Cub Scout, 6, Broke Weapons Rule With Camping Tool, School Says
Excited about becoming a Cub Scout, 6-year-old Zachary Christie couldn’t wait to use his new camping tool.
But when he brought out the utensil—which can be used as a knife, a fork and a spoon at lunch at Downes Elementary School in the suburbs of Wilmington, Del., officials concluded it violated the weapons ban. Under a zero tolerance policy for such violations in the Christina School District, administrators had no choice but to suspend the boy for 45 days, reports the New York Times.
Zachary feels the penalty is unfair and his mom, Debbie Christie, has started a website in an effort to lobby support for her son to go back to school.
State lawmakers recently weighed in on a similar issue, after a third-grade girl was expelled for a year because her grandmother had sent a birthday cake with her to school—as well as a knife to cut it with, the newspaper recounts. While lawmakers clarified that local school boards have the authority to modify such expulsions, they didn’t specify that school boards have the same power concerning suspensions, the Times recounts. A legislative amendment is now being discussed.
The president of the Christina district’s school board, George Evans, says the zero-tolerance approach serves an important purpose: “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,” he tells the newspaper.
However, he predicts that the board may take a more flexible approach with young children like Zachary.
