Doodling on a school desk is wrong. Hauling a 12 year old girl out of school in handcuffs for doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker is worse.
Alexa Gonzalez was scribbling a few words on her desk Monday while waiting for her Spanish teacher to pass out homework at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, she said.
“I love my friends Abby and Faith,” the girl wrote, adding the phrases “Lex was here. 2/1/10” and a smiley face.
But instead of simply cleaning off the doodles after class, Alexa landed in some adult-sized trouble for using her lime-green magic marker.
She was led out of school in cuffs and walked to the precinct across the street, where she was detained for several hours, she and her mother said.
“I started crying, like, a lot,” said Alexa. “I made two little doodles. … It could be easily erased. To put handcuffs on me is unnecessary.” Alexa, who had a stellar attendance record, hasn’t been back to school since, adding, “I just thought I’d get a detention. I thought maybe I would have to clean [the desk].”
In 2007, 13-year-old Chelsea Fraser was placed under arrest for writing “okay” on her desk at Intermediate School 201. And in 2008, 5-year-old Dennis Rivera was cuffed and sent to a psych ward after throwing a fit in his kindergarten.
A class action lawsuit was filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union last month against the city for using “excessive force” in middle school and high schools. A 12-year-old sixth-grader, identified in the lawsuit as M.M., was arrested in March 2009 for doodling on her desk at the Hunts Point School.
The psych ward for a 5 year old’s temper tantrum is priceless. It also makes you wonder if we need to expand our definition of child predator.
And let’s not forget all the strip-searching of teenage girls – here, here, and here. It’s obviously all the rage. And beyond creepy. In fact, it should be called exactly what it is – pedophilia. Unless someone can provide a circumstance where it’s okay for adults to order a minor to take off their clothes. Perhaps if cash is missing at their after school job at the mall it would be perfectly acceptable for their boss to order them to strip?
The point is… if a child gets caught writing on a desk and receives detention and is made to clean up their mess I sincerely doubt most parents would have a problem. However, having the child arrested and removed from the school in handcuffs immediately wipes out their offense and switches the crime to the adults.
As a parent I don’t want to have to tell my children that writing on a desk is no big deal. It is the wrong thing to do. That said, when adults in positions of authority demonstrate that there’s no gray matter between their ears then they leave parents no choice but to undermine that authority.
I realize I’ve written about this subject before, and have every intention of writing another post when it happens again – which it will. I have also reached the point where I’ve decided that these incidents are merely show pieces. What I mean is that they’re touted out there to demonstrate (falsely) that the school district is tough and won’t tolerate bad behavior. A show that every parent knows is a lie. Or perhaps they are allowing these abuses to make a point about the ridiculousness of Zero Tolerance, using children as collateral damage as they sit back and whisper I told you so instead of tackling the problem head on. Whatever their excuse, it’s flimsy at best – criminal at worst.
Judgment and discretion are sorely lacking among the adults in these situations, and it would be refreshing if these adults stopped hiding behind the “my hands are tied” excuses and took action to change the situation. As of now they appear quite comfortable abdicating their authority to children’s lawsuits.