10-15-2013, 11:51 AM
Speaking of zero tolerance. Here is one with a positive ending:
There’s a happy ending to a story from last week…Cody Chitwood is the Cobb County, Georgia, high school student who was charged with a felony after school officials discovered he had a fishing knife…in his tackle box…inside his locked car, out in the parking lot. They claimed it violated the school’s zero tolerance policy on weapons, which I assume was written by a school of fish. Cody was facing a possible 10 years in prison. But, over the weekend, I spoke to his attorney, who spoke to the D.A., who realized how foolish the whole thing was. The charge was dropped, and Cody’s plans to join the Air Force after school are back on track. Even better, this case and the publicity people like me gave it have convinced county officials that their zero tolerance policy needs an injection of common sense. Let’s hope it starts a nationwide wave. If anything needs to be filleted with a fishing knife, it’s our hidebound zero tolerance policies, so I can finally stop reporting stories of innocent kids being suspended or arrested for pointing a fish stick or eating a gun-shaped Pop-Tart.
There’s a happy ending to a story from last week…Cody Chitwood is the Cobb County, Georgia, high school student who was charged with a felony after school officials discovered he had a fishing knife…in his tackle box…inside his locked car, out in the parking lot. They claimed it violated the school’s zero tolerance policy on weapons, which I assume was written by a school of fish. Cody was facing a possible 10 years in prison. But, over the weekend, I spoke to his attorney, who spoke to the D.A., who realized how foolish the whole thing was. The charge was dropped, and Cody’s plans to join the Air Force after school are back on track. Even better, this case and the publicity people like me gave it have convinced county officials that their zero tolerance policy needs an injection of common sense. Let’s hope it starts a nationwide wave. If anything needs to be filleted with a fishing knife, it’s our hidebound zero tolerance policies, so I can finally stop reporting stories of innocent kids being suspended or arrested for pointing a fish stick or eating a gun-shaped Pop-Tart.