Speaking as someone who was stabbed with a pencil in 2nd grade I must first say keep them sharp! The dull one I got stabbed with hurt a lot more than a sharp one would have. Still got a dot on my arm from that, lead's out, but enough residue I got a 'pencil tattoo' out of the deal.
Zero Tolerance laws are insulting. They allow for Zero Thinking. More and more bizarre cases like the L shaped piece of paper being a gun violation are occurring and will continue to. Why there continues to be support for these regulations is baffling to me, even though I realize so many parents can't be bothered to really think about their kids so they find it reasonable that nobody else does either.
And Yet
This girl is apparently fairly bright, was old enough to be watching TV and understanding the events back on the 11th of September a few years ago. Certainly has the capacity to listen to and process the every day news events since. As much as I condemn Zero Tolerance laws for their lack of thought I'd have to condemn this girl for using even less intellect. Yes it's a 'pencil sharpener' It's also quite obviously a 2" razor blade with a handle. Even without a ZT policy in effect the punishment here is appropriate, imo.
A week of detention (the special disciplinary class) and removal from leadership positions seems a reasonable punishment for the infraction. Just as it would have been had I done this in 8th grade before ZT policies were around. Doesn't say she was kicked out of the student council or removed from the Honor Society, just that she was removed from the leadership positions in the organizations.
BTW, anyone else wonder if her mom carried the pencil sharpener in her carry on luggage when she flew home from Korea? Either there was a lapse in security there which is much more of concern than a ZT issue or the mom knew enough not to try to skirt security rules by claiming "pencil sharpener, not a weapon"
Besides, also a little curious what 13 year old (think back to when you were in 8th grade) would want to switch from a lifetime of safety sharpeners to potentially slicing her finger while whittling on a pencil. If she grew up doing that from the start, ok, but then where are the old sharpeners, why did her mom need to buy one in Korea, or why did she start sharpening her pencils at school with her new sharpener if she had been sharpening them at home with something else before? To show it off? "My mom went to Korea and look what she brought me" The latter actually seems fairly likely to me. If she was showing off her new traditional pencil sharpener then what I said above still applies.
The other more conspiratorial inference is the mother was itching for a lawsuit. Though the desire to show it off seems more likely. Either way she brought a 2" razor blade to school, passed it around to at least one other student and left it unattended. Punishment is appropriate, ZT or not.