Cub Scout, 6, Suspended for "Weapon"

1st Grader Brings Camping Utensil to School for Lunch, But Zero Tolerance Weapons Policy Leads to 45-Day Suspension

(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 .

[mikevetman]

He is a kid, he broke the rule. If someone took it from him and killed him, the parents would blame the school. Seems like a bright kid, zero tolerance is just that. Nothing new....

[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.

[hockeymom441]

Look, a pencil could kill someone. A knife may not.

When are we as a society going to see that this isn't about access to weapons, that we need to focus on teaching children about safety, anger-management, coping skills, and good moral behavior.

There is no amount of stupid "zero-tolerance" laws that will protect us from the anger and hate that is being bred.

I think this innocent kid made a mistake. Obviously bringing a knife to school, just common sense is a bad idea... anyone that argues against that is a sociopath. Equally obvious - is that he didn't deserve this punishment, and just should have been spoken to nicely!

The poor teacher can't win. If they hadn't done anything and the next day the kid accidently slit the wrist of playmate... they'd be sued.

[falseimposter]

What would the district do if evey child brought in their pocket knife to eat their lunch for a day? Seems they would policy themselves out of a job.

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[smiddytd1]

Thanks CBS. Now any 6 year old will be able to take knives to school.
What's next an "uzzy"? A Swiss army knife? Really.Carolyn

[TrickynWV]

Really! Who on earth would want their child in a hate-fostering groups as the Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts?

[JFritz1]

Just curious how many of you have spent any significant amount of time in a real elementary school lately? I spend 7 hours a day with 4, 5, and 6 year old kindergarteners who would just as soon kick, hit,punch, stab or cut someone as "talk it out." Heck, their parents tell them "if someone hits you, you hit them back- only harder!" Eight or so years ago, a 1rst grader here in Michigan told a fellow classmate that he was going to kill her, and guess what? HE DID THE VERY NEXT DAY-shot her dead in the classroom in front of all. Adults in charge didn't take him serious when he made the threat and a 6 year old girl was buried days later. Don't tell me that weapons in the classroom-yes, even knives as small as this-don't pose a threat. I live there people. I see the it in their eyes. It doesn't matter who brought or brings these weapons into the classroom-anyone who gets their hands on it is capable of using it, and I guarantee you that in the wrong hands, it won't be used to eat lunch with. And shame on CBS Early Show(I think it was Maggie) for introducing this story the way it was-a cute little boy saying how wronged he was. Hey Maggie, let's ask the family of the little girl here in Michigan how wrong it was for their child who was killed. Hey Maggie-you have a daughter, right? Put yourself in this young girl's parent's shoes when they got the phone call to please go and identify their daughter's body. Gotta wonder which child you'd be defending then.

[cidaia]

JFritz I have spent time in a real school, tho unlike you I got to see a competent teacher who knew how how to accept that it is her responsibility to earn the kids' respect, to set and enforce appropriate limits, to craft rules and consequences that work...this woman worked for an inner city school and never wasted time blaming the parents, cuz all the parents were druggies and she didn't have much time to teach all these illiterate kids to read. But her kids were well behaved...too bad she retired, now all you see are teachers that cry that parents aren't doing enough, parents aren't sending the right sorts of kids to school...and I decided to homeschool cuz I don't want these teachers near my kid, they don't know the meaning of the word responsibility!

[JFritz1]

First of all, I never called or inferred that this teacher was incompetent. I can't imagine a more horrific way to end an otherwise, fruitfull career than to something like this have this happen while the (according to you) "well behaved" kids were in her care. (Well behaved who respected her and her "rules and consequences that worked", yet still killed. Hmmmm... I think you just proved my point!) Like her, I also work for an inner city school surrounded by drugs and crime (yes, in Michigan not too far from the Flint area.) If you reread my post CAREFULLY, you will see that I am saying that it only takes one child who doesn't have the same respect and understanding for what is right or wrong and would just as soon use a weapon to express his/her frustration. By the way, what exactly is the "right sorts of kids" that you speak of? Aren't all children deserving of a quality education along with the expectation that they will be safe in school, if nowhere else?

[HankinJAX]

This is common sense, the principal, school board and teacher should be fired for being STUPID ASS%^^%$. If you do not like this then change your public school, elect a school board that fights for the customer = Parent, and not the damn UNION which are just thugs. You as public school supporters have allowed this Shi& so live with it. Fix this crap or shutup!
By the way my kids go to private school and we fight similar battles but the damn union is not there and the teachers are on a 1 year contract. Grow up and fix the crap.

[Babasdeck]

The principal of this school should seek professional help. He has made of fool of himself with his lack of judgement regarding this issue. If this was a teenager, perhaps, but to do this to a six year old? This person obviously has no children and probably shouldn't.

[Alli_B]

"No Tolerance" was not made to upset people - it was made to help, create safety, and instill security. Do people really think this 6 year old would hurt someone with his pocket-knife? (Yes, it was a pocket-knife, but the news doesn't want you to think that) And of course this little boy most likely was only going to show it to his friends out of pure excitement. His parents should have done their job by following school rules and their parenting (and human) instict by not sending their child to school with a knife. Now they are pleading their case to the board of ed, and telling their story to the news? This is a joke. Rules are rules - they can not discrimminate. So is it okay for a 16 year old to bring a pocket knife? No it's not. So are you saying that the rule should be lifted in an elementary school? What's next? Do you see the domino effect of this? Where else can it go? I doubt that the student will be sent to reform school but there needs to be consequences for bad parenting and preventable choices.

[cidaia]

"No Tolerance" was made to strip authority away from those who are supposed to be entrusted to judge situations and take appropriate action, because we don't trust our authority figures apparently. Not saying we should.

[Chris_0505]

The type of people that BLINDLY follow in and all "orders", are likely to be the same type of people that pulled the triggers on millions of Jews in WWII, ( and other genocides ) . . just following orders.