I got a phone call from the Principles Office today asking me to pick up my son because he had brought a knife to school. As you can imagine I was shocked and pretty distraught hearing this information. The only knives I could think of were kitchen knives since I do not hunt live animals or really collect knives at all.
I keep what knives I do have which were given to me by my Grandpa locked up in my safe in case of a fire. Other than those antique knives and the kitchen knives I could not think of any other knife he could have taken. My kitchen knives are the really sharp knives they sell on tv. I'm not even sure what they are called I've had them so long, but they are definitely sharp. I was freaking out.
When I arrived at the school I was instructed to show my I.D. and then I was led to the Principles Office. There I had a seat and the Principle closed the door and stated again the reason I was there was because my son had brought a knife to school. After I was informed of a zero tolerance school rule against weapons of any kind I was shown what he had brought to school.
I have been fishing mostly this year not metal detecting at all really. I've went maybe three times that I can remember this year. The most recent was last weekend where my wife took a day off work to relax and go metal detecting with me. We hunted a park that dated back to the 1870s where I ended up finding an 1875 shield nickel.
At noon we decided to head home that day to clean up before we picked the kids up from school. After picking up the kids we decided to try the park again shortly before we got something to eat. It was then that my son dug his first real good to him find. It was an old pocket knife. The kind that I'm sure most all of us have found. It was so old the side was falling off and the blades had long ago joined together in a blob of iron oxide rendering the knife inert and nonfunctional.
On seeing the knife I was greatly relieved. I had asked the Principal if the suspension was set in stone or if there was any way to advert it. I was informed that there was nothing else to do. There is a zero tolerance on weapons.
I am relieved when I came to the realization that my son just wanted to share his find with his classmate rather than a nefarious reason. He sits with a girl on the bus that lives in the neighborhood and I think he was trying to impress her with his relic since it was the first one he had ever found.
My son is also in BoyScouts and his mother is a Den Leader. They have meetings at the local church. They had just finished their first meeting this week after having sign ups in my sons school cafeteria where my wife, two kids, and I attended.
I wonder if this also confused my son since at BoyScouts they see knives being used and carried frequently by the adults. Since the adults were in full uniform as with any other meeting I wonder if that in a sense helped desensitize him in regards to the seriousness of taking knives into a school building.
My son knows now what he done was against the rules and how serious taking weapons to school is. I am given (5) days to appeal for procedural correctness. Since the suspension was only (1) day I cannot appeal the charge only for procedural correctness which I am giving serious thought to.
I am reaching out to the FMDF for your (constructive) thoughts on whether I should persue an appeal of the zero tolerance rule for procedural correctness based on that in this instance the "weapon" or "knife" had long passed it's day as an operational device.
Example: In my mind if I was carrying this knife in my car and was stopped at a police checkpoint and asked if I had any weapons I would not even consider mentioning it.
I understand that weapons of any kind should not be on school grounds and that it is a very sensitive area these days to even talk about. I really believe in my heart though that this was different and could have been overlooked. I mean when does a weapon stop being a weapon? When it stops functioning, when its so caked in oxide that it is indistinguishable, or when there is nothing left?
Unrelated: This is the same place where right across the street from the High School Football field that someone discovered an intact Civil War artillery shell. They called out a local Retired Principle, Civil War Author, Historian, Collector, and Reinactor to verify it was real and unexploded. After the shell was authenticated and verified it was handed over to the Bomb Squad and detonated in a field where the Squad members picked up the pieces and took home as keep sakes.
If there are any school teachers that are familiar with these appeal procedures or anyone that has been through one has any information, pointers, or thoughts of how I could approach this that would be great!
Thanks,
13rannon
I keep what knives I do have which were given to me by my Grandpa locked up in my safe in case of a fire. Other than those antique knives and the kitchen knives I could not think of any other knife he could have taken. My kitchen knives are the really sharp knives they sell on tv. I'm not even sure what they are called I've had them so long, but they are definitely sharp. I was freaking out.
When I arrived at the school I was instructed to show my I.D. and then I was led to the Principles Office. There I had a seat and the Principle closed the door and stated again the reason I was there was because my son had brought a knife to school. After I was informed of a zero tolerance school rule against weapons of any kind I was shown what he had brought to school.
I have been fishing mostly this year not metal detecting at all really. I've went maybe three times that I can remember this year. The most recent was last weekend where my wife took a day off work to relax and go metal detecting with me. We hunted a park that dated back to the 1870s where I ended up finding an 1875 shield nickel.
At noon we decided to head home that day to clean up before we picked the kids up from school. After picking up the kids we decided to try the park again shortly before we got something to eat. It was then that my son dug his first real good to him find. It was an old pocket knife. The kind that I'm sure most all of us have found. It was so old the side was falling off and the blades had long ago joined together in a blob of iron oxide rendering the knife inert and nonfunctional.
On seeing the knife I was greatly relieved. I had asked the Principal if the suspension was set in stone or if there was any way to advert it. I was informed that there was nothing else to do. There is a zero tolerance on weapons.
I am relieved when I came to the realization that my son just wanted to share his find with his classmate rather than a nefarious reason. He sits with a girl on the bus that lives in the neighborhood and I think he was trying to impress her with his relic since it was the first one he had ever found.
My son is also in BoyScouts and his mother is a Den Leader. They have meetings at the local church. They had just finished their first meeting this week after having sign ups in my sons school cafeteria where my wife, two kids, and I attended.
I wonder if this also confused my son since at BoyScouts they see knives being used and carried frequently by the adults. Since the adults were in full uniform as with any other meeting I wonder if that in a sense helped desensitize him in regards to the seriousness of taking knives into a school building.
My son knows now what he done was against the rules and how serious taking weapons to school is. I am given (5) days to appeal for procedural correctness. Since the suspension was only (1) day I cannot appeal the charge only for procedural correctness which I am giving serious thought to.
I am reaching out to the FMDF for your (constructive) thoughts on whether I should persue an appeal of the zero tolerance rule for procedural correctness based on that in this instance the "weapon" or "knife" had long passed it's day as an operational device.
Example: In my mind if I was carrying this knife in my car and was stopped at a police checkpoint and asked if I had any weapons I would not even consider mentioning it.
I understand that weapons of any kind should not be on school grounds and that it is a very sensitive area these days to even talk about. I really believe in my heart though that this was different and could have been overlooked. I mean when does a weapon stop being a weapon? When it stops functioning, when its so caked in oxide that it is indistinguishable, or when there is nothing left?
Unrelated: This is the same place where right across the street from the High School Football field that someone discovered an intact Civil War artillery shell. They called out a local Retired Principle, Civil War Author, Historian, Collector, and Reinactor to verify it was real and unexploded. After the shell was authenticated and verified it was handed over to the Bomb Squad and detonated in a field where the Squad members picked up the pieces and took home as keep sakes.
If there are any school teachers that are familiar with these appeal procedures or anyone that has been through one has any information, pointers, or thoughts of how I could approach this that would be great!
Thanks,
13rannon
