UK: Pencil Sharpers banned after one student took one apart( must be an OZ fan) and sliced another student in the neck, but banning is not the stupid part. "....The victim was attacked in the playground at Waterloo Primary School in Ashton under Lyne. He was taken to Tameside Hospital where he had butterfly stitches placed on the wound.The attacker was suspended for two days and is now back in school. But the decision to allow the boy to return to school has angered parents. Some have signed a petition calling on the school to permanently expel the youngster. Tracy Buckley, the school's head of governors, has written to all parents, saying the school understood the gravity of the incident and acted accordingly. The letter states: "The school, like every other school, has a duty to promote `inclusion' of all pupils. The emphasis of the (DfES) guidance is that a permanent exclusion is discouraged and to be considered as a last resort in very extreme circumstances. A fixed period exclusion was entirely appropriate for the circumstances." You have to love the PC crowd now governing the educational system in United Kingdom, I would say they are taking their cues from their American counterparts, but giving the little psycho slasher only two days would have created lawsuits up the ying yang over here by the parent of the kid who got sliced in the neck at least. BUT, on the good side, at least parents in Manchester know that your child getting sliced in the neck is not an "extreme circumstance".