AUBURN, Wash. – School officials at Gildo Rey Elementary are making exception to their zero-tolerance policy on weapons to allow a Sikh student to carry a ceremonial dagger under his clothes.

Auburn School District officials cited an exemption in state and federal zero tolerance policy for religious purposes. School officials told King 5 many other students and staff have carried a Kirpan – a dagger considered an instrument of justice in the Sikh faith – in school over the years without a problem.

“The knife can’t come out. It can’t be shown around. It needs to be underneath their clothing,” Auburn Assistant Superintendent Ryan Foster told the television station. “That allows them to express their religion without jeopardizing anyone’s feeling of safety. If there are any problems, we will take it to the family, but we don’t expect any.”

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The issue arose after a parent at Gildo Rey Elementary informed school officials that their son would be wearing a Kirpan under his clothes every day.

A parent volunteer from another school told King 5 she’d stop volunteering immediately if a student was allowed to carry a dagger at her child’s school.

“There’s no way I’d go back until the knife was gone,” said the volunteer, who went by Shelby but withheld her last name.

“They can’t take that thing into the airport. TSA would be all over it,” Shelby said. “Why is a school any different?”

The issue, of course, raised comparisons to absurdities created by zero tolerance weapons policies around the country. Local radio host Dori Monson teed off on the district’s decision on KIRO 97.3 FM.

“If you leave a butter knife in your son or daughter’s lunch bag, they get expelled – they get kicked out of school,” Dori said, according to MyNorthwest.com. “But this kid is going to be able to bring a sword into the classroom?”

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Dori didn’t seem to think the fact that the dagger was to remain hidden makes much of a difference.

“Wait a second? So if it’s under their clothing, it doesn’t jeopardize anyone’s feeling of safety?” he said.

Dori cited two relatively recent cases of teens who accidentally brought weapons to school who were expelled under because of zero tolerance policies.

Annapolis High School honors student Atiya Haynes, who lives in the rough neighborhoods of Detroit but attends school in the more affluent Dearborn Heights, was caught by school administrators with a three and a half inch knife her grandfather gave her for protection. She said she put it in her purse and forgot about it, but was suspended in October for the rest of the school year, EAGnews reported.

Dori also referred to Clarksville, Tennessee senior David Duren-Sanner, who was suspended after a random search of vehicles in the school parking lot uncovered a fishing knife his father left in a truck his son drove to school. When he pleaded with school officials, and his father testified that the knife was his, district officials reduced his penalty to a one-month banishment to an alternative school, but allowed Sanner to attend prom and graduate with his classmates, according to media reports.

“When you expel kids for leaving a folding knife in their purse …, but you let the Sikh kid bring a dagger into the classroom every day, I would say political correctness has gotten completely out of control.

“Our schools have gone insane,” Dori said.