Cub Scout, 6, Suspended for "Weapon"

(CBS)  A 6-year-old boy's excitement over joining the Cub Scouts may just land him in reform school for 45 days.

Zachary Christie was suspended from his 1st grade class in Delaware's Christina School District after bringing a camping utensil - a combination knife/fork/spoon - to use at lunch, prompting calls to reexamine schools' zero-tolerance policy for bringing weapons to school, according to a New York Times report Monday.

Zero tolerance policies were instituted in many school districts across the country, at least in part due to violence at Columbine and Virginia Tech, the report notes. Their rigid enforcement is designed to eliminate the appearance of bias or discrimination on the part of school officials.

The school district's policy is enforced "regardless of intent" and "does not take into consideration a child's age," reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod.

But residents, and some lawmakers, are now wondering why schools can't apply a more common-sense discretion to such instances.

"It just seems unfair," said Zachary, who is being home-schooled while his mother, Debbie Christie, tries to fight the suspension. That involved Zachary appearing before a district disciplinary committee with his karate instructor and mother's fiancé vouching for him as character witnesses.

"Zachary wears a suit and tie some days to school by his own choice because he takes school so seriously," his mother said. "He is not some sort of threat to his classmates."

Christie started a Web site, helpzachary.com, to drum up support for her son.

State Representative Teresa L. Schooley wrote the disciplinary committee, asking each member to "consider the situation, get all the facts, find out about Zach and his family and then act with common sense for the well-being of this child."

But the strict enforcement of the policy has its supporters.

"There is no parent who wants to get a phone call where they hear that their child no longer has two good seeing eyes because there was a scuffle and someone pulled out a knife," said George Evans, the school district board's president.

There has been a move to give school officials more flexibility in "weapon"-related incidents. After a third-grade girl was expelled for a year after bringing in a knife to cut the birthday cake her grandmother sent in to the class, a new law was passed allowing officials to modify punishments on a case-by-case basis. But that was for expulsions, not suspensions as Zachary is faced with. Another revision to the law is being drafted to address suspensions, according to the report.

[QuantumSam]

BTW way -- when I was in 7th grade I brought in my K-Bar survival knife to school for personal protection against a certain group of organized youths -- my parents didn't know I had gotten it by mail order. My homeroom teacher noticed it and kept it safe for me until the end of the day, contingent upon my promising to take it home and never bring it in again. Up to that point I hadn't even considered it illegal (since we had tales of high schoolers packing hand axes), but after that I never brought a weapon in again.

Nowadays, I worry about my son with his spork in his lunch kit -- it just takes one overzealous vice principal to declare that a weapon.

[QuantumSam]

Actually, the young boy is in violation of Cub Scout rules -- he is not supposed to use a pocket knife, any pocket knife, without first earning his 'Whittling Chip" which requires him to be trained and abide by certain rules. Cub scouts are only supposed to carry the pocket knife when they are also carrying their authorization card, i.e the Whittling Chip, and only to scouting functions. From the picture I have seen, the knife was an obvious no-no. The punishment was over the top, but the parents should have headed it off at the start. Give the boy a SPORK.

[toro_1963]

Idiocy!!!! There's no other word to describe this action. Here in Oklahoma, someone was injured at a school after a PENCIL was used to stab the person in the throat. What's next banning pencils from the school grounds???????

[QuantumSam]

Don't forget you can do just as much damage with a pen, a ruler and a belt (that buckle can break skin). Where does the line get drawn?

[awiesner]

Aaron W.
This is all ridiculous. The kid is in first grade and probably wouldn?t know what to do with a weapon to begin with. Another thing is that he?s a cub scout. Being a former boy scout, I know first hand they teach safety non-stop in the scouts, so I bet he knew how to take it out and put it away safely. Lastly, if the kid isn?t a violent kid, than obviously he didn?t mean any harm by it. Now if it was a kid who keeps to himself and might be of concern, if he brought the utensil to school that should raise alarms, not some first grade cub scout.

[grizzlymom]

My heart goes out to that poor little guy. I'm so glad my child doesn't attend a school ran by complete idiots - you can hide behind lame policy excuses or you can do the right thing as well as your job- helping kids make better decisions. They should be fired or better throw them in jail for a month and a half and see how they feel

[Scimajor]

Obviously the PARENTS, not the child, need to learn a hard lesson in what's appropriate here. Parents need to take some responsibility for once.

Certainly, in hind sight, we can all armchair quarterback and say that it doesn't make sense. School have a tough job. Everyone screams "Protect our children." then they say "What the heck are you doing??? It's only a knife!!!!". There's no pleasing people that take no responsibility for their own children.

Additionally, I can't help but wonder if the child had been from a minority group. Everyone would be screaming RACISM ... which is s really sad statement about our society ... but that's for another news article which should be along any moment now I'm sure.

[notsnhojtrebor]

Anyone notice that the Zacharys 45 days in reform school is fairly similar to Roman Polanskis 49 day plea bargain for drugging and sodomizing a 13 year old girl ? The only relation here is that the real crazies are the people who decide the penalties .

[sad_but_true]

Every classroom and every home has dangerouse objects in them, yes some are more obviously dangerous than others but calmer heads and common sense needs to previal.
In my high school we had weapons, real rifles, and ammunition for them. We had a marksmanship class and a rifle team with an indoor range and a safe with over 40 live rifles in it. In over 25 years of this there was never one accident or one school shooting. It's the person that does the harm, not the object.

[rubens63]

I'm just wondering what will be the case scenario if the same situation happened to a boy belonging to a Muslim family?I'm afraid we're under the aegis of paranoia. Can't we just go back to be normal again?Look at us. What a big deal for something that should be taken care of without the hysteria.This behavior is causing more disturbance than good in the poor boy.

[avigil2]

This is EXACTLY how the situation should have been handled! Shame on the school administrators.