Milaca student suspended for leaving hunting bow in truck

Sarah D wrote:

Well this WAS an actual weapon so in this case the school probably had no choice but to suspend the kid.
There are cases where kids are suspended for questionable reasons such as bringing aspirin to school (zero tolerance of drugs) or have a butter knife in their lunch.
Zero tolerance is too problematic. Things should be decided on a case by case basis. In this case since he brought an actual weapon to school the school is justified to suspend him.(I assume there were arrows with the bow if it was just the bow then common sense would say that there was no way he was intending to use it against others since a bow is not much use as a weapon without arrows).
But I do agree that in some cases zero tolerance is carried to a ridiculous extreme.

Sam wrote:

Couple of days ago a mass murder occurred in the Netherlands. 17 people were mowed down!
Weapon: car, 5 died and 12 injured.
Now that is a mass murder weapon, lets BAN CARS!!!
The "actual weapon" in this case harmed nobody!
When will you accept that people kill people. Weapons by themselves kill nobody!!
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Sarah D wrote:

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Why are you getting hysterical? I said that these things should be decided on a case by case basis.
I said in this case a irrefutable WEAPON was brought to school. The rule states that no weapons are to be brought to school. This was a clear-cut case.
There have been other cases where it was not clear cut. It is ridiculous to suspend a student for bringing aspirin to school. It is ridiculous to suspend a student for bringing a butter knife to school. Aspirin is not an illegal drug. A butter knife is not a weapon.
ANYTHING can be USED as a weapon but there are things that are expressly meant to be weapons. The rule is that no weapons be brought to school. If something is clearly a weapon (bow and arrows) then it is clear that it shouldn't be brought. If something is only provisionally a weapon (a butter knife) then it should be decided on in a case by case basis and suspension should NOT be automatic.
Are you going to tell me that if a kid brought a hunting bow to school and school authorities knew about it and did nothing and if the kid had actually used it to shoot someone that the school would not be blamed?

Sam wrote:

Let's take a different approach. OK so a bow and arrow is a weapon because the 2 components can be used to harm something.
However is a bow and arrow ever used for entertainment?
If you are unaware, there are many people who use a bow and arrow to play games while shooting at targets. There are field archery ranges where the object is to hit a target and trophys are awarded to the best shooters.
There are people who NEVER hunt anything with a bow and arrow, is their bow an arrow a weapon?
On the other side there are people who use a car to travel here and there but there are also many people who harm and kill people and animals with a car.
In fact cars kill more deer in Minnesota than all the bow and arrow hunters kill.
In terms of killing people there is no doubt that cars kill more people than all "Weapons" combined, including bow/arrows, assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, knifes, bath tubs etc etc.
For you to all a bow and arrow a weapon is a bit far fetched, don't ya think?
Now you can claim drivers of cars kill mainly because they are drunk while driving however if you polled people who used a bow/arrow, knife or gun to hurt others you would probably find the majority of shooters/cutters are drunk as well.
BTW when was the last person shot with an arrow.
So if you are looking for the "root cause" of a lot of injury crime it is obvious alcohol is the "root cause" of the majority of injury crime!
I sincerely hope what I say helps sort out my thoughts for you.
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Really wrote:

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If people don't like the "rules" that public schools have, no weapons, no smoking, have to go to class, etc, then they should pay for a different school or home school. Oh, wait, that's too much effort, so they'll just complain. When I went to school, you followed the rules, or you went to detention, or got suspended, etc. And when you got home, you got in trouble for not listening. My mom HATED my principal, but the day I got detention for skipping a class that I was transferring out of anyway, she definitley reminded me that he was my PRINCIPAL, the rule was I went to class even if it was the last day, and since I didn't, I deserved exactly what I got.
I can't imagine what would have happened if I had brought any type of weapon to school, and this was before Columbine, etc. We still had a zero tolerance policy back then too.