I agree that kids need to be dealt with sternly but it has gottewn pretty serious as of late. My son, who was in 7th grade last year was leaving school and had a hole in the bottom of his backpack. As he was leaving class a smal pocket knife fell out of the bottom of the backpack. He visits his Dad every other wweekend, took the backpack, went fishing and used the knife, threw it into the backpack and it had been in there for 2 weeks. Now they had to send him to the principal and he was suspended. We had to go and have a hearing at the district office. Potentially he could have been kicked out of school and sent to a "continuation school". Luckily my son has been an A student since 1st grade, so after hearing him speak and explain himself, they allowed him back to school. BUT his report cards are sent to the district each semester for review and we will have to petition to see if we can get it off his record in a couple of years. Now I am not saying this is wrong at all. It was good for my son to learn a serious lesson. And that is there are consequences for every action and every NON-action. He chose to be lazy and forgetful and not take the knife out so he has to pay the consequences. Anyway it did worry me that other kids could fall through the cracks and their whole lives could be changed by something such as this. I can not imagine my son who already plans to be an oceanographer and go to UCSD could have possibly had his whole future changed by this falling from his backpack. Obviously I would see this differently if he had taken it out to show someone, etc...I think it is important for us to make all of our children accountable but be careful that we choose punishments that fit the crime...
