Dangerous knife wielding thug caught!

[Revoltingest]

Sanford, N.C. — An athletic and academic standout in Lee County said a lunchbox mix-up has cut short her senior year of high school and might hurt her college opportunities.Ashley Smithwick, 17, of Sanford, was suspended from Southern Lee High School in October after school personnel found a small paring knife in her lunchbox.
Smithwick said personnel found the knife while searching the belongings of several students, possibly looking for drugs.
“She got pulled into it. She doesn’t have to be a bad person to be searched,” Smithwick’s father, Joe Smithwick, said.
The lunchbox really belonged to Joe Smithwick, who packs a paring knife to slice his apple. He and his daughter have matching lunchboxes.
“It’s just an honest mistake. That was supposed to be my lunch because it was a whole apple,” he said.
Ashley Smithwick said she had never gotten in trouble before and was surprised when the principal opened her lunchbox and found the knife.
The teen was initially given a 10-day suspension, then received notice that she was suspended the rest of the school year.

Lunchbox mix-up leads to charges for Sanford teen :: WRAL.com

Another example of security theater.....is the US going completely nuts?

 

[angellous_evangellous]

That's bonkers.

I know several school districts that make special allowances for farm kids and hunters in case they forget to remove their guns from their gun racks on Mondays.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I'd feel a lot better if they had strip searched her and water-boarded her also.

 

[Tarheeler]

Yeah, unfortunately we seem unable to elect officials with common sense here in NC.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Yeah, unfortunately we seem unable to elect officials with common sense here in NC.

People with common sense don't run for public office or work for the government - they generally tend to do something useful.

 

[Nepenthe]

Yeah sure you bleeding heart apologists. This time it's a paring knife, next time it's a cheese slicer then an apple peeler! Before you know it she's coming to school strapped into a suicide bomb vest....

 

[tarasan]

Yeah sure you bleeding heart apologists. This time it's a paring knife, next time it's a cheese slicer then an apple peeler! Before you know it she's coming to school strapped into a suicide bomb vest....

wow! that makes perfect sense!

they should have arrested her, so that the kind of madness you mention never has a chance to happen.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Yeah sure you bleeding heart apologists. This time it's a paring knife, next time it's a cheese slicer then an apple peeler! Before you know it she's coming to school strapped into a suicide bomb vest....

You seem to be just a little too familiar with weapons of terrorism...

 

[blackout]

morons.

 

[Nepenthe]

You seem to be just a little too familiar with weapons of terrorism...

=

 

[TJ73]

They focus on this BS at my daughters HS,yet kids sell and smoke drugs right across the street in FULL VIEW. Priorities people, priorities!

 

[Willamena]

She ought to sue the school/County for slander.

 

[Tarheeler]

She ought to sue the school/County for slander.

She'd lose. There hasn't been any slander.

Unfortunately, she has committed a crime here in NC, and the punishment is within what is allowed per the school board's policies even if they are on the harsh side.

That's the problem with "zero tolerance" policies and blanket enforcement.

My son actually went through a similar situation a few years ago, but he knowingly took one of my work knives to school to show off to his buddies. He was charged with the same crime and suspended for the rest of the year as well (which was only 3 days). But, luckily, we're in a different county with different officials; his charges were dropped after a year of unofficial probation and a few visits with the SRO at his school.

 

[gnomon]

=

I so miss having one of those in the kitchen.

Anyway, this reminds of the case where a 17 year old who forced another 17 year old to accompany him to collect on a debt was put on the sex offender registry even though there was no sexual conduct involved at all. But because the sex crime laws included abduction of a minor the judge ruled that the perp in this case would have to be placed on a sex offender registry.

We are a dumb nation getting dumber.

But remember, there are soldiers dying in foreign lands protecting our freedoms!

 

[dust1n]

\

We are a dumb nation getting dumber.

But remember, there are soldiers dying in foreign lands protecting our freedoms!

Look at how great of a job they are doing.

 

[Revoltingest]

Back in the day, my high school had guns to lend to students who didn't have their own. A science teacher sold us ammo....the good accurate stuff. Times change.

 

[Tarheeler]

Back in the day, my high school had guns to lend to students who didn't have their own. A science teacher sold us ammo....the good accurate stuff. Times change.

When I went through elementary and junior high here in NC, archery and small-bore rifle marksmanship were still taught in the school system.... and I'm not very old.

In high school, rifles in gun racks were more common than book bags.

 

[Revoltingest]

When I went through elementary and junior high here in NC, archery and small-bore rifle marksmanship were still taught in the school system.... and I'm not very old.
In high school, rifles in gun racks were more common than book bags.

Good for NC. We're a tad more touchy feely communist up here in MI.

 

[Tarheeler]

I wish it wouldn't have changed.

We took a serious nose dive in the early 90's and it's been downhill ever since.
Now were arresting kids who bring a knife with their lunch.

 

[linwood]

Back in 2001 they expelled a National Merit Scholar a month or so before graduation for having a butter knife on the back seat floorboard of her car at school.

She had been moving and the knife apparently fell out of a box.
She didn`t even know it was there.

Dunno how school officials saw it but they did.

Idiots.