We should have a zero tolerance policy for school officials. Any school official who suspends an 8-year old for using a butter knife to prepare his lunch should be removed from their position.
[full article quoted below]

A King William County woman is questioning the county school district's zero-tolerance policy on weapons. Joyce Heath says her eight-year-old son returned to school yesterday after being suspended for seven days, because he carried a butter knife to school with his lunch.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Nicholas, a third-grader, had been suspended for ten days and faced the possibility of being placed in disciplinary classes for a year. But Heath met with School Superintendent Brenda Cowlbeck on Tuesday, and the suspension was lifted.

Cowlbeck said she could not comment on the matter because of privacy laws. But she said Tuesday's meeting was her first chance to discuss the matter with the boy's mother.

Heath said she packed a butter knife in her son's lunch along with a package of peanut butter and jelly on October first. She says Nicholas did not do anything threatening with the knife.

The way I see it, if you cannot tell the difference between an 8-year old fixing his lunch and a gang-banger threatening bodily harm on other students, then you are obviously not qualified to work as a babysitter, much less manage a government school filled with our nation's future.