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Students Banned From Bringing Pencils To School

Posted by samzenpus on from the watch-how-you-play dept.

mernilio writes "According to UPI: 'A Massachusetts school district superintendent said a memo banning sixth graders from carrying pencils was written without district approval. North Brookfield School District interim Superintendent Gordon Noseworthy said Wendy Scott, one of two sixth-grade teachers at North Brookfield Elementary School, did not get approval from administrators before sending the memo to all sixth-grade parents, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported Thursday. The memo said 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.'"

3 of 426 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh for chrissakes! by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yeah, it looks like it's a complete non-story.

    http://www.globe-democrat.com/news/2010/nov/18/school-pencil-banning-memo-not-official/

  2. People love to be outraged. by hey! · · Score: 5, Informative

    So much so that they'd rather take some dudgeon mongering website's word for what happened than to google the original sources and find out this is a non-story. Well, I don't mind being wet blanket, so I did it for you.

    If you must know, a couple of sixth grade teachers got fed up with students playing with toy pens, then losing them and disrupting the class looking for them. So they decided to ban student owned writing instruments altogether, but rather than come right out and tell parents that their kids are badly behaved, they used a pen modified by one of the students to shoot spitballs as an excuse for the ban. Since using a writing instrument as a "weapon" conjures images of students stabbing each other in the eye with a pencil, that naturally garnered a lot more attention than the teachers expected. The acting superintendent stepped in, reversed the policy and wrote a memo explaining everything and suggesting everybody calm down.

    But of course the story of a couple of beleaguered teachers being too timid to tell parents they'd raised a mob of brats isn't as much fun for people who like to complain about the nanny state.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  3. Re:The pen[cil] is mightier than the sword! by nomadic · · Score: 3, Informative

    Did murder STOP? No. I didn't attempt to compare rates.

    Yes you did. You stated that weapons control laws never "decreased" violence, not "stop[ped" violence.