MattFancy Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.york.doodle.arrest/index.html?hpt=C1 There was no profanity, no hate. Just the words, "I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10 :)" scrawled on the classroom desk with a green marker. Alexa Gonzalez, an outgoing 12-year-old who likes to dance and draw, expected a lecture or maybe detention for her doodles earlier this month. Instead, the principal of the Junior High School in Forest Hills, New York, called police, and the seventh-grader was taken across the street to the police precinct. Alexa's hands were cuffed behind her back, and tears gushed as she was escorted from school in front of teachers and -- the worst audience of all for a preadolescent girl -- her classmates. "They put the handcuffs on me, and I couldn't believe it," Alexa recalled. "I didn't want them to see me being handcuffed, thinking I'm a bad person." Really? This girl had to be arrested in the middle of class for writing on her desk? What happened to the teacher saying something after class or a trip to the principal's office? I guess the easiest thing is to just arrest 12 y/o's for writing on their desk. This is just stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Evil Genius Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.york.doodle.arrest/index.html?hpt=C1Really? This girl had to be arrested in the middle of class for writing on her desk? What happened to the teacher saying something after class or a trip to the principal's office? I guess the easiest thing is to just arrest 12 y/o's for writing on their desk. This is just stupid. Agreed. Unfortunately, since we live in a lawsuit world - I think a lot of school administrators are choosing police over internal discipline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenspandan Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 utterly stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GibbsFactor Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 She defaced school property, thus breaking the law. I wouldn't formally charge her but I bet she never draws on the desk again, her classmates won't either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenspandan Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 punishment that is out of proportion to the crime does far more harm than good. they could have shot her in the face too, that would stop future desk-drawers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted February 18, 2010 Author Share Posted February 18, 2010 She defaced school property, thus breaking the law.I wouldn't formally charge her but I bet she never draws on the desk again, her classmates won't either. I'm not saying drawing on the desk with a marker shouldn't be punished, but arrested? Hell, but her in detention or something. But arresting a 12 y/o girl for drawing on the desk is a little excessive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighOnHendrix Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 I got in trouble for the same thing when I was 9 or 10. I was forced to write an essay explaining what I did and give it to my parents, which was very humiliating. I thought then and still think that my punishment was too harsh, much less what happened to this poor girl. A simple "What you did was wrong, don't do it again, I'll be watching you" from a teacher can go a long way with good kids who do silly things like this. Hell, even have the kid stay after school and clean it off or clean all the desks of their myriad graffiti - but have some perspective! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickalino Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 This story has been posted previously http://www.extremeskins.com/showthread.php?t=316926&highlight=doodling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighOnHendrix Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 She defaced school property, thus breaking the law.I wouldn't formally charge her but I bet she never draws on the desk again, her classmates won't either. I bet she wouldn't do it again if we cut her hands off, too. How far we go in determining what is appropriate punishment for a particular crime says a lot about our society, IMO. I can't say I agree with humiliation as a punishment, whether it's for something like this, printing the names of Johns in the newspaper, or sex-offender lists. Putting a pre-teen in cuffs for desk graffiti is going too far. This story has been posted previously I thought it looked familiar...I didn't post in that one, so I am justified in blowing off my steam in this thread instead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABQCOWBOY Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 I would be surprised if she wrote on the desk again. Who knows, perhaps it was an attempt to discourage this behavior. It sounds a bit extreme but maybe this was a continuous problem with this child. I don't know. Without more detail, it is hard to understand the rational. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickalino Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 I thought it looked familiar...I didn't post in that one, so I am justified in blowing off my steam in this thread instead! Strangely enough, while it's a different story on a later date, it just basically rehashes everything in the old article - nothing really new here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted February 18, 2010 Author Share Posted February 18, 2010 Strangely enough, while it's a different story on a later date, it just basically rehashes everything in the old article - nothing really new here. Stupid CNN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABQCOWBOY Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 punishment that is out of proportion to the crime does far more harm than good. they could have shot her in the face too, that would stop future desk-drawers. The problem is that you have no history on what was tried before this incident. For all we know, this student has had issue with this in the past. We don't know the circumstances behind this. I find it very difficult to believe that a responsible principle would allow this to happen if other things had not already taken place. You open yourself up to certain legalities if you just up and do something like this out of the blue. I suppose it could have happened that way but I would be very surprised if this was all there was to the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCS Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 But one thing is sure: Alexa's case isn't the first in the New York area. One of the first cases to gain national notoriety was that of Chelsea Fraser. In 2007, the 13-year-old wrote "Okay" on her desk, and police handcuffed and arrested her. She was one of several students arrested in the class that day; the others were accused of plastering the walls with stickers.At schools across the country, police are being asked to step in. In November, a food fight at a middle school in Chicago, Illinois, resulted in the arrests of 25 children, some as young as 11, according to the Chicago Police Department. The Strategy Center, a California-based civil rights group that tracks zero tolerance policies, found that at least 12,000 tickets were issued to tardy or truant students by Los Angeles Police Department and school security