Penn Hills Student Expelled Over Eyebrow Shaver (WPXI)

[eppur_se_muova]

PENN HILLS, Pa. -- It's not a gun or a knife, but an eyebrow shaver that had school officials in Penn Hills take action earlier this month.

A Linton Middle School teenager has been expelled after a random search turned up an eyebrow shaver in her handbag.

Officials at the Penn Hills school recommended at a Wednesday disciplinary hearing that 15-year-old Taylor Ray Jetter be expelled for the rest of this year and 45 days next year.

Jetter said she doesn't consider the eyebrow trimmer a weapon. She fears expulsion will hurt her chances of becoming a nurse-anesthetist. She's a Girl Scout and a member of the school's basketball team, choir and leadership team.
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The state's Safe School Act defines a weapon as any knife, cutting instrument, cutting tool, nun chuck, firearms, rifle and any other tool capable of inflicting bodily harm.
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more: http://www.wpxi.com/news/19521773/detail.html





The video shows the "weapon" cannot even cut the palm of a person's hand. "Any other tool capable of inflicting bodily harm" would seem to cover most material objects in the Universe.

[rcrush]

1. Why are we so stupid as a people?

[derby378]

2. "Zero tolerance," my ass

This is intimidation, pure and simple. The nerve of those fascists.

[Eric J in MN]

3. How the Hell is a "random search" constitutional? NT

NT

[Morning Dew]

4. I'd be more scared of a spork than that little shaver. nm

[fumsm]

5. The wonderful world of zero tolerance

This rule is a fucking joke. No more can be said. It is being abused, and used to hide behind by the school not doing it's duties. No one can even give a good reason as to why it exist, other than to destroy every child's life equally. A weapon. I could do more damage with a pencil. maybe we should outlaw pencils. I don't think t kids use them anymore anyhow. they spend all their time worrying about not going to prison for some simple step to the right or left from the zero tolerance center.

Our society if fucked up, and still running scared due to the republican fear machine.

[gratuitous]

12. Zero tolerance is a substitute for thinking and judgment

There was a time when our society wasn't quite such a pee-pants scared little bunch of rabbits. We hired school administrators and teachers and trusted them (really!) to run schools and take care of kids. But now we're at the mercy of litigious parents, nervous risk managers, and a culture that's so wet-your-pants scared of everything that an eyebrow shaver is indistinguishable from a dagger or a loaded pistol. Risk managers like it because they think it reduces the chances of expensive litigation. Other forces in our country like it because it keeps people scared, and that's profitable for them. Still other forces like it because it keeps people divided and suspicious, and that's profitable for them.

And when anyone comes along to monkey with this fucked up society, the powerful forces that profit off of fear and division swing into action to scare people into maintaining the status quo.

Yeah, there are multiple levels of motherfuckery going on whenever you see something like this.

[fumsm]

20. Thinking and judgement

Ahh, the good ole days, when schools actually taught things such as this.....

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Let me guess.

She's black.

[fumsm]

7. Yes

[taught_me_patience]

8. This is sad. These zero tolerance rules are bullshit.

She should be tweezing instead of shaving, though.

[ManiacJoe]

52. .

wrong place...

[orleans]

9. here's a little irony

my daughter's school made a big fucking deal about crap like this too--meanwhile the art students were required to have those exacto knives (resembling box cutters) for cutting through canvas and art boards--the kids carried them in the hallways, kept them in their lockers and purses.

so...i wonder what this school's art supply list looks like

[Catshrink]

13. At our school, the art teacher keeps track of those

and they aren't allowed out of the art room at all.

Just remember -- and I know I'm gonna get flamed for this -- the 9/11 highjackers used box cutters and no one considered them a "weapon" either. So where do you draw the line? Among our many responsibilities in schools is keeping students safe. Where schools get into trouble is when they have rules that are inconsistently enforced, thus "zero tolerance" policies. Yeah they aren't always fair.

Teachers and administrators are not lawyers and don't have time to parse the legalese that accompanies all laws. Our job is education. It's too bad that we have to deal with the other crap also but that's the way it is and no school can afford to keep a lawyer on staff to deal with every single issue like this that arises.

The constant education bashing on this forum is unbelievable. There may be -- there are some -- goofy rules in education. Unfortunately, these get conflated with attacks on teachers and everyone who ever had a bad experience in school seems to use that as an excuse to condemn the whole system. It's disheartening. I'm not saying the system doesn't need change. Just please recognize that there is good and bad in every situation and blanket statements are unfair.

