New York Morons
2009-10-15 01:34:30 UTC
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,566182,00.html?loomia_ow=t0:
s0:a16:g4:r1:c0.000000:b-2:z10
As a 17-year-old Eagle Scout continues to wait out a one-month
suspension from his upstate New York high school for having a 2-
inch pocketknife locked in a survival kit in his car, the U.S.
Military Academy says the missed school days could pose a big
problem when it reviews his application.
Pressure is mounting on a Troy, N.Y., school board to overrule
Matthew Whalen's suspension from Lansingburgh High School, which
was issued because of a zero-tolerance policy that is facing
increasing opposition from parents and education advocates.
Whalen, a senior, says he stocks his car with a sleeping bag,
water, a ready-to-eat meal and the small knife, which was given
to him by his grandfather, a police chief in a nearby town.
But Lansingburgh High has a zero-tolerance policy for weapons,
and when school officials discovered that Whalen kept his knife
locked in his car, he says, they suspended him for five days
and then tacked on an additional 15 after a hearing.
On Wednesday, West Point's director of admissions told
Foxnews.com that Whalen's suspension alone wouldn't be a "show-
stopper" and "didn't appear to be a big issue" for the youth,
though it will appear on his record as the military academy
considers his moral and ethical fiber.
"My concern would be, how does this impact on his academics?"
said Col. Deborah McDonald, the academy's head of admissions.
"Because 20 (school) days is a long time to be suspended."
But the Lansingburgh School District is not budging. A person
reached at the home of a school board member referred all calls
to the superintendent, who told a local newspaper he thinks the
punishment was "appropriate and fair," and that it was necessary
for the district to enforce its zero-tolerance policy evenly.
"Sometimes young people do things they may not see as serious,"
Superintendent George Goodwin told the Albany Times-Union. "We
look at any possession of any type of knife as serious."
Yet the knife is not considered a weapon by the New York State
Education Department definitions and punishments are left up
to local school boards to decide.
"Districts by law are given a great deal of discretion for the
conditions they impose," said Jonathan Burman, spokesman for the
Education Department.
"The discipline that's meted out ... [is] a matter of local
discretion," he said, and "simply here if the school board
decides to make a change in their policy it's a matter for them
to decide."
Whalen's family says they've given up hope that their school
district will rethink the penalty, even after a school board in
Delaware reversed a similar decision Tuesday night, granting a
reprieve to a 6-year-old first-grader who had been ordered to
attend a reform school for 45 days after he brought a Cub Scout
camping utensil to lunch.
"The board hasn't even taken the issue," said Bryan Whalen,
Matthew's father. "As far as the superintendent is concerned,
he's made his decision and we haven't been offered the
opportunity to even appeal that at a board meeting."
That policy is coming under fire from some education advocates,
who say it is "pernicious" and inflexible and must be overturned.
"I just don't believe zero tolerance is the right way to go,"
said John Young, a board member in the Delaware school district
that voted unanimously Tuesday night to reinstate 6-year-old
Zachary Christie.
Young, who was not aware of the details of Whalen's case, said
that as long as the school didn't have reason to suspect any
intent to use the knife, "I don't see any reason why it
shouldn't be overturned."
Young says the zero-tolerance policies were born in the wake of
the 1999 Columbine school massacre, and were a response to
worries from parents that school security needed to be beefed
up. Though he doesn't support the policies, he said he
understand the impulse to ensure school safety.
But Bryan Whalen says the policy allowed no room for his son,
who did not pose a danger to the school. "It was another example
of an administration not providing any thought, just trying to
hide behind a blind rule for whatever reason."
Whalen said his son is more or less resigned to his fate but is
still bewildered that he's in trouble over possession of a
"keychain knife" after he handled M16s during an Army basic
training course he completed over the summer.
He's "frustrated because he knows he's falling so far behind on
his studies he's missing a ninth of his senior year," Whalen
said.
But Whalen says his son is feeling reassured from positive
feedback he's getting from cadets at West Point who have
"contacted him through Facebook and told him they're behind him
and to keep fighting.
