Let’s back-track to several absurdities in our increasingly “zero tolerance” culture which provides a glaringly crazed example of the mis-use of power, taxpayer money, and a general waste of time when worse incidents occur every other minute that are ignored; negated; sedated. Shine a high-powered flashlight on areas of reform in education and government that we the people should no longer tolerate if we are to ever get out of the quicksand of abject immaturity and paranoia that has taken over an enormous part of our population, and you will find a creepy, almost Salem Witch Hunt mind-set – not to ignore a run-on sentence.
Do you recall a brief story from January concerning a 7-year-old child who allegedly shot a Nerf-style toy gun while at school in Hammonton, NJ.? The toy gun shoots ping-pong type balls similar to a Nerf * gun. Although not one person was hurt, the child faces misdemeanor criminal charges. No one had been threatened by the boy or the gun: nonetheless, local police were brought into the school to begin an investigation into the “suspicious activity” at the Hammonton Early Childhood Education Center after school officials contacted them about the dastardly incident. While police were following-up on such an egregious crime, I wonder what other crimes were committed where a police presence may have been better served?
Dr. Dan Blachford, the Hammonton Board of Education superintendent, said the school has a zero tolerance policy. "We are just very vigilant and we feel that if we draw a very strict line then we have much less worry about someone bringing in something dangerous," said Blachford.
“Just very vigilant”? Please. This was a TOY GUN! If schools are becoming so very sensitive to weaponry, then baseball has to go. After all, baseball bats are dangerous weapons…as are scissors, so that ends Arts & Crafts class, doesn’t it? If the colorful plastic toy resembled a “real” gun, and had the child threatened others with it, I would understand the concern. However, calling the police, arresting the child, is a grand over-reaction.
The above example is tame compared to the following:
A 15-year-old student from Pennsylvania was faced with the threat of a pornography charge due to a picture of herself and her friend from the waist-up where they wear only bras when the pictures were found on someone else’s cell phone. According to the police, she committed the crime against the “poor soul” that owned the phone with the provocative picture. She had to take a 10 hour class about pornography. My comment? What’s the difference between a bikini top or sports bra and a regular bra?
A 16-year-old student in California dropped a piece of cake at school during a birthday celebration causing quite a problem for school authorities; thus a security guard was brought in to oversee this disaster. When the girl failed to clean up the mess, the quite large security guard called her “nappy-headed” and broke her arm in a rather nasty struggle. The result? She was expelled, arrested, and charged with assault and littering. The students who captured the incident on film with their cell phones were also arrested and, when she protested the abuse of her daughter, the girl’s mother was also arrested. It has been reported that the arresting officers felt it was what the student “deserved.”
On the home front, parents can be more than scary. They can be downright hateful. A 12-year-old boy was anxious to open his Christmas present and decided to do it a bit early. Well, what a crime that was! His loving mother called the police who arrested the boy and charged him with petty larceny for opening the present against his family’s wishes. Merry Hiss-Diss, darling.
Last year, 12-year-old Alexa Gonzales was sitting at her desk at Junior High 190 in Forest Hills, NY, waiting for her teacher to distribute homework to the class. Perhaps a tad bored, Alexa had the temerity to doodle on her desk “Lex was here. 2/1/10” and “I love my friends Abby and Faith.” She also drew a smiley face with her erasable marker. Although everything she wrote could be erased, she was led out of the school in handcuffs and arrested. Later, it was determined by someone with a level head that her arrest had been a “mistake.”
Another reason not to eat steak: A 10-year-old girl from Florida was faced with arrest and a felony charge when she brought a steak and a steak knife to school. Obviously, the knife was to cut the steak, but the school authorities thought she was dangerous to others and called police. In the end, she received a 10 day suspension. Nevertheless, wouldn't it have been simpler to take the knife away, explain the potential dangers of bringing a perceived weapon to school, and ask her parent(s) to ensure it would not happen in the future.
Finally, I leave you with this sad example of extreme over-reaction: An autistic child was arrested for wearing a cow costume at a school holiday party. Although the 8 year-old was told not to wear such a costume (?), she decided to resist the teachers’ wishes and was arrested for battery.
From the SNAFU * archive, here is a detailed account of the incident from 2009:
Outside her Ponderay home, 8-year-old Evelyn Towry, in her pink boots and favorite sweatshirt explains why she's now suspended from school.
"Because I was trying to leave and they hold me down," Evelyn said.
Evelyn is a third grader at Kootenai Elementary and has Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning form of Autism. On Friday she started to act out.
"She wanted to attend a Christmas party in her cow sweatshirt and they told her she couldn't that she would have to tuck the tail in and put ears down and she dug her heels in the way she does quite often and said she wouldn't take it off," Evelyn's mom Spring said.
Spring says that when Evelyn tried to leave anyway two teachers restrained her, which is when Evelyn began kicking, pinching and spitting on the teachers.
"Well, I kicked because I was upset they were holding me down and I got thumb bruises on me," Evelyn said.
School officials then called the police and Evelyn's mom. When Spring got to school to pick her daughter up police were already escorting Evelyn in handcuffs out of the building and into a police cruiser. Police then took her to a local juvenile detention center where she stayed for an hour, after which she was allowed to go home.
"I was terrified and I was scared and I was hurt and I wanted to throw up. I wanted to take my baby with me," Spring said.
School officials responded to a request for an interview for this story by e-mail, with the district superintendent saying they followed a specific safety plan for Evelyn which was agreed upon by the district and her mental health provider.
The plan, according to the district, says that "If a student assaults staff it is appropriate to call parents, involved support agencies, and local law enforcement officials if needed. All of the above occurred regarding this unfortunate incident."
"I never saw the plan, I never signed the plan," Spring said.
On Tuesday morning the Bonner County prosecutor charged Evelyn with one count of battery. By Tuesday afternoon the charge was dropped.
Bottom line – calling the police should be limited to serious threats and actual crimes. It’s true that teachers and school “authorities” are dealing with a plethora of concerns when real violence is on the rise in schools across the country. Underpaid, over-worked, many educational professionals may be, to use the cliché once again, at their wit’s end. But c’mon, people. Grow up and handle your students like the adults you are supposed to be. What happened to taking an unruly kid to the Principal’s office? Or calling a parent (unless that parent likes to call the police, too)? Or discerning what is a true crime and what is merely an infraction of the innocent kind?
* NERF GUN = visuals at: nerfgun.org
*SNAFU = snafu.com
EXCELLENT blog dear lady. I'm sure you can remember back when we were in high school, when I got out of line, or acted up, I was taken to "Bounce's" office, and my ass was beaten with a wooden padel. I turned out fine. Almost 62, and no criminal record. Nowadays, when kids act up, they're "ADD", and pumped full of drugs. Bull...
ReplyDeletebring back corporal punishment in schools!! John