6-year-old with weapon suspended for 45 days

This is going wayyyyy overboard,he is only 6 years old. He is still a baby in my eyes. suspention is rediculas.

I hope this story is not about popularity but to bring ridiculous regulations to an end.
Our children deserve to have a childhood, Our children need our protection but not hysteria, fear, and distrust.
Our boys should be allowed to grow up as confident men and not confused, frustrated, and fearful.

Meredith Viera interviewed the little boy along with his parents this AM about the incident. All he wanted to do was eat his lunch, and he really did not know until he got called to the principles office and saw his mom, that he was in any kind of trouble. He is being home schooled now and it seems to me the story has gotten quite popular!

Clearly this is the left wing media's fault for demonizing the boy scouts since they don't like homos.

I'm so glad I'm not American.

How do you even respond to something like this? Yes, young children are committing adult crimes more and more...a problem I place directly in the lap of lack of proper parentage and lack of common sense in our society. Common sense having been replaced by misinformation, fear, and the incessant race to be "the first in line" that seems to pervade our "me" society now. The parents should have checked his backpack knowing the rules of the school and their no tolerance for weapons and the resulting punishment for breaking those rules. Instead, the poor kid, who doesn't even understand what's happening is made the focus of a big investigation, headline news, and blamed for carrying a "dangerous weapon" when all he wanted to do was show how proud he was to be a part of a tradition of scouting that used to be recognized as a leading organization in teaching young men the values and skills of growing up in society and how to become good citizens. By the way, why are they not weighing in on this case? Their logo is in plain view. So to some parents I say, quit blaming your kids, especially six year old's, for such heinous crimes and assume responsibility for your own inaction in not doing your job and leaving it to others to do.

Yet another reason why government run institutions are a failure in both common sense and results.

they called the LAUSD school police on my 6 year old son without my knowledge or consent. Luckily my instinct to go to the school due to their lack of paying attention in returning parents call were neglected. I walk in to their office and found my self in a room with the VP of the school with the school police sitting in her office, as I was invited to her office, right behind me was my 6 year old son. I was in shock! i felt that was a violation of my sons right, but the school said that it was a school policy to call the school police without the parents consent. It's all due to a little boy getting bullied by bigger boys and out of anger my son said to the other child that he was going to shoot him with a gun. I didn't mind if we were consulted first. I was the VP for the school site council and run the book drive charity for the school and very active parent. Isn't it the law that you cannot interigate a minor without any parents consent? why is it a different law in our school system? What the heck is going on? are we going to be picking up our children in jail without our consent at starting age of 6?

Our school system is all screwed up!

poor kid. he was just trying to eat his lunch.

Zach is six years old and knows the rule is wrong. Impressive. I was starting to worry about our future leaders. This boy has potential.

The Boy scouts are supposed to enlist upstanding troop leaders as idols and teach our boys survival, common sense and integrity, ethics and honor. Now I suggest that all teachers and school officials be sentenced to one year with a Boy scout troop to learn the code, discipline and the motto of the Boy scouts and what it means to be a boy scout and an American.

I remember the plastic dumb rubberized scissors for common retards. I never used them of course. There are plenty of weapons in school. You could staple somebody, sharpen them, or beat them with a swing chain.

This is so wrong!!!

He's six years old! He prolly just wanted to show off his new toy to his buds, and to be taking out of school for 45 days is too much. I thought we wanted kids to stay in school? Not to kick them out? this is mest up on so many levels.

What is reform school? and how do you go there for 45 days out of the school year. You miss the momentum of learning; messing up learning at any age. This is not constructive!

He see probably on the news these wakos carrying guns in public and just thought it would be fine. To put this little boy in any reform school is just plain wrong. You will really F him up if they do this. It's a dam boyscout eating tool. My boys had them when they were little.

the kid is 6 years old he doesnt know any better. i stand in the middle on the zero tolerance policy, but there needs to be some give and pull. 45 days of reform school is a little extreme. what i would do is talk with the den master and have him give a speech to the cub scouts about not bringing them to school. that seems easyer. plus, it would prevent the other cub scouts from bring their "eating utensils" to school also. not using a kingergardner as an example to everyone else.

Old American rule- take the thing away and spank the kidd.

New American rule- deny education for several weeks for something legally considered hazardous.

BULLSHIT.

This proves a couple of things:

1. This is why government needs to get out of the education business. Private institutions with common sense rules.

2. Jersey is still an awful state

These zero tolerance rules were designed so that rules would be applied fairly and equally.

However, all they seem to do is remove peoples ability to think. People allowed fear to let them make stupid rules that must be mindlessly followed.

Before you know it pencils won't be allowed since they're sharp.

Boy Scouts of America has very specific rules for the proper use of pocket knives. Tiger Cubs (1st graders) are never permitted to use or carry pocket knives. All other cub scouts may only carry a pocket knife during appropriate events designated by adult leaders. Every "whittlin chip" class I have ever witnessed or taught includes a strict admonition that knives should never be taken to school.

http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Whittling_Chip

What ever happened to intent and reputation before expulsion? The teacher should have taken it away and had the parents pick up the child and item and explained that it wasn't o.k to have this. If he did it again then suspension. Not listening to the rules after FAIR warning, expulsion is then in order.
Acting like he is a young terrorist or something of that nature is completely jumping the gun.
What a waste of energy. Focus on the kids that are actually causing trouble.

