Teacher suspended on weapons charges for garden tools

[Midwest]

Teacher suspended on weapons charges for garden tools

http://cnsnews.com/blog/craig-banni...ension-weapons-charge-showing-students-garden


Teacher gets suspended on a weapons charge for showing his students tools such as wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers. I thought they had 'shop' in school where students would learn how to work with metal and wood and build stuff. At least I remember that way back when.

Is the no tolerance policy like this in every school district? Or is this the exception? This is a Chicago School District if anyone was wondering.

Garden Tools...........

"Despite the fact that all potentially hazardous items were kept out of the students' reach, school officials at Washington Irving Elementary School informed Doug Bartlett, a 17-year veteran in the classroom, that his use of the tools as visual aids endangered his students. Bartlett was subsequently penalized with a four-day suspension without pay - charged with possessing, carrying, storing or using a weapon."

 

[CoRoMo]

The tool that he was penalized for bringing to the school, and the one that fell under the definition of a 'weapon' in the school's zero tolerance policy, was a pocketknife. He also demonstrated a box cutter but it was the 2.25" pocketknife that nailed him to the wall.

https://www.rutherford.org/files_images/general/04-22-2013_Bartlett-Complaint.pdf

As a result of showing a pocket knife, Plaintiff was charged with bringing a weapon to school, and received a four-day suspension without pay.

...

Plaintiff displayed to his second-grade students several garden-variety tool s, including a box cutter, a 2.25" pocketknife, wrenches, screwdrivers, and pliers. The visual aids were used in an effort to facilitate student understanding and remembrance of the curriculum. As he displayed the box cutter and pocketknife, Plaintiff specifically described the proper uses of these tools. Neither of these items was made accessible to the students.

...

As a result of this complaint, Plaintiff was charged with possessing, carrying, storing, or using a weapon; negligently supervising children; inattention to duty; violating school rules; and repeated flagrant acts.

 

[Coop45]

You should have included Chicago in the title so I could skipped reading the article. LOL! If he'd had a tee shirt on with a NRA logo, he would have gotten the chair. What are they thinking up there?

 

[Deus Machina]

Jeez... I don't think there's a teacher I actually respected that didn't keep a pocket knife on him, right up until i graduated in '05 or '06.

I've said it before, these 'zero tolerance' policies are destroying school societies.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I was in high school in the late 1990s and I took small engine repair. We learned how to sharpen lawn mower blades, worked on chainsaws and then cranked them to make sure they worked. They would have really freaked out about that.

 

[Fryerpower]

...learned how to sharpen lawn mower blades...

Ever see the movie Sling Blade?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL6QJSdqlt0

You can skip to 1:50. Very much implied violence. Great job of framing the scene so that you get the idea without having to see anything.

-Jim

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Interesting discussion, but not really on topic for THR.