As I understand it, the rationale is a) you can stab people with pens, b) if you snap the barrel of the pen in half you have some sharp edges to play with, and c) The Rules Say So. If that’s the case, you can get around all three of those problems by removing the ink chamber and the ballpoint tip from the rest of the pen, and letting them write with that (I tried this just now with a cheap Bic pen, and the only problem I had was my handwriting suffering a little).
As I understand it, the rationale is a) you can stab people with pens, b) if you snap the barrel of the pen in half you have some sharp edges to play with, and c) The Rules Say So. If that’s the case, you can get around all three of those problems by removing the ink chamber and the ballpoint tip from the rest of the pen, and letting them write with that (I tried this just now with a cheap Bic pen, and the only problem I had was my handwriting suffering a little).