A 17-year-old Eagle Scout in upstate New York has been barred from
stepping foot on school grounds for 20 days — for keeping a 2-inch
pocketknife locked in a survival kit in his car.
Matthew Whalen, a senior at Lansingburgh Senior High School, says he
follows the Boy Scout motto and is always prepared, stocking his car
with a sleeping bag, water, a ready-to-eat meal — and the knife, which
was given to him by his grandfather, a police chief in a nearby town.
But Lansingburgh High has a zero-tolerance policy, and when school
officials discovered that Whalen kept his knife locked in his car, he
says, they suspended him for five days — and then tacked on an
additional 15 after a hearing.
Click here for video.
The incident is similar to the case of Zachary Christie, a 6-year-old
Cub Scout in Delaware who faces up to 45 days in his district's reform
school for bringing a scout utensil that can be used as a fork, spoon
and knife to school. But for Whalen — who has received an award from
the Boy Scouts of America for saving a life and completed 10 weeks of
basic military training last summer — the stakes are much higher:
He is concerned that the blot on his school record could kill his
dream of attending West Point.
In an interview with Foxnews.com, Whalen recalled the incident that
led to his suspension.
He said his school's assistant principal, Frank Macri, approached him
on Sept. 21 and asked him if he was carrying a knife.
"I was taken down to the office, and they told me that a student told
them that I was carrying a knife," Whalen said.
He said he told them "they could search me and everything, and they
said, 'There's no need for that.'"
Whalen said he doesn't know who might have said he was carrying a
knife, but he was open with school officials.
"And they said, 'Do you own a knife?' I said, 'Yes, I'm a soldier and
an Eagle Scout — I own a knife.'
"And they were like, 'Well, is it in your car or anything?' And I told
them, 'Yeah, it's in my car right now.'
"And they asked me to show it to them. I didn't realize it was going
to be a problem. I knew it wasn't illegal — my police chief
grandfather gave the knife to me."
Whalen said he took school administrators to his car because he
thought their fears would be allayed when they saw it was just a
2-inch knife.
"They thought I had a dagger in my car or something like that, so I
thought yeah, I'd show it to them," Whalen said.
"I showed it to them, and they told me I had a knife on school
property and had to be suspended."
But things didn't end there, Whalen said.
"They brought a cop in, who told them 'he's not breaking any laws, so
I can't charge him with anything.'"
Whalen said he asked Macri why a 2-inch pocketknife would be
considered more dangerous than other everyday items around the school.
"I said to him, 'What about a person who has a bat, on a baseball
team? That could be a weapon.' And he said, 'Well, it's not the same
thing.'"
The school district's policy lists "Possessing a weapon" under
"examples of violent conduct," which "may be subject to disciplinary
action, up to and including suspension from school."
School district officials did not reply to requests for comment.
Whalen says Macri gave him the longest suspension possible — five school days.
"They gave me the five-day suspension, because that is all a principal
can suspend a student for," he said. "And from there, they had a
superintendent hearing to see if the superintendent wanted to suspend
me for longer.
"But the superintendent wasn't even at the hearing. It was the
principal and the athletic director. The vice principal who originally
suspended me wasn't even there, and neither was the superintendent.
They basically asked me, 'Did you have the knife in your car?' And I
said 'Yes, I did.' The meeting was recorded and they told me they were
going to play the tape to the superintendent.
"They asked me if I wanted to say anything, and I told them all my
accomplishments and what I've done, and the principal even admitted
that I had no intent to use the knife, that I had no accessibility to
the knife."
But school officials decided to suspend Whalen for an extra 15 days
anyway, he said. And unless the decision is changed, he will not be
allowed on school grounds until Oct. 21.
Whalen said he does not know why the 15 days were added, but he said a
school district employee told him it was because the school wanted to
apply its policies consistently.
"I've been told by someone who works for the district that they had to
do it, because if someone else had a knife and they saw that I didn't
get a suspension, that it would look bad for the school."
School superintendent George Goodwin and Lansingburg Senior High
School Principal Angelina Bergin did not return calls for comment
Tuesday morning.
Whalen said he has no record of disciplinary problems.
"I think I have a detention from like 10th grade for being late or
something like that," he said.
He said the suspension has put his college dreams in jeopardy by
keeping him out of class, while making him still responsible for
assignments.
Though he is provided with a tutor for 90 minutes a day, he said,
"I've been suspended for something like a ninth of my school year, so
I'm falling behind drastically in my classes."
In addition to getting back to school as soon as possible, Whalen
wants the school to drop the incident from his transcript.
"My dream college would be West Point, and having a pock mark like
this on my record could be detrimental. They're looking for the best
of the best, and if someone didn't take the time to look through it
and examine the case, they would just say, 'hey, this guy had a weapon
on school property, and we don't want him at our college.'"
Whalen said that he has received support from the community during the
last few weeks.
"I've received tremendous communal support. Almost everyone I've
talked to has said they're behind me 100 percent, that it's ridiculous
that [the school has] done this me."
Whalen said he is not considering a lawsuit.
"I don't know what I could do, because technically ... I did break the
rules, and I'll accept that punishment," he said.
"Perhaps I should have been more aware of the rules. However, I'm more
upset about the additional 15 days.... That was entirely optional, and
they decided to go through with that."
It’s a bit depressing to listen to this discussion. First off, this new federal endeavor is totally unconstitutional. It should be left to the states. It’s none of the federal government business under our constitution. If one likes so much government health care, move to Massachusetts or Oregon (good luck finding a job), but don’t try to expend something that hasn’t worked successfully in any state to all states. It’s just absurd. "Oh but it works in France." Who says, the WHO? How many people fly to France to get life saving treatment? Only Arafat, and he died there. Secondly, this argument that things will get cheaper by cutting profits off the system is classic third world stuff. The Soviet Union striped the profit motive from the entire economy, how did that work? Do we need to relive such experiments even with individual industries? How can anyone sane at this point childish argument. There is a mountain of evidence the size of the Everest to show that that’s not the case at all. And this argument can be used to get the federal government involved in everything: Mortgage industry, student loans, auto manufacturing. Well never mind. But all I ask of people goes back to the first point: Leave it to the states. We shouldn’t be having "a national debate on healthcare". Such central planning is un-American. Despite its problems our system is the best in the world precisely because we don’t have the level of government involvement that other nations have. It’s not because Americans are brighter--it's because the founders limited the U.S. federal government. The more the federal government gets involved in health care, the worse it will get. Go visit any federal facility: a federal court, a federal immigration building, a federal hospital. Take a look at the offices, the ceilings, the floors, the waiting line. It’s not good. Keep at the state level, and if you want it so much, move to a state that has it. Leave the rest of us alone