VERY well said!!!

I suspect that the girl didn't even consider the rule, because she didn't consider the knife a weapon, just a utensil for food, like a spoon for soup.

Sue

Pretty much. Well said Susan.

Dave

There ya go! It's a utensil. Call the COPS!!!! Somebody get Channel 9 on the phone!!!!

Humpheads

according to the current handbook for my old highschool, criminal possession of a weapon is defined as "knowingly possessing or carrying, with intent to cause harm or threaten to cause harm, any weapon or potentially deadly object."
Key part of that is the "intent to harm or threaten" part. That means a reasonable person can decide the knife in your lunchbox, or the lone shell in your hunting jacket was not going to be used in a massacre and send you on your way. And if they think you WERE going to try and kill your peers with the Squirt on the keyring in your car, they have to prove that was your intent. The problems start when you make a Zero Tolerance Policy regarding ANYTHING. That leaves no room for reason. You break this rule and you're out, end of story, no questions asked.
I read stories like this and it just makes me more determined that I don't want to live in the city, cause that's where all these crazies seem to hang out. You never hear about a kid getting hauled away in handcuffs over a pocket knife in the rural south. Ask anyone down here and you'll get the same response: "Man, that's gotta be tha dumbest thing I ever heard. The ones who called the cops are the ones who aughta be arrested for wastin the officers time and terrorizin that poor kid."

"That leaves no room for reason."

REASON??? This is America! Reason flew out the window years ago, just ahead of Justice.

Sue

Reason........ we don't need no stinkin reason. We have lawyers and such folks to reason for us and keep us safe from those nasty ten year olds that just wanna eat and the other nasties out there .

Soon Children will be arrested for having a sharp pencil in their bookbag, or on their desk. Sigh

Hi probablylost,

As the 10 year girl has admitted that she has brought the steak knife into school under her own admission on a number of separate occasions previously, during her police statement whilst under arrest, do you think she could be facing life imprisonment under the 3 strikes rule especially if the offences have occurred within a 1000 yards of a church?
Sounds as if this 10 year girl should have said no, when her rights were being read out by the arresting LEO.

Ignorance is no defence against the Law.

What legally constitutes a "weapon"? I remember reading an interview in Playboy with actor James Garner; he talked about a case of road rage where he was assaulted by another driver, who knocked him to the ground and proceeded to kick him several times. The guy was convicted of "assault with a deadly weapon" - his shoes.

I can understand that ANYTHING is legally a weapon if used as such. And I understand that a firearm is treated differently, but I also understand that the laws governing firearms address firearms specifically. (e.g. robbery with a firearm is different from robbery with a weapon).

Why is a child with a steak knife legally considered different from a child with a softball bat or a child wearing shoes? All three could be used as weapons, and all three have perfectly benign uses which are more common.

Do the laws in these jurisdictions specifically single out knives as being weapons by assumption?