[RaleighNCDUer]

21. Oh, come on. If she really wanted to hurt someone, what would she

reach for - an eyebrow trimmer, or a very sharp, 6" long pencil?

Going to ban pencils?

You know what "zero tolerance" breeds? Intolerance. It inculcates in the students an expectation of a black and white world which does not exist, and never has existed.

BTW, the problem with the 9/11 boxcutters was not that they were not considered weapons, but that for decades we've been told "if you are a hostage, cooperate". There were dozens, maybe hundreds of plane hijackings in the previous 30 years, and NONE of them resulted in planes flying into buildings, so the passengers did as they were told, cooperated, expecting a typical hijack scenario. If they had half a thought they were going to be killed the way they were, they'd have taken the hijackers down.

Expectations. THAT is the problem. Bullshit like this creates the WRONG expectations.

[JohnnyBoots]

28. Seriously. I could strangle you with my shoe laces if i really wanted to. Why

not make them wear sandals like inmates.

[orleans]

33. yes, i'm aware of the 9/11 hijackers and what they used.

that is why i thought it was so strange that our local high school allowed kids to do this one and two and three years after 9/11.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

54. We had box cutters in college.

The the ones with the trapezoidal blade.

Only we called them "mat cutters" because we cut mats (frames) for our artwork out of Crescent board with them.

:shrug:

Art major here. :D :hi:

[Soylent Brice]

10. then why are they allowed to use pens, pencils, scissors, etc...?

idiotic.

[Ian David]

11. Are they going to ban pens, pencils, and hard-cover books? n/t

[Cronus Protagonist]

14. Yeah, because she just couldn't go one day without shaving those eyebrows

Dumb move, knowing how draconian the school policies are. And couldn't the school just have confiscated it and be done with it?

[anigbrowl]

34. Rubbish. Most women carry some grooming items around in a handbag.

So she's going to be expelled until the end of the school year plus 45 days? What kind of message does that send about education? Good thing it wasn't a nail clippers, maybe they'd have had to deploy tasers :sarcasm:

[Cronus Protagonist]

39. I think the whole zero tolerance thing is total balderdash

Having said that, it's not like she needed the blade during school, and she knew it looked like a knife and therefore it was not allowed. She forgot about it, she didn't clam she didn't know it was not allowed. The school and the girl and the policy were all at fault.

Oh, and it would take me about five seconds to turn that blade into a decent slashing blade - that blade guard could be broken off easily.

[anigbrowl]

55. As pointed out here repeatedly, a pencil or a ballpoint pen make equally good weapons.

[proteus_lives]

15. That's Retarded.

ZT policies don't work! Christ, they're going to risk this kid's future over a fucking eyebrow trimmer? She's probably not a ninja, she's not going to kill anyone!

:puke:

[aikoaiko]

16. "...and any other tool capable of inflicting SERIOUS bodily harm.

The news source left out an important word from the text, but quoted it correctly in the video -- that word being 'serious'

I don't see how that thingie could cause serious bodily harm.

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. Hey, you can't be too careful -

that's right up there with fingernail clippers of mass destruction.

[kestrel91316]

18. By this definition, pens and pencils are OBVIOUSLY weapons.

Sigh. I hate morans.

[fumsm]

19. For all those that think everything metal is a weapon

Have you ever seen what a pencil or pen can do to an eyeball, or through the side of the temple. Pencils = weapons of mass destruction. Ban them, ban them, hurry, before some terrorist student takes over the country.....

[Book Lover]

41. Remember the Pencil Disappearing Trick from The Dark Knight? (nm)

[pinniped]

22. I bet the zero tolerance dorks would confiscate these scaaaaaaaary looking tools, too.

[ForrestGump]

23. Morons

And what's a "nun chuck"? Is it like dwarf tossing?

[ForrestGump]

25. Oh...never mind:

http://www.mcphee.com/items/11580.html



Or my favorite:

[MindPilot]

24. Shop class must be incredibly boring for these kids.

"What did you do in woodworking today honey?"

"We looked at a piece of walnut. It's kept locked up in a Lexan case so nobody gets a splinter."

[FLAprogressive]

31. oh don't worry, I'm sure that shop class was cut at that school a LONG time ago.

Schools need more money to pass tests!

[Sabriel]

26. Gone are the days when we poked each other with a compass

It was about the only way to make it through math class.