I got in trouble for this exact thing when i was in 7th grade. i only got suspended for 2 weeks though. The 'hobo knife' i had was way more harmless then the one shown too, its bull

Why that little outlaw should be beaten with a Razer strap. then put in jail why that little so and so is a menice to the public. Ha just tell the mom and dad to keep a closer eye on there son. Thats all that needs to be done. Lets use our brain for somthing besides a rattle to make noise.

This is just another example of liberal overkill.

Finally, they caught him !!! Thank goodness this was before this kid grows up, becomes a soldier, and shoots his weapon before he does a full blown analysis in determining if there will be any civilian casualties, while watching his fellow soliders die from an IED.

It only takes a single event today to put the whole country on lock down.

We used to be a land of laws. Today we're just a land of lawyers. Just look at Congress. Wake up folks. Look at history, America has already plateaued, we're on the way down. This type of idiocy must end or we'll never recover......

@ 2muchinfo: "I got robbed in Newark by a 5 year old (the leader) and his 6 year old friends. Guess what the weapon they used on me?"

Who cares what weapon they used on you? If a 5 year old tried to rob me I'd whip his little ass and send him home to his mama. Surely you can figure out how to outwit a 5 year old.

I have never even heard of a 6 year old being suspended. I didn't even know you could suspend a 6 year old. Maybe a referral (or a pink slip as they were called at my elementary school), but this is just ludicrous.

45 day suspension for a CUB SCOUT pocket knife... When, correct me if I am wrong, the kids from the "school bus beating" only got suspended for like 3 weeks or something, if I remember correctly.

Makes perfect sense.

good work on kickin that thug-scout out of recess

6 year old terrorists. This terror is out of control. I hate fear driven idiots like the USA is chock full of. The nanny imperialistic police state. It smells funny.

The school was right to ban the cute cub scout knife, it should not be in school.

It would be wrong to send the kid to reform school, and I doubt very seriously that will happen. He will more than likely be in school the next day.

Part of me thinks that the school is run by robots who can't reason. But the other half of me thinks that the Club Scouts staff are idiots for giving a 6 years old a set of "utensils" that have a knife in it! Club Scouts staff know that kids shouldn't be given a knife at all, doesn't matter if its eating utensils or not.

45 days. That's about 7 tests per class. That's about 1/2 of her semester's worth of work. So that would take an A student down to what, a C?

Over a fork?

STAY IN SCHOOL.....

.....until we make up a reason to suspend you!

He was gonna kill every.... what? ......... Sorrry !!! This six year old was no danger to................

C.A.S.E. = CUT ASS SO EASILY. i wonder if thats really what he had.?

Zero tolerance = Zero tolerance, i would do the same thing, even to a 1 year old.

When you allow 1 problem to go unfix a bunch pops up, no it was the kids fault because his parents should have obviously said something and the 45 days to reform is bit too much, a week or 2 week or suspension would be good but still the school had to uphold to their responsibility by suspending him, not like hes going to miss anything important.

Another thing it is not the school to be blame, ir is parents fault,parent should have told the child he couldn't bring a damn knife to school, stop blaming the school.

The school needs to react uniformly and quickly when students bring weapons to school. Whether it be a cub scout utility knife or a box cutter, a blade is a blade. The student should be punished for bringing this to school, but a reform school is nothing but a waste of money for the state.

Its still a knife! And kids will be kids, if your daughter or son came home from school and said that a student in the class was flashing a knife around at lunch, or anytime during school yes, I would be upset!
Is Newark Delaware dangerous?
On the other hand, little Zach is a kid and reform school is harsh and not helping anyone; classmates, teachers, or parents.
I would arm all the kids with knives, forks, and spoons (plastic of course) and teach them how to "properly" use these utensils for eating. A long lost art in etiquette! Boy scouts can teach the rest.

wat can u truelly say today about your kids?

Betcha the kid liked a month and a half off from school. I know I would...

Man, that is one stupid school. I got suspended 10 days for drinking at states, after we won! I was 17. This 6 years old kid brings his Club Scouts eating utensil thing for lunch and gets suspended for 45 days because it has a knife? That school is run by idiots.

gah dang! what the hell man?

home of the brave.... NOPE
land of the Free... NOPE

common sense... dead....

where did america go?

wtf. american schools keep getting worse

the little bastard brought a sharpened pencil to school, too. he's up to no good, i tell ya!!!

Might as well pull him out of school. Home schooling is better than any public school these days. Heck, watching TV is better than public school.

More $ 4 War = None 4 The Poor!

This is a prime example of how laws must have interpretive gray areas.

What happen to boys playing war? Should boys play with dolls and other girls’ toys so adults will not be fearful? The boys are not allowed to be boys.

ism wins when we fear our children.

Meh, I put my swiss army knife in my backpack for a hike when I was in the 5th grade and forgot to take it out before I went to school the following day.

I told my teacher what happened when I realized it and she just took the knife away until the end of school day. No fuss, no mess, and I didn't do it again. Someone should have just taken the knife away from the child and explained that he can't have that kind of stuff in school.

Sad when you have to set an example with a 6 year old with a new 'toy'....

zero tolerance = zero common sense

where is this country going!!!!!!!

This school district is run by idiots. Obviously he wasn't trying to violate any zero tolerance policies.