Teacher tries to ban pencils and pens, could be used to build weapons

[The Straight Story]

Wendy Scott, a teacher of at North Brookfield Elementary School in Massachusetts, tried to ban pencils and pens in her classroom. It's completely ridiculous because you sorta need them to do schoolwork and because it's just a freaking pencil and pen.

The crazy teacher's memo to her students' parent stated:

Students would no longer be allowed to bring writing implements to school. It said pencils would be provided for students in class and any students caught with pencils or pens after Nov. 15 would face disciplinary action for having materials "to build weapons."

I remember being pretty proud of my pencils, pens and pencil cases as a kid. I don't remember ever "building weapons" with them (but with kids these days, who knows!). All I know is that there are much more dangerous items in a classroom than a measly pencil or pen. Like, uh, staplers. And don't even get me started on paper cutters.

The Massachusetts school district is rightfully distancing itself away from this rogue teacher, saying she never got permission to enforce this ridiculous demand. I'm just wondering what the hell was going on in her head, what's the difference between pencils and pens students bring from home and the one she'd have to supply? Some people are just too damn silly.

http://gizmodo.com/5700070/a-teacher-tried-to-ban-pencils-and-pens-in-school

We need to pat down kids. Statistically speaking fellow US citizens kill each other using planes and pencils all the time.

Fear me, I will fear you, and we will live in peace and harmony so long as my state police can keep an eye on you for my safety :)

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. omg

[AsahinaKimi]

2. Instilling Fear at an early age...

Does she work for FOX NEWS TOO?

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Sounds like a story from The Onion. Could a person really be that insane???

I would take my child out of that classroom so fast that all they would see would be a blur...

[sakabatou]

4. So how the hell are kids supposed to take notes?

[virgogal]

5. Ridiculous. You could make a weapon out of a can of tuna fish

if you really wanted to.

[flvegan]

6. Someone took "the pen is mightier than the sword" a bit too literally.

Or something.

[struggle4progress]

33. The news stories suggest a student made a paperwad blowgun from a pen, some

parents complained to the police, who face-palmed, and the student was suspended, while the inexperienced new sixth grade teacher freaked out and tried to restore calm and order by controlling access to pens and pencils, which resulted in even more huff-n-puffm, until the school admins stepped in, taking the jaundiced view that all this was pretty much a normal day at North Brookfield Elementary

[alfredo]

7. I only got stabbed once by a pencil. I survived.

But then I had him on the ground and was kicking the shit out of him. He got me on the calf. I still have a blue dot on my upper calf.

I got spanked for fighting and then for calling him a son of a bitch. I was in grade school. When I got home mom shoved a bar of soap in my mouth, then dad took the belt to me.

It was worth it.

[struggle4progress]

29. My cousin lost an eye to a pencil

[alfredo]

30. Oh, that's awful.

[hlthe2b]

8. Sounds like a woman having flashbacks to her time in

prison.... :eyes:

[littlewolf]

28. I have seen ppl fight with pencils

stab between the ribs go as deep as you can and break it off ...
it is messy ... I worked 10 years as in a close custody prison ...

but kids .. .please ...

[hlthe2b]

37. Yes... damn near anything becomes a weapon...

in prison--but in school? We have become the "enemy terrorist" at the airports. Kids are now looked upon as potential killers in school. Good God.

[uppityperson]

9. What a fun way to show your disgust with the "making you safe" crap that's going on. Too funny

I take it as a very satiric letter, if she was serious she needs help, but if it is satire, good for her.

[fishwax]

10. something tells me that's not the whole story

Odd how it says "the memo stated:" (with the colon indicating a quote to follow), but then all that follows is a paraphrase.

[uppityperson]

11. Search shows it all over the web but on on any news except to quote

that this happened via a UPI report. Which I can't seem to find anywhere. I'd say this isn't the whole story. Either an urban legend or a funny way of making a point. so to speak

[Posteritatis]

26. Nope, that is, in fact, the whole story

Have the memo:

http://telegram.com/article/20101116/NEWS/101119746

[ShadowLiberal]

12. I think this is her way of protesting zero tolerance policy in schools

To me this sounds like an attempt to show just how absurd the 'zero tolerance policy' about bringing weapons to school has gotten in many cases where kids get expelled for bringing something stupid that no real person would even use a weapon to school (such as a nail filer).

[hughee99]

13. Yes, because the biggest problem a town of 3,000 has is elementary

school children fashioning weapons from writing implements.

