Someone Needs to Stay After Class

So, an honor student and soccer star at a high school in North Carolina goofed and brought a paring knife to school one day.

Unluckily, it happened to be the day that the school was searching student possessions because another student had been caught with marijuana. Because the school encourages students but not administrators to think for themselves, they have a "zero tolerance" policies regarding weapons on school grounds. The student with the knife was suspended for 10 days, she said, and then her suspension was somehow altered so that she could complete the one required course for graduation through a satellite program at a community college.

She could not, however, set foot on school grounds for the remainder of the year, meaning she could not play or receive her diploma with her classmates at commencement.

The student maintains the knife was in her dad's lunch container, which she picked up by mistake. The school superintendent days he can't discuss details of the case because of privacy regulations, but those apparently don't keep him from saying that the knife was actually found in her purse, not her lunch container. Beyond that, he can't say. Except that the student isn't actually suspended, she's enrolled at the school right now in the satellite program. More than that, he can't say. Except that it's kind of funny she went to the press two months after the incident instead of the normal appeals process. More than that, he really can't say, at least until there's some other way he can try to win his case in the media.

The school board met in emergency session Friday to reconsider the situation, probably because the media were now aware of it and they looked really stupid, but they apparently decided they could live with that because they didn't lift the suspension.

Personally, I do think bringing the knife to school was just a mistake, even if I'm a little iffy on the lunchbox switcheroo likelihood. But in the meantime, the school board and administrators just continue to look silly, and most of what's come from them carries a serious attitude of demonstrating that they're not going to be pushed around by some punk kid. What happens to that kid in the process is not their problem, even though what happens to kids is supposedly the reason they have the responsibilities they've sought.

Because seriously? Weapons have no place at school, but how likely is an honor student to go all "I Don't Like Mondays" with a paring knife? She plays soccer, which means she could wear her cleats to class and hurt more people that way than she ever could with a knife, and the school bought the cleats for her. A stiff stab with a Bic might be more lethal. But having made their decision, the school board and administration will now stick to it, hinting that the real story is something different than media outlets have been told but they can't say what the real story is because of those pesky privacy concerns.

The superintendent insists that the school board followed and adhered to all relevant policies and procedures. I agree, but the real issue is that he chooses not to see that's exactly the problem.