Let no good deed go unpunished.

[url]wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=22890[/url]

Boy hero appeals suspension
                 School punished 8th-grader for taking
                 knife from suicidal friend

By Julie Foster
                 © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

                 A junior-high boy who prevented a friend from
                 slitting her wrists by taking away her knife is
                 fighting his automatic suspension from school
                 for possessing a weapon.

                 Ben Ratner and his mother, Beth Haney, made
                 their appeal to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals
                 in Virginia last week, saying a lower court erred
                 in dismissing the case.

                 In October 1999, Ratner, an eighth-grader from
                 Loudoun County, Va., received a note in class
                 from a friend who said she was contemplating
                 suicide and had brought a knife to school in her
                 binder. Ratner was familiar with the girl's
                 personal troubles and knew she had been
                 hospitalized for psychiatric problems. When he
                 asked for the knife, the girl refused, so Ratner
                 took the binder from her and locked it in his
                 locker. He intended to take the knife home to
                 his mother, a nurse, who could determine an
                 appropriate course of action.

                 School officials found out about the knife and
                 asked Ratner if he had it. The boy said he did
                 and gave the knife to Fanny Kellogg, a dean at
                 Blue Ridge Middle School, upon Kellogg's
                 request. Though Kellogg said she understood
                 the boy's reasons for taking the knife and stated
                 her belief that he was not a threat to anyone,
                 school officials still proceeded to suspend the
                 boy for 10 days. The suspension was quickly
                 amended to be "indefinite," pending review by
                 the school board, which decided the boy should
                 remain out of school for four months.

                 Ratner had believed subjecting his friend to
                 school authorities would be too much pressure
                 for the girl, and he was right. The Sunday
                 following the incident, the girl slit her wrists.
                 Her suicide attempt, however, was
                 unsuccessful.

                 Although officials for the Loudoun County
                 Public Schools also acknowledged that Ben's
                 actions were "noble" and "admirable" and
                 admitted that he posed no threat to himself or
                 others, they nevertheless upheld the long-term
                 suspension, which lasted from Oct. 8, 1999, until
                 Jan. 25, 2000.

(continued)


                 Ratner and Haney secured legal counsel
                 through the Rutherford Institute, which
                 appealed the long-term suspension to the
                 school board in December 1999, but the board
                 upheld the suspension. That decision prompted
                 Ratner's lawsuit against the school district for
                 violation of his civil rights and challenging the
                 district's "zero-tolerance" policy on its face.

                 The policy states in part, "No student shall
                 possess any weapon for any reason while under
                 school control or supervision. The term weapon
                 is intended to be construed broadly to cover
                 and include any instrument which could injure,
                 harm or endanger the physical well-being of
                 another person."

                 Rutherford Institute Chief Litigation Counsel
                 Steven H. Aden, who represented Ratner and
                 Haney in court, claims the zero-tolerance policy
                 is too broad.

                 "Strict adherence to this policy would prohibit
                 the possession of a sharpened pencil, pen, ruler,
                 compass or scissors. If intent is not to be
                 considered, then every student in the Loudoun
                 County Schools is in violation of school policy
                 (as are most of the teachers) for using all the
                 normal tools employed in a learning
                 environment," Aden wrote in his appeal.

                 Speaking to WorldNetDaily, Aden emphasized
                 the personal impact the policy had on Ratner,
                 who was denied his right to be heard, he said.

                 "When we feel the school has to suspend a
                 student for technically possessing a knife even
                 though he saved a friend's life, we've forgotten
                 the human element. We've also accepted
                 trampling on the rights and feelings of young
                 people in order to force them to stay in line. I'm
                 very concerned about that," he remarked.

(continued)


                 Many school have established zero-tolerance
                 policies for various actions, including drug use
                 or possession, violence or threats of violence
                 and weapons possession. But effort to make
                 schools safe has backfired in many cases. As
                 reported by WND, there are numerous cases of
                 "good" kids being punished as a result of the
                 policies intended to weed out "bad seeds." The
                 Rutherford Institute hopes to bring common
                 sense back to discussions about school safety.

