NYT 10/12/09 It's a Fork, It's a Spoon, It's a...Weapon? School Suspends Boy, 6

In Newark, Del. a 6 year old boy was suspended for bringing a cub scout utensil to school that is a fork, knife and spoon. He was just excited about joining the cub scouts and wanted to use it at lunch. However, the zero tolerance policy that schools have adopted doesn't allow for discretion because it has the potential for bias so his punishment is 45 days at the districts reform school. The law only mentioned expulsion so a new law is being drafted to include suspension. What has our society come to? I mean seriously there has to been some room for judgement in these matters. Yeah it is sometimes difficult to discern the motive of the student but good kids that make slightly bad judgement calls shouldn't have the same punishment as a student with the intent to harm. I realize it is difficult to determine how to handle these situations but it is just sad that this is what has become of our society and our school systems.