Maybe She Should Have Had Soup

It’s enough to turn an 11-year-old into a vegetarian.

Charlotte Kirk, an honor student at Hopkins Middle School in Columbia, S.C., brought her lunch to school one day last week: leftover chicken, peas and apple pie. She also packed a knife and fork to cut up her chicken. The cutlery proved her undoing. When at the suggestion of a schoolmate Charlotte told a teacher she had brought a smooth-edged knife and why, chastisement was swift. Charlotte, who says she never removed the knife from her lunch box, was accused of bringing a prohibited weapon to school. The sheriff was notified, and soon Charlotte found herself not just suspended but under arrest. In Columbia, they don’t believe in coddling criminals.

This week Charlotte was allowed to return to school. But she must spend the rest of the year on probation, and the suspension will remain on her school record. Ahead lies a hearing in family court, and after that, who knows what.

Schools must of course have tough policies to discourage students from bringing in guns, knives or drugs. But even the most rigid bureaucratic mind ought to be capable of some small measure of flexibility, enough at least to be able to distinguish between what constitutes a life-threatening weapon and what is an everyday eating utensil. Charlotte wasn’t packing a shiv, she just wanted to cut up her chicken. At worst, she can be accused of fastidiousness for preferring not to eat with her fingers. That this led to her being punished as a scofflaw reduces to an absurdity what the anti-weapons policy is supposed to be all about.