Butter knife gets girl suspended from school

By AP

A seventh-grader caught at school with a knife she used to slice apples has been suspended for two weeks and must finish the semester at a disciplinary school.

Officials at Flour Bluff Junior High said the punishment of 12-year-old Bianca Felix was justified because she was carrying a weapon on campus in violation of state law.

But Bianca's parents, who are appealing the suspension, said school officials overreacted.

"It was a butter knife, not a weapon," said Bianca's stepfather, Les Howitt. "She is just a little girl. She didn't know any better."

Bianca said she takes an apple to the bus stop each morning as her breakfast, slices it with what she describes as a butter knife, then puts the knife in her purse and goes to school.

A student saw the handle of the knife sticking out of her purse, she said, and reported it to school officials.

School board President Dan Thornton said even if Bianca meant no harm with the knife, another student could have taken it and hurt someone.

"It is against state law for a student to take a knife on school premises," he said. "It is also against our policy. Our policy calls for expulsion. I think she got off easy."

School officials suspended Bianca for two weeks, after which she must complete the semester at an alternative school for children with discipline problems.

Bianca's mother, Elena Howitt, said her daughter is being treated like a criminal.

"It concerns me that she is going to be put into that school. It puts her in a different category," Mrs. Howitt was quoted as saying in Monday's Corpus Christi Caller-Times. "She is being looked at as a bad kid, and she's not."