Island fourth grader suspended for using broken pencil sharpener

A 10-year-old Hilton Head Island boy has been suspended from school for having something most students carry in their supply boxes: a pencil sharpener.

The problem was his sharpener had broken, but he decided to use it anyway. A teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School noticed the boy had what was obviously the blade commonly found in a child's small, plastic pencil sharpener, the deputy noted.

The boy -- a fourth-grader described as a well-behaved and good student -- cried during the meeting with his mom, the deputy and the school's assistant principal. He had no criminal intent in having the blade at school, the sheriff's report stated, but was suspended for at least two days and could face further disciplinary action. [?!]

District spokesman Randy Wall said school administrators are stuck in the precarious position between the district's zero tolerance policy against having weapons at school and common sense...

[is this America? Where the adults we entrust our children to (and those we allow to carry guns around) don't have the collective I.Q. of a cabbage? How do we fix this? One idea: fire every adult involved in this that didn't stop it. Better idea: universal vouchers.]

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