My school was the same way. I graduated in 1991. We all carried pocket knives, I has a cousin who carried a big fixed blade in his boot and would pull it out and clean under his nails and no one cared.
Then again we got to target shoot .22's in gym class (I was though to not know how to hold a gun because I was turning it sideways studying it and comparing its bolt action to my semi auto at home).
I was helping the shop teacher with an after school activity shortly after getting my license so I was allowed to drive to school but couldn't drive to where we were going so I rode with him and he saw a ground hog in a field behind the school and pulled his rifle out from under the seat of his truck and shot it.
We never had a stabbing or shooting at school either. We had one student shot one weekend by her boyfriend whose parents had recently moved from a city.