Preparing for "Zero-tolerance" Policies

I hope you've been following the Matthew Whalen story out of New York. The seventeen year-old Eagle Scout and aspiring West Point student was suspended for twenty days for having a 2" pocket knife in a survival kit that was locked up in his car on school grounds.

While I want our kids and teachers to be safe, I think that mindless policies are not the way to go about it. That knife, which isn't even considered a weapon by New York State Law, was no more dangerous than a baseball bat or even a fork in the wrong hands.

Consider, also, Zachary Christie, the Delaware first-grader who was suspended for 45 days for bringing a "hobo tool" to school to eat his pudding. While the school board in Zachary's case eventually came to their senses about the matter, Mathew Whalen's family has had to hire a lawyer to try and get the incident rectified.

So where does that leave us law-abiding folks who are simply concerned about our kids being prepared for an emergency?

Plan First

FEMA has put together a nice website called, "Ready America," to help the ordinary citizen (and businesses) be better prepared for a disaster. This site has a lot of good information that's well thought out and easy to follow. One flaw I find with the site, though, is the fact that in the three basic steps of becoming prepared, "Make a Plan" is second, after "Get A Kit."

Don't get me wrong, having a well-stocked kit is important. And myself being a gear junkie, I'll confess to sometimes making this priority numero uno, whether it's a good idea or not. But a kit without a plan is just a bunch of stuff gathered in one place. And it's only during the planning that you realize just what you're going to need for your specific situation.