cut up her lunch, according to a report on WFTV.com.
School officials say the Ocala 5th grader had brought a piece of steak for her lunch, and had brought a steak knife. According to the report, a couple of teachers took the utensil and called authorities, who arrested the girl and took her to the county’s juvenile assessment center.
“She did not use it inappropriately. She did not threaten anyone with it. She didn’t pull it out and brandish it. Nothing of that nature,” explained Marion County School Spokesman Kevin Christian, who added that it made no difference what the knife was being used for, they had no choice but to call police. (FOX News)
Granted, a child should probably not be bringing a utensil like this to school and her parents should have known better to pre-cut their 10 year old daughters meal at home. However, arresting her … GIVE ME A BREAK! We are told all the time that we are not supposed to generalize and that each situation and child is unique in their own manner. So one would treat little Johnny bringing his dad’s hunting knife to school to show his friends in the same manner as a 10 year old girl’s steak knife?
What is sad is that I remember a time when it was considered perfectly OK to bring a sharp knife to school, hunting or otherwise.
Posted December 18, 2007 by Scared Monkeys Bizarre, Child Welfare, Crime, Education, WTF | 15 comments |
If you liked this post, you may also like these:
Comments
15 Responses to “WTF: 10 Year Old Florida Girl Faces Felony Weapons Charges for Bringing Small Steak Knife to School to Cut her Lunch”
Leave a Reply
Kind of scary whos in charge of teaching our kids these days.
If their not molesting the students their making foolish decisions on simple matters.
I believe they need to start testing for common sense when hiring teachers, principles, and other staff members.
Even the police thought this was a dumb arrest but also claim their hands were tied. Just seems to me someone there would have had the common sense to say whoa maybe were overreacting here.
Mike
I agree, it sickens me to think these people are teaching the children of America.
What happened to explaining to the child why bringing a steak knife to school is not a good idea, these times?
Idiots, did they think of the mental anguish this child now will suffer?
Hey Mike, I’ve heard you can’t teach common sense, so our kids are in real trouble.
Although I think hyper-security is a shame, it is a product of American culture; a culture based on media instilling fear into it’s civilians.
So if you don’t like the kid being arrested for cutting up her lunch with a steak knife, then turn off the news. Let your kids go outside and play out of your sight. Send them to another country for their graduation party.
Bad things do happen; but they are NOT the norm.
My first thought in all this was, “where was the parent when the lunch was being packed?”
I am not going to go into detail, but please know how a school system operates before you make an issue out of something.
Educators are not responsible for policy as unbelievable as that might seem to some. This was obviously a “zero tolerance” policy which had to be followed. No choice…. do it or get fired!!!!!!
Who sets policy for schools??? The board of education which in almost all cases is comprised of the average tax payer who is elected in a popularity contest. Zero tolerance policies of various types have been put into action lately because of concern for school safety. However, some have been around for decades.
As this gets sorted out, I am sure that there will be an attempt to cause as little trauma to this unfortunate student as possible. I am sure the student meant no harm, but think about the “what ifs” that exist in this case.
I disagree Firefly and Great Owl….a simple taking the student to the side and explaining that she shouldn’t have brought the knife to school should have surficed in this case.
A arrest and suspension on her school record to me is extreme. Wheres the intent to do harm?
Firefly turning a blind eye won’t solve the problems.
Firefly on December 18th, 2007 2:32 pm
Send them to another country for their graduation party.
Firefly, what do was your intent with the above statement?
#4 is unfortunately correct. If you do a Google of “zero tolerance” you will find tons and tons of these stories, including my very own son’s. As a senior in high school with no behavior problems he was illegal expelled from school for having a toy pellet gun in his car under a seat. No brandishing of the toy, no threats, just got caught in a full car search. By the time we finally proved he was illegally expelled (and spend a couple thousand $$$) it was too late and he had to finish school through an on-line program. Many many many other kids have had the same types of things happen, including a 1st grader who actually turned in a plastic knife that mom had packed.
What is shows is that “one size never fits all”. Zero tolerance is a DUMB law for any situation because it never considers the actual facts of the situation. It’s a way to try to quickly legislate something and a lot of people get treated very unfairly.
Has the public school system gone biserk yet?
ummm you want to work in a school where kids can bring knives?? Do you want your child going to that school?
If it’s ok for one kid to take a knife, then is it ok for others? What about the mentally impaired child. They are in our school sytem because of ‘inclusive education’. There is a reason for zero tolerance and we need to understand that.
