Re: virus: Re: virus-digest V3 #109

Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Sat, 24 Apr 1999 10:10:37 -0400

>kids were given a
>chance to turn around when they made a mistake.

But, too often, they are allowed to make the same 'mistake' again and again. Or the 'mistake' is overlooked in the first place. Or the 'mistake' is called a mistake.

I graduated from high school in '69. One 'mistake' was all anyone ever got. But then, there were no guns, no gangs, no great violence, no knives, although it was said that Jimmy Carson had a switchblade he got from a magazine. And I skipped gym a lot.

Now, I did not say that possession was intent, nor that any possible weapon _is_ one without intent.

And each case is unique. Yours sounds benign.

I am not an administrator, and I do have kids, two, and both in public schools. A weapon in possession of a student is _grounds_ for expulsion. Your case deserves a hearing, and I wish you the best- ten days seems long for a hearing, we still have the 'speedy trial' clause in the Constitution, I think- but if a knife or a gun had dropped out of his bag, hey, out he goes.

But I am not the typical granola Cantabridgian you may have classed me as. But, then, you seem swift to judge.

>to get old stickers off his car

Now, in this here region, the tool for that is called a scraper, and usually has a retractable blade. A 'box-cutter' here is also called a utility knife, and while it _may_ have a retractable blade, it don't necessarily, and this is the weapon of choice in the slashings that have occured in this area.

In this here region, having a 'box-cutter' is very easily taken as 'possessing a weapon', and yes, in this day and age, it is facile, and not at all fascist, to assume possession of such a weapon carries some intent to use it. Like I said, deserves a hearing. It is the realm of the fascist to deny hearings, and to deny testimony. It is fascist to call me a sexist, for instance.



"Being an atheist is a matter not of moral choice,
     but of human obligation." - John Fowles
                ×××××××××××××××
      Wade T. Smith --- morbius@channel1.com