Either we should take her seriously, call her and lunatic, and "bet she's a teabagger" OR we should assume she's making a political point though absurdity and call her an innovative thinking progressive. I'm on the fence about which way to go right now.

[whistler162]

16. Given the new Dick and Jane books it is possible.

Dick and Jane make shives

[sarcasmo]

14. Self Delete.

[WinkyDink]

15. Apparently true, and not satire:

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/mass-teachers-ban-pencils-school-says-no-way

http://telegram.com/article/20101116/NEWS/101119746

[struggle4progress]

31. ... Police Chief Aram Thomasian Jr. said he was approached Friday by parents of one student who had

been suspended for having a pen that had been altered to fire a rolled-up piece of paper. “The student showed me how it worked. I'd be surprised if the spitball traveled 4 feet. And at that, I'm not even sure it had any spit on it,” he said ... “This was an attempt to by a fairly new sixth-grade teacher to make changes that were not warranted. The student who was found with an altered pen was suspended and as far as administrators were concerned, the matter was put to rest,” Mr. Noseworthy said ...
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
School retracts ban on pencils
http://www.telegram.com/article/20101116/NEWS/101119746

[bluedigger]

17. I hope no one tells her what you can do with a bar of soap and a sock.

:crazy:

[MineralMan]

18. You could make a very dull weapon out of that teacher's brain.

I think.

[MineralMan]

19. I once made a very nice blowgun out of a Bic pen during a class.

The darts were made out of straight pins, with paper wrapped around the head end to make a spiral that made the pin an easy slide fit into the pen's housing. The darts flew very straight and had enough force to stick in a wall 12' away.

I didn't use it in class, though.

[TheMadMonk]

25. In a town of 3000 (ruralish) I can guarantee that the kids of my era were well aware...

...of the posibilities of a short length of lumber, a nail, a piece of car or truck innertube and a marble.

Followed by an escalation to longer lengths of lumber and whole bicycle innertubes.

Which is generally immediately followed by a rapid dispersal of components and co-conspirators.

And there was always a ruler and a box of elastic bands, for fun, mayhem in the classroom and a few afternoons of detention to pay. Now? Expulsion?

And who recalls mumblty peg with a compass?

Oh the possibilities of the pencil cases/pockets of my day were wonderful. Steel rule, Compass/dividers, pocket knife, handfull of .22 shells, Scissors, non retracting utility knife, unexpended bottle rocket heads, firecrackers, box of wax matches, more boxes of matches modified into handgrenades, string and a handfull of coloured pencils with all the useful colours sharpened down to stubs or missing altogether. Not to mention a pencil sharpener capable of putting a surgical point on any small dowel.

[femmocrat]

20. I'm guessing that she has actually seen these seemingly innocent items used as weapons.

Kids stab each other with pencils. They also use pens as blow-guns for paper wads. (See post above--- MineralMan used a pen to shoot straight pins!) I confiscate rubber bands and bent paper clips regularly. The shoot them at each other. They also propel pencils at the ceiling so they will hang like stalactites.

They write on each other with permanent markers. They inhale white-out and hand sanitizer. They take the push-pins off the bulletin boards to stab each other. (I only use staples.) They use spray deodorant and hairspray to spray other kids in the face. They will use scissors to cut each others' hair. They squirt liquid hand soap all over the bathroom floors causing a hazard. They stuff up the toilets with paper towels.

Why don't use this inventiveness for good instead of for evil? :shrug:

[Catshrink]

21. I'm amazed that she can get her kids to bring a damn pencil to class.

[pipoman]

24. All to be filed under, 'kids will be kids',

formerly known as 'boys will be boys'.

[-..__...]

22. "I brought my pencil"!!!

"Gimme something to write on"!

:evilgrin:

[realisticphish]

23. I would totally support this as a satirical move

[LostInAnomie]

27. When I was teaching ED students, I had kids that I wouldn't let have pencils.

When we did work in class, they used crayons.

[The Second Stone]

32. It sounds like satire to me

The teacher is merely pointing out that all weapons of mass destruction are designed using pens and pencils. If we teach children to be creative, then they can make weapons out of anything. Language and math are harmful too. Tools lead to weapons. Ever seen a dog or cat use a weapon? I think not. Anything we teach children can be used as a weapon. Or not.

[struggle4progress]

35. No, it was an inexperienced teacher, apparently trying to deal with the fact that some

parents had complained to the police about a kid shooting paperwads from a pen-tube

[somone]

34. Paper cuts

She forgot paper

[zen_bohemian]

36. The only weapon I can figure is taking the innard out of pen and use as a blow gun for spitballs