officers in 2008. The tickets tarnished students' records and brought them into the juvenile court system, with fines of up to $250 for repeat offenders. Man. Glad they didn't have this around when I was H.S.. Especially right when Animal House came out. Needless to say,we had an interesting increase in food fights at that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenspandan Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 factor in an entire class of 20-some students time wasted, the teacher's salary for that hour squandered, plus the salaries of the principal, arresting officer, and any other officers who helped process the offender, not to mention the usage of resources like the squad car and whatever happened to her at the station, and i would say this was an incredibly expensive method of humiliating and frightening a young girl for doing something completely innocuous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polywog999 Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 She defaced school property, thus breaking the law.I wouldn't formally charge her but I bet she never draws on the desk again, her classmates won't either. Hogwash! When you talk about fascism in this country, this is a prime example. We have become the land of the incarcerated. Moreover, we believe that we are doing the right thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. The U.S. incarceration rate on December 31, 2008 was 754 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. The USA also has the highest total documented prison and jail population in the world. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): "In 2008, over 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at year end — 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults." 2,304,115 were incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails in 2008. In addition, according to a December 2009 BJS report, there were 92,854 held in juvenile facilities as of the 2006 Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP), conducted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The People's Republic of China ranks second with 1.5 million inmates, while having four times the population, thus having only about 18% of the US incarceration rate... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointyfootball Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 Since when is grafitti considered "doodling"? I thought doodling was drawing cartoon characters on your notebook while your history teacher drones on and on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Kaos Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 Maybe I am just a big ol' meanie but I think she got what she deserved.If the policy was clear, what's the problem? Just another spoiled brat who thought the rules didn't apply to her and her parents suing the school will just instill that sense of entitlement further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81artmonk Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 While I don't feel the handcuffs and doing all this in front of her classmates was appropriate, I am all for her punishment. It's vandalism plain and simple. Parents aren't getting the job done, as evidenced by what my wife as a teacher has to put up with every day, so school becomes the place where moral and civil behavior is taught. I found the activist groups comments hilarious. Ticketing parents for their kids being tardy or truant is pointless and harmful to the students? C'mon. So we should let the inmates run the assylum? When does consequence come into play at anypoint of this game?? Simple point here is you shouldn't be vandalising private property. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81artmonk Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 I'm not saying drawing on the desk with a marker shouldn't be punished, but arrested? Hell, but her in detention or something. But arresting a 12 y/o girl for drawing on the desk is a little excessive. What if she was caught do the same thing on the bathroom wall? Or outside on a building wall next to the PE dept on school grounds?? Isn't it the same thing just in a different place?? When do you say vandalism is ok? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polywog999 Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 While I don't feel the handcuffs and doing all this in front of her classmates was appropriate, I am all for her punishment. It's vandalism plain and simple. Parents aren't getting the job done, as evidenced by what my wife as a teacher has to put up with every day, so school becomes the place where moral and civil behavior is taught. I found the activist groups comments hilarious. Ticketing parents for their kids being tardy or truant is pointless and harmful to the students? C'mon. So we should let the inmates run the assylum? When does consequence come into play at anypoint of this game?? Simple point here is you shouldn't be vandalising private property. We could give her the chair for that. She would be sure to never do it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted February 18, 2010 Author Share Posted February 18, 2010 What if she was caught do the same thing on the bathroom wall? Or outside on a building wall next to the PE dept on school grounds?? Isn't it the same thing just in a different place?? When do you say vandalism is ok? I'm not saying its ok, just don't see the point of arresting a 12 y/o girl. Should she be punished? Of course. Give her detention, suspend her, make her clean all the desks or something. But arresting her for drawing on a desk? That just seems a litte too much to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GibbsFactor Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 Hogwash! When you talk about fascism in this country, this is a prime example. We have become the land of the incarcerated. Moreover, we believe that we are doing the right thing.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States Fascism? This has nothing to do with that. It has something to do with vandalizing property. It's the law. What good is having laws if they aren't enforced? She'll never see the inside of a courtroom for this but the message is clear. Respect other peoples property or face the consequences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptChaos86 Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 Wow some of you must have went to fancy private schools or something. When i was in middle school everyone drew on their desk, had food fights, or whatever. Sure they would get punished but no one was ever dragged off in handcuffs. That is really freakin excessive. Its not like she was fighting or anything. Kids draw on desk in every school everywhere, it happens. I know i did multiple times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polywog999 Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 Fascism? This has nothing to do with that. It has something to do with vandalizing property. It's the law. What good is having laws if they aren't enforced?She'll never see the inside of a courtroom for this but the message is clear. Respect other peoples property or face the consequences. Dude, she wrote on a desk! You of course NEVER did anything that bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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