Six-year-old Zachary Christie is a first grader from the Christina School District in Delaware. The young man was suspended for bringing a weapon to school, a Cub Scout camping utensil that serves as a combined fork, spoon and knife. He and his parents appeared on The Today Show Tuesday to share the details.
According to Zach’s father Curtis Christie, the youngster was so excited to have the new scouting tool that he couldn’t wait to take it to school so he could use it to eat his lunch. It actually fell out of his pocket on the bus and an adult confiscated it and reported it to school authorities.
The zero-tolerance policy on weapons forced school officials to immediately suspend the boy, who now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.
While the school district doesn’t believe that he intended to use the 3-way utensil as a weapon, they have given themselves absolutely no discretion in resolving the matter other than to comply with the strict guidelines set forth in their Code of Conduct.
The district faced a similar controversy in 2007 when they expelled a seventh-grader who used a utility knife in a classroom to cut windows out of a cardboard house that was a class project.
Last year Delaware state lawmakers tried to make the disciplinary rules more flexible by giving local boards the authority to act “on a case-by-case basis, to modify the terms of the expulsion.” They failed, however, to make provisions for suspensions, and in light of the Zachary Christie debacle, are already drafting a revision that will include suspensions.
Where does that leave the six-year-old in this case? Debbie Christie is currently home schooling her child while they try to sort it all out. She is dead set against having him go to reform school. Who can blame her? Curt Christie hopes that his friends and neighbors will rally around the family’s plight by attending Tuesday night’s regularly scheduled school board meeting that begins at 7:30 p.m. He needs help.
View photos and his Today Show appearance video below.
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