                 "I think the path to safety in our schools is
                 understanding where students are coming from
                 and hearing them out -- not kicking them out of
                 school for technical violations of draconian
                 zero-tolerance policies," said Aden. "We've gone
                 down the wrong road since Columbine."

                 Indeed, more than 87,000 students were
                 expelled nationwide in the 1997-98 school year,
                 the latest statistics available from the Office for
                 Civil Rights, a part of the U.S. Department of
                 Education. There were more than 3.1 million
                 children suspended that year, up from 1.7
                 million in the 1974-75 school year and 2.4
                 million in 1991-92.

                 "School officials who enforce 'zero-tolerance'
                 policies without regard for the individual
                 student's motives are only reinforcing
                 intolerance in our schoolchildren," said John W.
                 Whitehead, president of the Rutherford
                 Institute. "We hope that the federal appeals
                 court will intervene and restore a sense of
                 justice and fair play that Loudoun County
                 denied Ben Ratner and his family."

                 Ratner, who was home-schooled by a tutor
                 during his suspension, is asking that his
                 permanent record be expunged and that he be
                 compensated for tutorial costs.

                 Attorney John Easton, who represents the school
                 district in the case, was not available for
                 comment, though a secretary said, "He probably
                 wouldn't have a comment anyway."

Absolutely ridiculous. Common sense is dead.

radioman

I can't even begin to express my rage after reading the article.

it pisses me off so much, I want to slit my wrists...oh wait, I might get suspended...

What a bunch of BS, I hope the kid can sue for emotional distress too.

Rew

No good deed goes unpunished.

Imbro-What is the track record of WorldNet Newsas far as them being a legitimate news source?

If I had a child that got suspended for 4 months for something like this.  
It would make me very seriously consider taking actions
into my own hands with some of these "we know better than you" assholes.  
This IMHO this nearly equivalent to raping my child....after all,
they have scarred him/her forever.....

If this keeps up, someday someone will.  
When you cause UNJUST injury to my child, you leave me little choice.

Bow  

What a total bunch of CRAP!!!

Blatant stupidity,  what a joke.

"The Westeren world,
it is exploding......."


Can't rember who sang that,probaly some draft dodging hippie.But it kinda seems fitting now.

The legacy of Bill CLINTON lives on.....


Augie

Unintended consequences strikes again.

Good Bejesus!  I'm kinda used to reading crap like this though.

If the child can be suspended for a significant period of time for confiscating the weapon from a distraught individual, why can't the school authorities be charged with attempted murder for their part in the harm that came to the girl.  A few felony convictions, ruined careers and resulting suicides might wake up some of the zero-tolerance weenies.  If doing irreparable harm to children is ok, lets be fair and use the same rules with the adults who cause this mess.

NO KIDDING, Rew.

If people nowadays can sue McD's for millions of dollars over a "hot cup of coffee", and the emotional distress it probably brought them to, and if we're forced to live with the "Zero Tolerance" policy with strict adherence...

...then yes, he should sue the school, the school system, the board, etc etc.  Lawsuits for emotional damage, financial compensation, educational losses due to missed school days, the friggin' works.  Hell, let's make it a class action lawsuit while we're at it:  gather all the school-children who were too emotionally distraught to "functionably learn" anything because of the little girl wanting to slit her wrists, and squeeze the system for as much cash as their cold, black hearts can distribute.  If Political Correctness and Zero Tolerance is the wave of the future, then I say Fight Fire w/ F'king Fire.

Jewbroni~

BROG, this is the second time I have seen someone on this board question the veracity of World Net Daily and I find it incomprehensible.
With writers like Farah, Williams, Gertz et al
how can anyone who possess an open mind and is not part of the kintonkommieklick doubt that WND
is the antithesis to cnnabcnpretc.....?

Maybe because WND doesn't tow the gop line?

Imbro- You`re going to pass my post count today, go shooting.[;)]
I`ve seen some stuff on that site that makes me wonder.

thats why i homeschool i learned the horror of school (unconstitional)law when i went.