THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 3, 1997 TAG: 9702010090
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: 83 lines
REMEMBER THE case of the little boy who was suspended from school for kissing a little girl?
Here's another story, closer to home. This one involves a young girl who took a pair of scissors on a class trip to a symphony concert. She received a 10-day suspension when a friend pulled the scissors from her pocket and used them to cut plastic string.
The girl who owned the scissors, 11-year-old Kelly Risner, returned to her school - Forrest Elementary in Hampton - on Thursday.
Kelly, hereafter referred to as THE PERPETRATOR, is a student who makes good grades. She uses the scissors as a tool for string art, which she snips after school. (She makes things like bracelets and necklaces out of plastic string. Kids are ``into'' string art these days.)
THE PERPETRATOR'S mother - Beverly Wade of Hampton - has made the rather sharp point that while the scissors that her daughter took on the field trip do not have rounded points and are larger than conventional scissors . . . they are scissors.
``The school provides a list of items students are asked to bring to school, and scissors are on it,'' Wade said. ``The list doesn't say big scissors or small scissors or any other. It just says scissors.''
THE PERPETRATOR'S mom, as you've probably guessed, has a number of other questions, all more pointed than the scissors.
She asks: If the scissors were a threat to the safety of the class, why didn't the teacher who took them from her daughter's friend merely take them and give Kelly a warning not to bring them back to school?
``Why suspend my daughter for 10 days?'' she asked. THE PERPETRATOR, she says, has been at home studying from her books, watching TV, going to the public library and receiving calls from her young friends, whose reactions range from incredulity to disbelief.
``My daughter's friends have told her this is crazy,'' Wade said.
Kelly, oops . . . THE PERPETRATOR thinks it is kind of crazy too.
``We've used (the scissors) every day in school, and we've always been careful. We've never hurt anyone,'' THE PERPETRATOR said.
She said she was attending a symphony concert at Hampton University with her class Jan. 15 when her classmate saw the scissors in her pocket, pulled them out and began to snip on plastic string.
A teacher took the scissors from the other girl, she said. And Kelly was later suspended. The friend who used the scissors was not suspended, Wade noted.
Mind you, there's no evidence THE PERPETRATOR was attempting to slash tires or stab fellow students with the scissors.
Ann Stephens, the director of public relations for Hampton City Schools, said the PERPETRATOR was guilty of possessing a weapon that might be used for an assault.
``It's a Category 4 offense,'' Stephens noted.
The school regulation used as a basis for the suspension lists weapons ranging from pocket knives to lead pipes and doesn't mention scissors. But it adds that it is a violation to have any instrument ``which may be used in any type of assault.''
Regina Waters, the principal of Forrest Elementary School, repeatedly declined to return my calls. In an interview with the Daily Press in Newport News, she characterized the suspension as one she felt ``constituted a safety issue.''
I was a cut-up of a different kind when I was in public school. And very fortunate not to have been suspended for leaving gum in water fountains and - I am somewhat famous for this - taking a microphone into a john in the principal's office and piping the sound of its flushing into every classroom through the public address system.
But I did learn something in class. One of my teachers explained that intelligence ``is really the ability to make distinctions.''
That ability appears to be in short supply at Forrest Elementary School in Hampton. If the PERPETRATOR'S case is an example, they are nearly fresh out.
Certainly we don't want children carrying weapons to school. And there are plenty of good teachers who would simply have taken the scissors away without embarrassing a good student - and the entire Hampton school system - with a foolish suspension.
Wade said she intends to place her daughter in another school by the middle this month.
And not a minute too soon, I'd say. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Photo courtesy of The Daily Press
Kelly Risner, 11, and her mother, Beverly Wade, display a pair of
scissors similar to the one that got Kelly suspended.