Protect the Children - Arrest Them!

[Hailey Knight]

Seriously, what the fuck? Found this today:

More and more children being arrested for trivial things…
#1 At one public school down in Texas, a 12-year-old girl named Sarah Bustamantes was recently arrested for spraying herself with perfume.
#2 A 13-year-old student at a school in Albuquerque, New Mexico was recently arrested by police for burping in class.
#3 Another student down in Albuquerque was forced to strip down to his underwear while five adults watched because he had $200 in his pocket. The student was never formally charged with doing anything wrong.
#4 A security guard at one school in California broke the arm of a 16-year-old girl because she left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning up some cake that she had spilled.
#5 One teenage couple down in Houston poured milk on each other during a squabble while they were breaking up. Instead of being sent to see the principal, they were arrested and sent to court.
#6 In early 2010, a 12-year-old girl at a school in Forest Hills, New York was arrested by police and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk. “I love my friends Abby and Faith” was what she reportedly scribbled on her desk.
#7 A 6-year-old girl down in Florida was handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.
#8 One student down in Texas was reportedly arrested by police for throwing paper airplanes in class.
#9 A 17-year-old honor student in North Carolina named Ashley Smithwick accidentally took her father’s lunch with her to school. It contained a small paring knife which he would use to slice up apples. So what happened to this standout student when the school discovered this? The school suspended her for the rest of the year and the police charged her with a misdemeanor.
#10 In Allentown, Pennsylvania a 14-year-old girl was tasered in the groin area by a school security officer even though she had put up her hands in the air to surrender.
#11 Down in Florida, an 11-year-old student was arrested, thrown in jail and charged with a third-degree felony for bringing a plastic butter knife to school.
#12 Back in 2009, an 8-year-old boy in Massachusetts was sent home from school and was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation because he drew a picture of Jesus on the cross.
#13 A police officer in San Mateo, California blasted a 7-year-old special education student in the face with pepper spray because he would not quit climbing on the furniture.
#14 In America today, even 5-year-old children are treated brutally by police. The following is from a recent article that described what happened to one very young student in Stockton, California a while back….
“Earlier this year, a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old”.
#15 At one school in Connecticut, a 17-year-old boy was thrown to the floor and tasered five times because he was yelling at a cafeteria worker.
#16 A teenager in suburban Dallas was forced to take on a part-time job after being ticketed for using foul language in one high school classroom. The original ticket was for $340, but additional fees have raised the total bill to $637.
#17 A few months ago, police were called out when a little girl kissed a little boy during a physical education class at an elementary school down in Florida.
#18 A 6-year-old boy was recently charged with sexual battery for some “inappropriate touching” during a game of tag at one elementary school in the San Francisco area.
#19 In Massachusetts, police were recently sent out to collect an overdue library book from a 5-year-old girl.

Links:

http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews...antes-12-arrested-for-spraying-perfume/13250/

http://abcnews.go.com/m/blogEntry?id=15077292

http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2012/jan/09/texas-police-schools?cat=world& type=article

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.york.doodle.arrest/index.html?hpt=C1

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/feb/11/port-st-lucie-schools-confines-6-year-old-with/

http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2012/jan/09/texas-police-schools?cat=world& type=article

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/2...nded-charged-possesion-small-knife-lunchbox/#

http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2009/june09/zero-tolerance-states.html

http://m.tauntongazette.com/wkdTGazette/pm_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Mateo-pays-family-of-boy-pepper-sprayed-by-cop-2384518.php

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/cops-called-for-school-kiss-657831

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...yground-sex-assault-claim-against-6-year-old/

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/01/...ice-to-collect-overdue-books-from-5-year-old/​

 

[MindDetective]

While all or most of those things are ridiculous, you haven't established that there is an increasing trend of the ridiculous, just a big bunch of current examples.

 

[PatrThom]

I bro'd MD for his comment, but I wonder if this really isn't really an example of the Media trying to get out of reporting real news.

--Patrick

 

[Tress]

Some people are dumb. That includes school faculty and employees. I sometimes wonder about fellow teachers who call the police for mundane things like writing on a desk. I've caught my own students doing it - you just make them clean it up. I don't see what's so hard about that.

 

[jwhouk]

Meanwhile, we just have kids doing gang initiation beatings and posting them on Facebook.

Boy, are we lame here in Wisconsin.

 

[Bowielee]

While all or most of those things are ridiculous, you haven't established that there is an increasing trend of the ridiculous, just a big bunch of current examples.

You and your facts and evidence based conclusions.

 

[MindDetective]

You and your facts and evidence based conclusions.

MOAR EVDENCE!

 

[Bowielee]

 

[Hailey Knight]

While all or most of those things are ridiculous, you haven't established that there is an increasing trend of the ridiculous, just a big bunch of current examples.

I doubt it's an increasing trend--security at schools have been breaking kids' arms over nothing since I was a kid. Times not more violent, more televised, yadda yadda. This shit has always gone on, we just didn't use to hear about it. I don't agree with the assertion I pasted with the rest that this is anything new. It just disgusts me.

 

[Tress]

I think a lot of these cases can be tied to that stupid fucking "zero tolerance" trend that became so big a few years ago. Heaven forbid we exercise judgement and apply nuanced thought to each situation.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I think a lot of these cases can be tied to that stupid fucking "zero tolerance" trend that became so big a few years ago. Heaven forbid we exercise judgement and apply nuanced thought to each situation.

That probably does explain it.

 

[figmentPez]

I remember being in a forum argument, probably a decade or so ago, over a grade schooler who had been handcuffed and put in a squad car to be taken to the police station. On the surface it sounded ridiculous, a 5th grader being taken by police because of some dispute about homework, or something. Until reading details, not found in all news reports, revealed the student was larger than some of her teachers, had lashed out violently, could not be restrained by any of the school staff, and the police put her in handcuffs to minimize the chance she could harm herself thrashing about in the back of the squad car.

There can be reasons that a seemingly ridiculous reaction was actually warranted. I'm not saying that's always the case, I'd bet more often these stories are the result of zero tolerance policies and "letter of the law" type thinking, but it's not possible to know based on a short news article. Schools don't have it easy, for every story I've heard of an honor student getting suspended because she forgot some asprin in her backpack, I've heard more stories about parents being angry about teachers informing them that their child has done something wrong.