Virginia Student Gets Suspended for Taking Razor From Kid Who Was Cutting

Screenshot/WAVY.com

Note to American tweens: Don't be a Good Samaritan on the state's watch. A sixth grader at a Virginia Beach public school was suspended this week for having a razor blade. She took the blade from another student who was cutting himself with it. Bad move, apparently. 

The Bayside Middle School student, Adrionna Harris, said she took a razor blade away from another student because he was using it to cut himself. She threw the blade away and told school officials. Then she was suspended for 10 days, with a recommendation for expulsion, according to Virginia Beach news station WAVY. 

Note that Harris didn't even have the razor blade in her possession when she went to school administrators. The only evidence this razor blade existed is Harris' own admission of it, when she told school officials what had happened and that she had already thrown it away.

"I was very shocked that a student would get suspended for saving another child," Rachael Harris, Adrionna's mother, told WAVY. "The school system over-reached absolutely."

On Wednesday night, Virginia Beach City Public Schools agreed to move Adrionna's suspension hearing, which was scheduled for next week, to Thursday night.

Comments

[Warty]

This is a good lesson for the girl. Authorities are not your friends, do not talk to them.

[Paul.]

Then she was suspended for 10 days, with a recommendation for expulsion, according to Virginia Beach news station WAVY.

I don't even know how to put all the thoughts and emotions that the above evokes into a coherent, brief thought.

This is happening everywhere, all the time. And I'm really not trying to be snarky here, but something is going on in our public institutions that is somehow...by design... attracts people that are so dumb-- so POWERFULLY dumb, that one begins to believe that we need societal collapse to perform some kind of intellectual reset.

[Tim]

These are people trained, they have degrees in education, MA's in administration and they make decisions the fucking janitor could ace.

[sarcasmic]

They don't make decisions. They mindlessly obey policies.

[Tim]

That's the defense when they get called out: "Policy". I vas choost folloving mein orders".

[C. S. P. Schofield]

No. They MAKE the policies. Then they follow them, and when somebody calls them on their obvious idiocy, they point to the policy and say "See? My hands are tied!".

The answer to that needs to be, "OK. Let's get your feet, too, and then into the rive you go!"

[Michael S. Langston]

Yep - just like Obama's motto "The buck stops... somewhere... over there... not near me... I didn't do it."

In this case - instead of the buck stopping with the school administrators, they are using "policy" as a scapegoat.

& I bet they think this is just a great idea - no one has to take responsibility. No calls by voters to kick out officials. None of it.

Because really, it's unfair to hold humans to account when really "policies" were to blame.

Of course the voters are humans too and could easily learn was passive voice is and punish these idiots without someone pointing out to them the chain of events and people who could be blamed.

Since most will not because the school district is likely filled with "their people" already - they will instead adopt the same language and rationalization to prevent any cognitive dissonance.

Which in urban areas means the political party that includes all those hippies - will actively blame an inanimate object all to allow the authority system to maintain total control by cruelly utilizing random, capricious, and unnecessarily harsh punishments for the slight offense and even in some cases, for non-offenses like... practicing science.

[LarryA]

These are people trained, they have degrees in education, MA's in administration

Those are the bugs, not the features.

[perlhaqr]

Top Men?

[croaker]

Anyone with any degree related to pedagogy should be permanently barred from contact with children. Even their own crotch fruit.

[sarcasmic]

The entire premise of Dilbert is that the more stupid a person is, the more likely they are to be promoted to management. And once in management, the dumber they are, the higher they go.

[Paul.]

Well, the CEO of Target did call the largest credit card breach in U.S. history an "opportunity"... so...

[Michael S. Langston]

Which is common in all businesses - trying to look at all failures/issues/etc as opportunities to strengthen the company.

Granted - a sizable percentage, possibly a majority, of the population will read the CEO's statement just as you implied it - as an unbelievably idiotic comment, but it likely was a benign corporate way of looking at "problems" in a different light.

& note while we're here - this is who security is built in the real world. By starting with security level X -and strengthening it as failures highlight weaknesses.

EG: Before 9/11 - it would be completely rational for any passenger on an airplane high-jacked by ME-supporting terrorists to believe the hijackers when they were told "sit down and relax - we are going back to the airport and will give our demands. You will be released without harm when they are met."

Not sure much since then though...

[Michael S. Langston]

Sorry - so my ending point - the CEO seems to have made a marketing miscalculation, but I see nothing wrong with the statement itself.

It's a normal statement and a fair way to look at a known problem.

[Restoras]

I wouldn't say they are dumb - they are just trained to follow procedures regardless of all logic and reason. In fact, many of these people are actually very bright and good at getting things done.

Think of it this way. People like to say that so-and-so dictator killed XXX millions, what an evil monster! However, these people, as evil as they are, did not actually execute the orders. They had an entire apparatus of government at their disposal, made up entirely of not unintelligent people, that got the killings done for them. These people are very good at following orders/rules/procedures with complete disregard of all logic, reason, and ethics.

That is what government is, and that's why it is evil.

[Paul.]

I wouldn't say they are dumb - they are just trained to follow procedures regardless of all logic and reason.

But here's the thing about that, that either makes them dumb or complicit. I'm not prepared to say which is worse, but either way, that's a problem. That there is an extreme lack of moral fiber in our public institutions.

If they are, as you say, following orders in disregard of logic, reason and ethics then they are, by definition, unethical. The fact that we let this stand says something about ourselves.

[sarcasmic]

that either makes them dumb or complicit

Power is its own reward. When you get to ruin lives through enforcing rules, you don't much care what the rules are. You only care about the joy you feel when you make people suffer.

[Paul.]

I wish I could find it, but I remember something from the late 90s where some OSHA official talked about how she got a kind of 'high' right before her agency was going to implement a new regulation.

[Michael S. Langston]

OSHA - an OSHA guy gave a group of redneck electrians some training on repitive stress and the like - one of the "instructor's" points about how serious this was - was the fact that Tyson Chicken was fined 40 million dollars for stress injuries.

To which more than one good ole boy asked "Did those hurt get any of that money".

& when the instructor said "No" - the response was basically universal mutterings of things like "then WTF should we pay attention" and it effectively ended training.

He kept talking his hour's worth - but every just talked amongst themselves or openly mocked the OSHA guy.

Gotta say - one of the best government training programs I've ever had the pleasure of attending 🙂

[OneOut]

In Texas we just had a similar event.

A young man who is making his own lunch accidentally puts a can of his parents beer in his lunch instead of a can of soda out of the fridge. When he discovered his mistake he threw it away and then told a teacher what had happened. She told the principal and he also was suspended with a recommendation for expulsion.

A local talk show host, Michael Berry, got a donation of 5k and paid a lawyer to take the family's case.

[Hugh Akston]

She threw the blade away and told school officials.

Well there's your problem.

[Will Nonya]

The real problem is that kids are taught that they can trust school officials, cops and government officials in general. They're indoctrinated so they don't see the risk and neither do most of their parents.

[Michael S. Langston]

That's a feature, not a bug.

[Tim]

What is this world coming too. We are approaching Caligula level insanity here.

[Paul.]

But without the free easy sex.

[Tim]

I know, right? Just the bullshit and none of the fun.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

What I was going to say!

[Ron]

are you sure about that I keep reading articles about female teachers giving it away to students.

[JWW]

There should be a thousand parents from the district at that meeting that refuse to leave until everyone in the administration responsible and everyone on the suspension hearing committee resign in disgrace.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah, like that's gonna happen.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

THIS.

Nothing will change until people are held accountable and fired for this bullshit.

Demand heads!

[sarcasmic]

Then they'll just call in police from surrounding areas, and put all the parents in jail. Maybe shoot a few just to show that they mean business.

[T?tmacher]

My god you're stupid and tiresome.

[OneOut]

Hi Tony.

[Michael S. Langston]

& humor escapes you.

[Ron]

but he may be correct. they called the police on a man who questioned the new teaching program called core or something. In this case the man wasn't shot but next time who knows.

[Restoras]

If anyone wishes to contact Dr. Johnson, the principal of Bayside Middle School, the (publicly available) email address is:
[e-mail]

[Paul.]

Dr. Johnson? PhDs... I knew it.

[Elizabeth Nolan Brown]

I contacted him and haven't heard back, though it was only about an hour ago. Wondering if anything happened to the student who allegedly had the razor blade to begin with...

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Done.

[Paul.]

SWAT raid inbound.

[mad.casual]

To be entirely fair, we don't know any of the details of this other student.

It's entirely possible that Adrionna did us all (and herself) a disservice by taking the blade away from this individual.

[nipplemancer]

tar, feathers, apply liberally

[Will Nonya]

don't rinse but repeat.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And then the government will take out adds saying people should help each other and liberals will scream of depraved social indifference once people begin to 'mind their own business.'

Man, the state is fucked up.

[Paul.]

Apparently, all of this was spelled out in the fine print on the social contract you signed before you were of legal age.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Musta signed it under duress because I don't seem to recall such an action.

I do vaguely remember a gun being pointed at my temple though.

[Will Nonya]

come on, you obviously agreed to it or you would have left the country.

I mean everybody can afford to relocate to another continent right?

[Whahappan?]

Where they will be promptly entered into a different, but equally onerous "Social Contract. FY, TW.

[Ron]

or even able to read, they made my 6 year old nephew sign a social contract of how to act at school. the kid can't even spell yet.

[LarryA]

And then the government will take out adds saying people should help each other

You don't understand. "Help each other" = "Call the government to solve other people's problems."

Ms Harris, seeing another student cutting herself, should have quietly raised her hand, asked to borrow a phone, called the school's secret hotline, reported the presence of the blade, then proned out on the floor while the school SWAT team shot the armed terrorist with the razor and searched everybody's lockers and backpacks for vape implements.

[SIV]

I'd approve if she was suspended for theft of the other student's property.

[Paul.]

Well, she was suspended for theft of school property.

[Restoras]

Well that is a violation of the NAP, is it not?

[Michael S. Langston]

Not sure this would count as theft - but if it would, it would require a complaining witness.

So I guess if the kid who owned it stated it was her's and stolen....

[~Knarf Yenrab~]

Skimming the article (and from the misleading headline), this is what I imagined. Yes, children, even cutters have rights to their own bodies and property.

But this being a story about secondary education in America, of course that's not what happened.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Lesson for the plebes: Do not help anyone else, instead wait for permission from your betters. The system is there for your own good, do not attempt to ignore it, or you will be punished.

No individual reasoning allowed. Follow orders.

[Lonely Stalker]

GlaDOS was a liberal.

[SIV]

Wouldn't cutting be sorta like S&M masturbation and if so, shouldn't cutters be afforded the same protections as any other "alternative lifestyle"?

I guess it would be OK if the "Samaritan" was suspended for bullying too.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Some cutting may be that, but cutting is very often a symptom of depression.

[SIV]

A symptom, or "self-treatment"?

[Wasteland Wanderer]

A symptom. Cutting doesn't "treat" anything; the reason severely depressed people cut is they believe it is the only way the only way to feel anything.

I see you're determined to be the contrarian asshole in this thread, though; have fun with that.

[Warty]

At least he's saying something other than "COSMO? COSMO COSMO COSMO!" Give him some credit.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

True. I guess that's some progress...

[C. S. P. Schofield]

I wouldn't give him all the flies he could eat if he caught them himself.

[Freedom Frog]

This could pass as an Onion article. What the hell is the matter with these people?

[SIV]

on Friday she told the school administration what happened

Never talk to the cops or school administrators.

My sympathy for this bullying, thieving, snitch is quite low.

[waffles]

Snitches preventing me from getting stitches will be expelled!

[Paul.]

That's right, bitches.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Making another libertarian.

The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

[OldMexican]

"I was very shocked that a student would get suspended for saving another child," Rachael Harris, Adrionna's mother, told WAVY. "The school system over-reached absolutely."

Oh, please! Stop kidding yourself. This is not some fluke or an extraordinary case of public school administrators suddenly becoming overzealous. There is PURPOSE in these zero-tolerance rules, madam - it is to CONTROL by FEAR; it is about totalitarianism; it is about dehumanizing people so they can be easily turned into sheep. Don't you get it? You're part of the system that teaches your kid to be an obedient, subservient part of the establishment. You, madam, are part of the problem. Your kid is the victim. So don't pretend like this is a surprise, because I DON'T FUCKING BELIEVE YOU.

[Rhywun]

She probably taught her kid to "always be honest" like we always hear in similar cases. Like that's something to be proud of.

[Will Nonya]

I was always taught never to volunteer and never to give up my weapon. I ignored the first and spent 6 years in the army. Lesson learned.

[Mainer2]

But OM, I believe she is genuinely surprised. She's one of the low information sheep, who, if you'd told her how evil these people are before she was personally affected, would have simply refused to believe that the nice people at her daughter's school were capable of such cruelty. I agree she is part of the problem, in large part because she doesn't even realize she's cooperating with totalitarians.

[Mannie]

You are correct.

This has nothing to do with Zero Tolerance idiocy, nor with hysteria after the Sandy Hook shootings. It is not idiocy. It is deliberate. It is a tactic. Idiocy is just the smoke screen. This is a program to condition, to terrorize, to brainwash our children into fearing and hating guns, patriotism, and Americanism. If the Liberal Vermin can ruin our children, they have won.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

It is deliberate only in that it is created by many individual Educrat twits who like authority but hate responsibility. The effect is remarkably close to what you describe, but Ed. majors are too stupid to manage it on purpose, or to realize why it might benefit them

[Mannie]

The school Scum would rather she let the kid die.

Teach your children that school is not their friend. It is a place of danger for children. It is a place to get their minds corrupted with Anti-American propaganda. Teach your children to trust nothing about the education system. Take the education they give you, but only believe the "hard" stuff like mathematics and physics. Parrot the rest back, but never believe it. Give nothing back to the system. Treat them as if they were enemy captors interrogating you as a POW. Be subtle as snakes. Know that the teacher is a cop who wants to destroy you; a tyrant who wants to enslave you. A predator who wants to abuse you. A spy who wants to denounce you.

Sorry about that, good teachers, but you have the responsibility to harangue, harass, and if necessary, terrorize the Liberal Vermin out of the system. Otherwise, you're part of the problem, too. No prisoners. No quarter.

????? ????

[Notorious G.K.C.]

And have a nice day!

[Robert]

Somebody please save the day by explaining that administrators were defending a student's right to cut or kill hirself, even on school ground.

I suppose that's too much to hope for. If dese guyses are so literal-minded about da roolz, it's only a matter of time before they act on the "NO STANDING ZONE" sign on the street outside by forbidding their students to stand there.

[rabid penguin]

Sigh. I have several friends who are middle/lower school teachers in this state, and I have stopped asking them about work... because it's a non-stop litany of horror stories. The city schools tend to be the ones with issues here.

As for zero-tolerance, it's all about Cover Your Ass- the less thought or interpretation is required to resolve a situation, the less liability there is for staff.

The ironic thing about zero tolerance is that it helps insulate teachers from the effects of the same bureaucracy that is currently crushing them- see, the crazy/manipulative kids quickly figure out that they can grind down a teacher and get LOTS of attention by causing "incidents" that require phone calls, staying late for parent meetings (crazy kid usually means crazier parents), CYA paperwork, etc.

A zero-tolerance policy can help streamline this process, at the cost of being fair or rational. Otherwise, the teacher is left with bribery (because you can't actually discipline them). Or, they trying to get the kid qualified for an individual instructor- so that they can be someone else's nightmare. Or they focus all of their attention on the troublemakers, at the expense of the other 28+ kids packed into their classroom.

[JD3]

I'm a volcano of liberty...soon to erupt.

[Ron]

this is just indoctrination to keep people from helping others, or getting involved because thats the "STATES JOB". Everyone cower in their own fetal postion.

[Rusty 5hackleford]

The girl should have just notified the authorities. Then trained education professionals and their policies would have made everthing better:
-The administrator locks down the school.
-Police are called, a call for operators is made.
-Arriving units show up and get dressed in Operator gear.
-The hostage negitator is called.
-The girl is interrogated as a possible "person of interest" or accomplise.
-The local deputy with Operator gear sees a dog of leash in the park by the school and shoots it.
-The deputies "clear" the school and find the student bleeding to death.
-EMT won't be able to come in until the scene is secured 30 minutes later.
-The EMT's arrive and find a corpse. Nevertheless the do CPR to the ambulance.
-Once the ambulance is far enough away from the school the child is declared dead.
-Consulars are avaliable at the school (on OT of course) and a presentation is done showing kids all the examples of bullying and what the correct procedure is.
-Requests for more tax money is made using the dead kids name on the bill, written by some union.
-Money is paid, but the cycle repeats.

[thoreu]

This is the type of stupid, non-common sense, excuse making education bureaucrats make when they cannot legitimately justify policy and practice with reason. Chock this thinking in the same category as kids who eat a pop-tart or hold their fingers in the shape of a gun. These policies need to change right away. They protect no one. All they do is traumatize innocent child behavior. There is not a single incident of a CHILD in grammar school shooting another. Other school shootings are extremely rare at best-reported like an impending plague by the shallow news.

If anything, the schools should have firearms safety programs. Hell, they used to have rifle teams! When I went through schools in New Jersey, the police came by our grammar school to teach gun safety and marched the class outside to observe him fire his revolver and shotgun! When I was in high school, many students used to go pheasant hunting before school; they would have their shotgun in their pick up or car. We had fights-some considered racial during the 60's and some people got their ass beat. No one ever brought a gun, although they were readily available in the parking lot.

[Pulseguy]

I sometimes think schools never teach anyone anything, then I read a story like this. The little girl gained a few very valuable life lessons. Most people are idiots. People who run institutions are almost for certain idiots. Be very distrustful of authority.

But, most importantly for her....if you help someone keep your mouth shut. You don't need a gold star if you help someone.

[ax123man]

This is good news. If she's lucky, she'll "suspend" herself permanently from this publiK school and homeschool.

[ThomasD]

Kinda doubt Mom has he time to do this.

And you can bet McAuliffe won't be signing any school voucher bill.

[croaker]

Snitches get stitches.