Beware the paper cut! Deadly stuff.

[kittykitty]

44. That brought back memories! All the things you could do with a compass..................

poke holes in a big eraser, clean your fingernails, scratch something into a desk top (wooden desks--shows you how old I am), throw it at something in the grass at lunch time,. . . .

Weapon? naaah. Weapons were switchblades and tire irons. You'd be laughed at attacking someone with a compass!!!

[RaleighNCDUer]

27. You want a REAL school weapon, how about that Yale lock off your

locker, dropped into the toe of a tube sock.

THAT will do some damage.

[FiveGoodMen]

29. Schools -- and their students -- are doomed if morons like these are running the show

[FLAprogressive]

30. There is no common sense anymore. None.

[FiveGoodMen]

32. AND the people without common sense are proud of the fact!

[Jokerman]

35. We had a student beat another with a power cord he took from a computer.

Since it was a "tool capable of inflicting bodily harm" I guess we should remove all of the computers and anything else that plugs into the wall.

Idiocy.

[dugaresa]

36. Penn Hills is a district that is viewed as not being so safe

so that might be the reason for the hyper policy. It is ranked 46 out of the 62 districts in its county and the area has suffered from economic problems since the 1970's.

Personally I think each case should be handled separately and reviewed and in this case the district should have thrown the tool away and told her, "don't bring this stuff to school anymore"

[MindPilot]

37. How is that possible?

Aanything that could potentially be harmful has been removed so that must actually be one of the safest schools in the country.

[dugaresa]

38. you would think with the policy the kids are bouncing off padded walls

but it is the reputation of the area in Pittsburgh.

The school district isn't viewed well and the area hit hard times after the mills in Pittsburgh went kaput (as did a lot of other areas).

Personally I think it is racial bias against the folks in the area that gives it a bad reputation, sadly western PA isn't so "forward" thinking.

[Starry Messenger]

40. I just saw this and posted it on FB.

I would be more concerned that a girl that age is that obsessed with her eyebrow hair.

[FiveGoodMen]

42. MORE concerned? REALLY?

[Starry Messenger]

43. More concerned than if she would use it as a weapon.

i tpe badd.

I just think it's funny/sad that a tween would be so caught up in personal grooming that she would have something as silly as an eyebrow shaver on her person at all times. My generation was more into lipgloss, I guess. :)

[Hippo_Tron]

45. Really? You're concerned that a teenager doesn't want a unibrow?

I'm a guy and I started doing anything I could to get rid of that unwanted eyebrow hair at about age 13 or 14.

[Starry Messenger]

46. Funny.

I expected no response to this. :) Sorry. Wouldn't you just do it at home though? I plucked too, but I never thought of having the tweezers around all the time. I'm a teacher and I hate seeing young kids insecure about this stuff. I tend to think of middle school as 11 and 12 year olds. I see from the article it says she's 15. That's odd. Most of my sophomores are 15.

[Hippo_Tron]

47. Yea I did it at home but I'm not a girl

If I were a girl I could easily see myself carrying such things around.

[Starry Messenger]

49. One of my buddies on Facebook said:

"What the hell, they were afraid she was going to use it as a throwing star?"

http://img.en.china.cn/0/0,0,175,974,640,480,95e12b3a.jpg

I think I've seen ball-point pens that could do more damage. :D

[Quantess]

50. I had a friend in high school who had trichotillomania...

...the plucking disorder.

She basically plucked out all her eyebrow hair, as well as the hair on her arms and legs, armpits, and who knows where else. She sat by herself and plucked the hair out while listening to music.

She seemed to get over it, but her eyebrows never looked right again.

[Starry Messenger]

51. I had that too.

I had a bald spot the size of a quarter in seventh grade. It's more of an OCD/extreme stress thing than concern over hair.

[RamboLiberal]

48. This is the weapon

Heck there's combs out there that would make better weapons than this. This is idiotic but I think it's also because of the school district that is heavily African-American with violence in the community and the student is African-American.

BTW, this is the PA school district that Ricky Santorum claimed as his residence but cheated out of school funds by enrolling his kids who lived in VA in cyber school that Penn Hills had to pay for until little Ricky got caught.

[eppur_se_muova]

56. Thanks. That photo makes it look like there is a plastic guard over the blade ...

making it difficult to cut anything BUT hair. That's what it appeared from the video but I couldn't see the video as well.

[ManiacJoe]

53. How do adults who work

in places of learning become so stupid?
:banghead: