6-Year old suspended - camping utensil?

[Volt]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Your view and a valid one from your perspective.
I come from a family of many, many teachers, all in the Newark, NJ school system. I know Newark very well and while I hold fond memories of growing up there, schools there are a challenge to say the least. So, I assure you I know where you are coming from.

However, that shouldn't harden an individual to the extent you take a kid who had no malice in mind as is evident now and throw him in a system with kids truly warranting reform. ....

And there in lies part of the problem:

1. We do not know what an individual is thinking when they made the decscion to bring xyz to school. Did he want to eat with it or did Johnny break his Transformer the day before and more dangerous thoughts are being had. We only know what they are saying once they are sitting in the hot seat. Rare is the kid who says, yea I brought moms zapper to school to get Suzi for dumping my food tray.

2. Or- even if he had no malice, listened pretty well at Scout camp on handle a knife but then gives it to Larry who wants to see it. Larry does damage to himself by accident to hisself or another individual. While intent is good and all that, bad $hit is known to happen with the best of intentions. A lot of things in my life I didn't mean to do, but still did the "time" for.

I'm not bright enough to have many answers but the one answer I do know that works most often and best is being involved. Either as the parent or the teacher. That's what you signed up to do, so do what is needed and expected of you.

Newwark can't be an easy place to try and make a difference, but I bet when they do it's huge.