When I went through middle school ('87-'89), the "students cannot have knives or other weapons" policy was already in place. The policy at that time did not apply to staff and faculty. The shop teacher had, and lent out to the students, a Buck 110 knife on his belt. And, the physics teacher brough in a pellet rifle to demonstrate concervation of momentum(IIRC, we determined it shot a 1 gram pellet at 900 fps).

When I went back to work at the school discrict as a TA (glorified babysitter) in '94 or '95 the policy had already changed to "nobody can have a knife or other weapon".

Now it's "nobody can sketch/bite their food into/ make pretend their hand is a knife or other weapon". I find this darly amusing considering the unholy ****storm that was street crime 20+ years ago compared to today.

IMHO, given the incredible lack of maturity of the student body in general, I remember as both a student and TA, I'm inclined to agree with the "No knives or weapons for students". OTOH, I think that if you can be trusted to effectively raise our kids, then you should be able to be trusted with a sharp tool.