As some of you may know, I retired from municipal government a few years ago and now work as a substitute teacher 3-4 days a week.
My county is Republican always and is more a mix of housing developments and large tracks of forest.
The high schools (7) are slowly becoming acadamies, for instance Marine Biology, Performing Arts, Law and Public Safety, and then the usual auto, nursing, welding etc done at larger centers.

Last week a student brought in a large cake to share. He had a ceramic knife that could cut up a turkey, no one made a mention of it, no one was worried about an incident. Next, while in electricaly trades a student came in with a shirt that had an AK-47 on it. I was fine with it and asked him if anyone had given him a hard time about the shirt. He was puzzled at the question. I guess what I'm saying is that it is good that the school does notice what is going on but takes a common sense to the immediate situation. We do 2 fire drills, 2 lock down drills, and 2 evacuation drill every month and more and more the District is reinforcing door locks with a plate that is pegged into the concrete so the door can't be forced open. All common sense precautions, but still common sense reactions that mean administration has a pulse on the students.

common sense is in more short supply than almost any other resource. Glad to see somewhere out there is a school still living in a normal world

Well, at least it wasn't sharp objects! My 8th grade shop class followed a high school class of some kind in the shop room. When we came in, there were no screwdrivers or chisels in the cabinets. Strange.

So the Mr. Rogers type teacher started with whatever he had to say and after a few minutes of boring BS there's a crashing sound. It was a screwdriver from the ceiling. Everyone's eyes watched the thing after the first bounce, then eyes to the ceiling to see literally dozens of other ones clinging to the classy acustic tiles.

No punishment (that was probably 1962). We did have some stupid rules, but not that stupid.