Yep I'm glad I finished school before they got so uptight.
Most of the people I hung out with carried pocket knives or butterfly knives, the teachers even knew it (butterfly knives usually stuck out of the pocket a little so they could be seen) & no one really cared much.

Then again it was not exactly uncommon to see shotguns in the back window of trucks in the parking lot during the fall because some of us would go bird hunting after school.