"'When he gets down there he'll be carrying a machine gun around
campus,'" they wrote.
s0:a16:g4:r1:c0.000000:b-2:z10
As a 17-year-old Eagle Scout continues to wait out a one-month
suspension from his upstate New York high school for having a 2-
inch pocketknife locked in a survival kit in his car, the U.S.
Military Academy says the missed school days could pose a big
problem when it reviews his application.
Pressure is mounting on a Troy, N.Y., school board to overrule
Matthew Whalen's suspension from Lansingburgh High School, which
was issued because of a zero-tolerance policy that is facing
increasing opposition from parents and education advocates.
Whalen, a senior, says he stocks his car with a sleeping bag,
water, a ready-to-eat meal and the small knife, which was given
to him by his grandfather, a police chief in a nearby town.
But Lansingburgh High has a zero-tolerance policy for weapons,
and when school officials discovered that Whalen kept his knife
locked in his car, he says, they suspended him for five days
and then tacked on an additional 15 after a hearing.
On Wednesday, West Point's director of admissions told
Foxnews.com that Whalen's suspension alone wouldn't be a "show-
stopper" and "didn't appear to be a big issue" for the youth,
though it will appear on his record as the military academy
considers his moral and ethical fiber.
"My concern would be, how does this impact on his academics?"
said Col. Deborah McDonald, the academy's head of admissions.
"Because 20 (school) days is a long time to be suspended."
But the Lansingburgh School District is not budging. A person
reached at the home of a school board member referred all calls
to the superintendent, who told a local newspaper he thinks the
punishment was "appropriate and fair," and that it was necessary
for the district to enforce its zero-tolerance policy evenly.
"Sometimes young people do things they may not see as serious,"
Superintendent George Goodwin told the Albany Times-Union. "We
look at any possession of any type of knife as serious."
Yet the knife is not considered a weapon by the New York State
Education Department definitions and punishments are left up
to local school boards to decide.
"Districts by law are given a great deal of discretion for the
conditions they impose," said Jonathan Burman, spokesman for the
Education Department.
"The discipline that's meted out ... [is] a matter of local
discretion," he said, and "simply here if the school board
decides to make a change in their policy it's a matter for them
to decide."
Whalen's family says they've given up hope that their school
district will rethink the penalty, even after a school board in
Delaware reversed a similar decision Tuesday night, granting a
reprieve to a 6-year-old first-grader who had been ordered to
attend a reform school for 45 days after he brought a Cub Scout
camping utensil to lunch.
"The board hasn't even taken the issue," said Bryan Whalen,
Matthew's father. "As far as the superintendent is concerned,
he's made his decision and we haven't been offered the
opportunity to even appeal that at a board meeting."
That policy is coming under fire from some education advocates,
who say it is "pernicious" and inflexible and must be overturned.
"I just don't believe zero tolerance is the right way to go,"
said John Young, a board member in the Delaware school district
that voted unanimously Tuesday night to reinstate 6-year-old
Zachary Christie.
Young, who was not aware of the details of Whalen's case, said
that as long as the school didn't have reason to suspect any
intent to use the knife, "I don't see any reason why it
shouldn't be overturned."
Young says the zero-tolerance policies were born in the wake of
the 1999 Columbine school massacre, and were a response to
worries from parents that school security needed to be beefed
up. Though he doesn't support the policies, he said he
understand the impulse to ensure school safety.
But Bryan Whalen says the policy allowed no room for his son,
who did not pose a danger to the school. "It was another example
of an administration not providing any thought, just trying to
hide behind a blind rule for whatever reason."
Whalen said his son is more or less resigned to his fate but is
still bewildered that he's in trouble over possession of a
"keychain knife" after he handled M16s during an Army basic
training course he completed over the summer.
He's "frustrated because he knows he's falling so far behind on
his studies he's missing a ninth of his senior year," Whalen
said.
But Whalen says his son is feeling reassured from positive
feedback he's getting from cadets at West Point who have
"contacted him through Facebook and told him they're behind him
and to keep fighting.
"'When he gets down there he'll be carrying a machine gun around
campus,'" they wrote.