6-year-old suspended for bringing camping utensil to Del. school

BY JENNIFER PRICE • THE NEWS JOURNAL • October 13, 2009

Thank god this dangerous criminal was disarmed.Hundreds of people are expected to be at the Christina School Board meeting tonight fighting for what many call common sense. Six-year-old Zachary Christie was suspended last week for bringing a camping utensil with a knife, fork and spoon to Downes Elementary that he planned to use at lunch to eat his pudding.

He is the latest casualty of a zero-tolerance policy that forbids "dangerous instruments" in schools.

He is not allowed to return to the Newark elementary school until he has completed at least 45 days at an alternative school.

On Monday, the Christina School District was flooded with more than 1,000 angry phone calls from across the country after the Christie family told their story to national media outlets, including The New York Times and the three major television networks.

Zachary's case struck a nerve with parents and others who feel the zero-tolerance policies unfairly punish children for innocent actions.

As of Monday evening, almost 29,000 people had signed an online petition to get Zachary back in school.

"This has gotten really crazy. It's ridiculous," said state Rep. Terry Schooley, D-Newark, who sponsored a bill in the spring that gives districts more flexibility around their zero-tolerance policies. "There are going to be hundreds of people at the school board meeting. It's going to be a circus."

Because the district's Student Code of Conduct bans dangerous instruments regardless of intent, the district could not take into consideration Zachary's age or why he brought the camping utensil to school, said Wendy Lapham, the district's spokeswoman.

"We have to follow the policy as it is written consistently because this is the code of conduct that is applied to all of our students in our district," she said. "It's never a question of a child's character or comparing one child to another."

Zachary's mother, Debbie Christie, is hoping the board will change its policy and reconsider her son's case.

"I think it's crazy that they don't use common sense," said Christie, who is also the school's PTA co-president.

"Zach doesn't have a mean bone in his body. We shouldn't have to go to the press to get people to use common sense."

A growing backlash

Christina has made headlines before, but this is the biggest public response they've ever received, Lapham said.

"We're getting e-mails and phone calls from as far as California, Tennessee and Colorado. There have been some that have been very threatening and have been targeted to our school board members, our staff and our superintendent," Lapham said. "They are telling us that we are idiots and if they lived closer they would come harm us."

Last year, fifth-grader Kasia Haughton was suspended for bringing a serrated knife to school to cut a cake. Because the knife's blade was longer than 3 inches, it qualified as a "deadly weapon." Haughton faced a possible expulsion until the district reversed its decision and allowed her back in school after determining that she never actually had possession of the knife.

Two years ago, the school board expelled a seventh-grader for using a utility knife from home to cut windows out of a paper house for a class project.

In both cases, district leaders said they must enforce Christina's code of conduct consistently to be fair.

Sympathizing with these students, Schooley sponsored legislation in the spring to allow districts to modify the terms of an expulsion or determine expulsion is not appropriate. The law, passed in June, is in effect this school year.

"I think they are very concerned about following the letter of the law and not taking any chances where they're not treating all children equally," she said. "But it makes them look like they have no common sense."

Schooley initially thought her bill would help Zachary, but because he was only carrying a "dangerous instrument" and not a "deadly weapon" and therefore was suspended, not expelled, the law does not apply to his case. Schooley now plans to revise the law next legislative session, which doesn't begin until January.

Pushing for change

According to the district's code of conduct, if the full blade of a knife is shorter than 3 inches, school officials consider it a dangerous instrument; 3 inches or longer and it is a deadly weapon. The blade on Zachary's utensil was shorter than 3 inches.

First offenders who bring a dangerous instrument to school face five days of out-of-school suspension and possible placement in an alternative school. First offenders who bring deadly weapons face a week's suspension and recommendation for expulsion.

"I don't want to blame the district or the school because they were following their policy, but now they need to re-visit their policy," Schooley said. "I just wish they had done it before the Times found out. But I think this is the perfect opportunity for the school board to exert some leadership and take a look at their policy before they do any more damage to any more kids."

Lapham said the school board had already scheduled a workshop for the beginning of November to examine the district's code of conduct and see what, if any, improvements could be made. But district staff could make a recommendation to the board tonight to modify the code of conduct and adjust the consequences when the district's youngest students are found in possession of a dangerous instrument or deadly weapon, Lapham said.

Rep. Michael Barbiere, D-Newark, who created a task force in May to study laws, regulations and district policies governing school discipline and codes of conduct violations, thinks placing Zachary in an alternative school is "overkill."

Barbiere said the district should create a range of consequences, not just expulsion or sending a child to an alternative school.

"Someone might be bringing in a knife to start a war while someone else is bringing in a knife to cut a cake, and they are treated the same when they are totally different situations," he said.

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