In my senior year of high school...1997... my history teacher took 10 of us students down to Belize for an amazing 9-day school trip. We spent 5 days staying at a compound in the rain forest... and 4 days on an island all to ourselves.
After the first day of guided tours in the rain forest... we all saw the usefulness of our guide's machete. So that evening each of us went to the compound's outdoor gear shop and purchased a machete with a 16" blade. And these were REAL machetes... the blades were not SUPER sharp but they were certainly rain-forest-ready.
All I did beforehand... was ask our teacher for permission. All I said was, "Hey Mrs Johnston... can we, each, buy a machete so we'll be prepared for the rest of the week?" Her response was a simple, "Sure!" And she followed suit along with her husband in buying two of their own.
We used them all week, all day, everyday to crack open coconuts... clear some trails through the rainforest... etc. We did what anyone would do with a machete in a rainforest. We were all responsible with them. They were always sheathed unless we were actually using them. They were one of the most useful tools we could have had in the rainforest... and even on the island.
After getting home from the trip... the 10 of us had to present our experiences and thoughts about the trip to our class and we all brought in our machetes to school for that purpose. A "show and tell" if you will. We didn't even have to get permission to do that! We just brought them in.
The teachers didn't give the machetes a second thought. To the teachers, it was a no brainer. Us kids were bringing in a tool that people use in the rainforest to show to our classmates. That was it. No one freaked out. No one was suspicious of our intentions.
The machetes might as well have been cute little kittens.
Man... Things have changed since then, huh.
If I were in high school now... and asked for permission to bring in a machete to school for the purposes of a report/presentation I'd probably get suspended on the spot. And if I just brought it in without asking... I'd probably get expelled, arrested, and put in jail... but not before the high school, the 2 middle schools, an the 5 elementary schools in the town were put on LOCK DOWN and the state police, FBI, and National Guard were called in. Then, my parents would have probably gotten branded as bad parents for even letting me have such an evil thing as a machete... They'd probably be accused of not loving me enough... and we'd all probably have to go into family therapy, as per the court ruling, of course.
Ridiculous. It's really really sad how bad things have gotten... in just 10 years.