A Halifax area high school student acting in self defence to a knife attack on Monday has been suspended. He rightly complains to that the outcome is unfair. A school policy that does not distinguish between defender and attacker, especially one with a deadly weapon, only serves to encourage learned helplessness in schools.
Who in their right mind would not defend himself or herself if lunged at with a knife? Was he to run away merely enduring the pain of being stabbed in the back until he found a Halifax West school official? This young person did the reasonable thing and it may have save him his life.
It might make sense to suspend both participants in a traditional school boy fist fight at the flag pole, but an attack with a knife is entirely different. An attacker armed with a knife against an unarmed victim usually ends with severe consequences. More so if the victim was not allowed to defend himself.
Fortunately, one student was smart enough to know he should not just stand there and be a victim of an attack. One less victim, one more empowered citizen. I suppose that's what being in the Canadian Forces Reserve taught him. The school doesn't seem to get it though. Its lesson to students is to not engage in violence, even if it means you end up dead.
