Soldier suspended from high school over pocketknife in car

Aah! Fall!

Scarlet leaves on the trees. Jack-o'-lanterns. The satisfying autumn breeze.

And the start of a new school year. Which means it's time for more daily "zero tolerance" outrages!

This one comes to us from Lansingburgh, New York.

At Lansingburgh Senior High School, a high school senior was suspended for 20 days after officials found a 2-inch pocketknife in his car. The knife was a gift from his grandfather and was part of an emergency kit.

The student is already a soldier: He has completed Army basic training. Furthermore, he has received commendations from a local city for saving a woman's life.

This blog is as pacifist as any - but by golly, I will defend soldiers who are under assault by right-wing high school policies that have no logic whatsoever. New York law says pocketknives aren't even weapons, so why does the school think it can suspend a student for having one in his car as part of an emergency kit? A car is more of a weapon than the knife is.

Frankly, the school officials are not very patriotic.

Why did the school suspect he even had the knife? The article I read is unclear, but it sounds to me like they searched his car without probable cause - which is illegal.

There may be a lawsuit against the school district - which kind of puts a damper on schools' claims that "zero tolerance" policies help them avoid litigation.

A lawsuit over schools' "zero tolerance" tyranny is years overdue.

(Source: http://www.wten.com/global/story.asp?s=11283345&ClientType=Printable)