Likewise, what possible threat of mayhem does a teenage girl pose to her school by carrying such a weapon of mass eyebrow destruction? Are we such
pantywaists? What is the worst case scenario? She nuts up and scratches someone with this pathetic weapon? Are there no boys or men strong and brave enough to disarm this little girl? Wow, they might risk a scratch or, horrors, a shaven eyebrow for all their trouble. Are we such mice that we cower behind such stupid, moronic and intrusive laws?

Do you really feel safer knowing that concealed-carry cosmetic devices have been banned? I pity you. Bow down and lick the hand of Big Brother and I pray that your chains rest lightly upon your necks.

It folds up like a pocket knife, is shaped like one and has a little blade thing on it. I do bow to your apparently greater knowledge of shanks. Though this doesn't look much like either to me:

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.themartialist.com/images/ranger01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.themartialist.com/pecom/rangerknives.htm&usg=__k1spDH-1m89GEz1Yvux2h7HHezs=&h=300&w=400&sz=22&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=f3PbvtSGGxVqXM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dshank%2Bknife%26hl%3Den%26um%3D1

Speaking of ignorant, here are things I didn't talk about that you seemed to think I did:

a. what the video showed

b. what the punishment was

c. whether it cut stuff or not

You seem to think I am disagreeing about the major point here, which was the zero tolerance BS.

What this story is, like so many of these righteous indignation stories are, is a screwup by an official which is supposedly some sort of representative case of where society is going.

My guess is that she probably just keeps all her grooming items in a make-up bag and throws it in her purse to do touch ups. I am a woman, and I pretty much keep all my grooming stuff in the same make-up bag-I just don't haul mine around with me. An extra lip stick in the purse is pretty much the extent of my make-up application away from home.

I would also think that most teenage girls or shoot any teenager wouldn't even consider an eyebrow shaver as a potential weapon, which is why she probably didn't think about it being in her make-up bag.

Steve - methinks you wish to argue too much. I'm not saying it was a correct decision. But the tool looks more like a knife than does a pencil.

No it doesn't, and false analogy there.

A pencil looks more like a shank than this looks like a knife. In watching the video it can't cut skin. It is quite small, folds up, and is no worse than tweezers, nail clippers, or a pencil in terms of an inprovised weapon. Lots of things cut at school that aren't weapons nor do they endanger student safety.

And in any event the punishment does not fit the crime. I'm guessing we are talking almost 2 months for this? Stupid.

And maybe, just maybe, the girl was flicking it around like the aforementioned switchblade comb (I had one of those too).

Me thinks you are ignorant. It was found during a random search.

But the tool looks more like a knife than does a pencil.

That's fine, but the rule wasn't "Nothing more knife-like than a pencil".

And maybe, just maybe, the girl was flicking it around like the aforementioned switchblade comb

Maybe, just maybe, you didn't read the part of the story quoted in the post:

a random search turned up an eyebrow shaver in her handbag

And maybe, just maybe, the girl was flicking it around like the aforementioned switchblade comb (I had one of those too).

Sorry, no a pencil sharpener does not pierce it cuts.

Me fail reading comprehension? Sorry, thought you were talking about pencils, not sharpeners.

The thing looks weaponish, or at least box-cutterish.

A pencil is weaponish as it shankish looking. So is a pen, and a scarf looks like a garrote, as do shoe laces.

I used pencils, and I would stuff them in my hair above the clip. Sometimes I'd find four or five back there, and I have thin hair.

In advertising composition, we used Exactos, and I just caught myself before I stuffed one of those back there, too.

Technically, no. It is a cutting tool.

Technically it's a piercing tool, it doesn't have a bladed edge.

The thing looks weaponish, or at least box-cutterish.

The thing has a millimeter deep blade surrounded by a raised plastic housing. You could make a deeper cut with card stock than that thing.

I'll bet when you read that SSA in a week it'll include "shaving instrument or tool".

It also includes nail clippers and the scissors used in pre-schools (with rounded tips, and protective plastic coating).

Don't be a retard. Seriously, don't be a retard, when my son went to private school we had to buy and send him to school with the scissors noted above.

I'd also argue that a pen or pencil is a far more effective weapon. Especially a pencil, stab the person, then break it off.

Can they have pencil sharpeners?

Technically, no. It is a cutting tool.