First-grader faced reform school for carrying Cub Scout tool into school

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/33289924/ns/today-today_people/?GT1=43001

By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 11 minutes ago

Dressed in a button-down shirt and tie and speaking calmly and
articulately, first-grader Zachary Christie hardly looks or acts like
the sort of kid who should be spending 45 days in reform school. But,
thanks to a zero-tolerance policy, that's where Zachary's Delaware
school system wanted him to go after he made the mistake of taking his
favorite camping utensil to school.

However, a school board member said Tuesday that Zachary is likely to
get a reprieve. He said the board will likely amend the policy Tuesday
night and that any change would be retroactive to the beginning of the
school year. Board member John Mackenzie said that teachers and
administrators need the freedom to use their commonsense when it's
obvious that a child presents no danger.

'Can I have that?'
A Swiss Army-type combination of fork, spoon, bottle opener and knife,
the tool has been Zachary's favorite ever since he got it to take on
Cub Scout camping expeditions. "He eats dinner with it, breakfast and
everything else, so it never occurred to him that this would have been
something wrong to do," the 6-year-old's mother, Debbie Christie, told
TODAY's Meredith Vieira Tuesday from Newark, Del.

Zachary, an A student who sometimes wears a shirt and tie to school
just because he likes to, told Vieira he put the tool in his pocket on
Sept. 29 for a very simple reason: "To eat lunch with. I had
absolutely no idea this was going to happen. I wasn't thinking about
this. I was thinking about having lunch with it."

But when the tool fell out of his pocket on the bus and he walked off
the vehicle with it in his hand, a teacher intercepted him. "She said,
'Can I have that?' " Zachary recalled.

What Zachary didn't realize was that he had fallen afoul of the
Christina School District's zero-tolerance policy toward weapons in
school, one of many such policies implemented in the wake of such
incidents as the Columbine High School massacre. The policy does not
allow teachers or administrators to take into account intentions or
the character of the student; if a student has a knife, suspension and
subsequent assignment to the district's "alternative placement school"
— aka reform school — is mandatory.

Racial issue
Christina, which, according to its Web site, is the largest school
district in Delaware with some 17,000 students, made its policy
zero-tolerance because of concerns over racial discrimination. Studies
have shown in other districts that when school officials are given
discretion over such cases, African-American students are disciplined
at a disproportionately high rate.

TODAY
A combination fork, knife, spoon and bottle opener is Zachary
Christie's favorite utensil — but it got him in trouble at school.
"The idea was to avoid discriminating against any student and to treat
all students the same," George Evans, president of the Christina
school board, told NBC News.

While some experts favor such zero-tolerance policies, others question
their efficacy, saying there is no indication that they cut down on
violent incidents in schools. One of them, national school safety
consultant Kenneth Trump, told NBC News, "The school administrators
have to be able to administer consequences and still have some
discretion to fit the totality of the circumstances."

"The policy, of course, needs some additional flexibility," school
board member Mackenzie agreed Tuesday.

'Uh-oh'
Zachary had no idea that it was wrong to take his favorite camping
tool to class. When the teacher asked for it when he got off the bus,
he handed it over, unaware that he was already in serious trouble. He
went to class while his principal called his mother.

"She said that I needed to come to the school immediately; that
Zachary had brought a dangerous weapon into school, and I needed to
come and pick him up. He would be suspended for five days pending a
disciplinary action committee hearing. She said that he had a knife,"
Christie told Vieira.

TODAY
Zachary spoke to TODAY along with his mother, Debbie Christie, and her
fiance, Lee Irving.
When his mother arrived at the John R. Downes Elementary School with
her fiance, Lee Irving, Zachary was called from his first-grade
classroom to join them.

"When they called my name up, I was like, 'Uh-oh,' " he said.

Home school, not reform school
Zachary was suspended immediately for five school days. At the end of
the suspension, he and his mother appeared before the district's
disciplinary action committee, where his principal and others spoke up
for his good character. It didn't matter. The committee's hands were
tied. The rules said he had brought a knife to school and would have
to spend 45 days in the reform school.

Christie decided she would not send her son to that school. Instead,
she has been home schooling Zachary while waiting for an opportunity
to address the district's board of education, which was to meet
Tuesday night.

"I understand why they have it, but I don't agree with the
implementation of it," Christie said of the zero-tolerance policy. "I
think they need to look at the age, maturity, intent, situation; bring
in the teachers who know the child or the principal, and allow them to
make the first call in these situations," she said. "Looking at other
schools' codes of conduct in the Delaware Valley, their first step
would have been a suspension."

Christie assured Vieira that her son is well aware of the necessity of
not taking anything new to school without first asking and is not a
threat to anyone. She hopes the school board will agree with her.

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* Should 6-year-old be suspended for bringing utensil to school? Discuss

"I hope that they expunge his record and allow him to go back to
Downes immediately," she said of the board. "I think he has had an
over-excess of education on this issue. I'm hoping that out of all of
this the policy changes and that no other child is affected negatively
by what is supposed to keep them all safe."

Vieira asked Zachary if he's nervous about the prospect of eventually
returning to his school.

"I'm not very nervous," Zachary said. "I like being home-schooled.
It's happy in some ways; it's sad in some ways. Sometimes I'm strict,
and sometimes I can get into my serious mode. I can get into my happy
mode. It's just kind of fun being home-schooled, but I'm not scared to
go back."

And what has he learned from everything that's happened to him?

"To always ask before taking something new into school," he said.

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.