The kid should not have brought a knife. It isn’t ok to take it on a plane. She would get in trouble there. Why is it ok to take one to a school with our precious children?
My husband worked in a school that a kid brought a gun. Another was caught with a knife. It’s very frightening.
You have to consider what type of population goes to that particular school and actually you have to consider the kid. The news never tells that maybe that kid has violent outbursts. It’s illegal to tell people that.
I teach and I agree. No knives. Thank you very much!
Susan
#8: Yep, that happened about 6 years ago when they started this “zero tolerance” policy. Having been through it, I can’t describe the pain involved when your kid gets caught in the middle.
After I wrote my son’s story I got a number of messages from other parents whose kids also got caught in it. It was so frustrating to tell them that through everything we learned, there’s little a parent can do.
Come on Susan, theres a big difference between a little girl wanting to cut her steak and someone with a bowie knife hidden in their backpack.
I agree she shouldn’t have brought the knife into the school but with a little common sense it could have been handled better.
When this is done the DA will drop all charges because they usually have alittle more common sense then the school staff.
You have to use your head and not just read from a rule book everytime.
The school system today has a zero tolerence on bully’s, any kind of weapons etc……which I totally agree with. But… when do we draw the line on when the school abuses this privilege given to them by the state? They seem to have a license to “bully” these kids and get by with it. Do they not see the long lasting effects this abuse of power has on these kids? It will effect the college they want to attend, the job they want to get, etc……never mind the emotional damage they instill. The years of counseling they will go thru to show them that they are acceptable to society. This is a HUGE deal. How do we stop them from “crossing the line” of protecting the student body, to bullying the kids with life long effects? I find this unacceptable and have seen it recently in numerous cases besides this one. I think most of the kids graduating in the next 10 years will have felonies because of the school system. I am an upper class citizen whose family has been affected by this and am outraged. Do I need to send my kids to private school to so we can have some rights? We can’t even sue the school system, because they are protected by the state. What do we do to make this stop?
Buckster, you do raise an interesting question? The way to make this stop is to vote for members of the school board who will follow the “common sense” path for which you ask. The “zero tolerance” and other policies are put in place by that elected board. When an educator receives a policy mandate from the school board it is much like the police following the law. They are bound to enforce them even if they do not agree. Such was this case with the police coming in and arresting the child. The school board policy which was established by an average tax paying citizen, not the educators, created the policy.
Each person who goes to vote should know about the people who are establishing the policies which will shape their children’s lives. Unfortunately, most people know nothing about those running for school board. Each person needs to ask themselves whether that box they check is going to promote heathy eduction for our children. How many reading this can even write down the names of those on the school board. If you can do that then write down what qualifies them to hold such a post.
BTW, schools are not protected by the state from lawsuits. They happen all the time. Most are frivolous, but some have resulted in major changes that have benefited our children.
Firefly on December 18th, 2007 2:32 pm
Send them to another country for their graduation party.
Firefly, what do was your intent with the above statement?
My intent is to support my argument. I am not in anyway suggesting to turn a blind eye to tragedy; what I am suggesting is that we cater to the fear our society wishes to instill in us as a society. Hyper-security, hyper-sanitization, hyper-EVERYTHING. It will kill us in the end. Life is meant for taking chances.
I agree with Mike – a simple explanation of school policy should certainly do the trick.
Gotta agree with FireFly on the point our new media encourages/envokes fear.
Had a similar situation in my son’s middle school. A boy brought a water gun to school to play with at recess. He was expelled. Since this boy was on my son’s basketball team, he came over to the house from time to time and one day he and I talked about what happened. He said, “I don’t understand why I was expelled. Now, I have to retake 6th grade!” I asked if his mother had explained what zero tollerence meant and he said “no”. I went on to tell him that these days, it’s all or nothing (so to speak) and that anything that represented a gun was also considered unacceptable.
The kid DID understand and told me it was “a stupid law if it included water guns”. I agreed, but told him that is how it is and I was sorry he went through it.
He’s a good boy. When he walks his younger siblings to the store and I happen to see him, he is always disciplining them to behave. His mom on the other hand is a mess (drugs in the home and she looks scabbed up on the face). He was at our home one night and I didn’t realize he had not left before dark. I told him to call his mother and he said it didn’t matter! When I questioned why he told me…she wouldn’t miss him being gone.
How freaking sad! I drove him home myself and he didn’t want me to stop in front of his house but let him off up the street. I did so yet I watched until he went into the door. No wonder our kids (or should I say many other people’s kids) are in such a state!!!