Boy suspended for having pocket knife on camping trip

Braden suspended for swiss army knife on camping tripGarden Gate Elementary School in Cupertino, CA suspended and almost expelled a 10 year-old boy because he brought a Swiss Army knife on a camping trip.

Braden Bandermann was suspended for bringing a Swiss Army knife on a camping trip. Other students on the trip apparently reported Braden to teachers once they saw that Braden had the tool.

The Swiss Amry knife, and all pocket knives, are more tools than weapons. Anyone that has ever been a boy scout, cub scout, a hiker or camper understands the value of a simple knife. A Swiss Army knife has a myriad of tools valuable to a camper, hiker or anyone stuck in a situation for which they were otherwise unprepared.

Braden suspended for swiss army knife on camping trip

The panic comes from school administrators who believe that it is possible to create a antiseptic, danger-free Utopian environment. It is not.

Teaching our children to be self-sufficient and able to defend themselves is apparently not the job of the public school system.

Here, on a camping trip, a boy is nearly turned out from the California public school system for carrying a tool. Perhaps it’s the best thing that could have happened to him.

The state of California seems beside itself in efforts to strip the population of the ability to take of themselves. Now, they are actually attacking children who make an attempt at self-sufficiency.

Braden’s dad said, “I felt as though I want to pull him out of the public education system and homeschool him,” he said. “I felt as though the public education system is becoming the bottom of the barrel. I felt sorry for today’s kids.”

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Rich Mitchell

Rich Mitchell is the editor-in-chief of Conservative Daily News and the president of Bald Eagle Media, LLC. His posts may contain opinions that are his own and are not necessarily shared by Bald Eagle Media, CDN, staff or .. much of anyone else. Find him on twitter, facebook and

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7 Comments

  1. Can our national and community “leaders” get any more pathetic? “Watch out… that kid could clip his nails, pick his teeth open a bottle of wine!!”

    Seriously… the nail file is bigger than the blade on these things.

  2. My sons were Scouts and they carried their BS knives. My goodness….they never stabbed anyone. The people that are the teachers in the Scouts seem to be lacking in common sense. In fact, a lot of our so called instructors in all these fields are lacking in the CS department. All rights of human beings these days are being taken away. I would have to assume that parents would realize if their child should not have a knife & know if their child was unpredictable as to how he would use it.

  3. Seriously folks, if you can manage to pull your children out of public school, what are you waiting for? It seems daunting, I know. How many things could you and your wife “sacrifice” to make room and time to properly educate your kids. Do you really both need to work full time? Think you don’t know how to teach? There are so many awesome premade home school curriculums available. Get with some local home school groups. You will not need to blaze your own path, it’s been done many times before.

    1. Colorado, you are so very right! Parents are ‘natural teachers’ & do so from birth. They have already taught everything from tying shoes to language…with nurturing & love…It does require some adjustments, but the curriculum for homeschool is easily understood by reading & does not require a college degree. Our schools need some drastic changes that will take alot of time & undoing. For now, homeschool will keep your child from learning that Arizona belongs to Mexico (Tucson 3rd grade) or that ‘political correctness” is to make all behaviour okay. We know a farming family where ‘Mom” works out 3 days a week & ‘Dad’ steps in teaching math skills through ‘woodshp’ & building.

  4. My elementary and middle schools would have been in a world of hurt if I didn’t carry a Boy Scout knife and later a Victorinox. I was the one that was pulled out of class to fix the 16mm film projectors and the 1/4″ tape players that were used in class. Without those tools many a ‘movie day’ in my elementary and middle schools would not have been. It must have been embarrassing for a 40 year old teacher to have to track down a 9 year old kid to fix something, but they trusted me to do it and were genuinely thankful that I helped. I’m sure that today not only is the knife illegal but having a non-union student fix something is probably worse.

  5. I’d suspend my daughters for NOT taking a Swiss Army knife with them! I buy all of my children these tools and encourage them to carry them when at all possible. My eldest packs hers in her luggage to have on trips abroad (she knows that a knife/multi-tool and electrical tape will get one out of many a jam).

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