Since there's a lot of discussion in this forum about Britain's youth and how measures need to be stepped up to keep them in line, I thought it would be interesting to show the opposite end of the spectrum, which may be where the US is today. Zero tolerance is resulting in outlandish punishments for children.

 

(CNN) -- 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."

 

Critics say schools and police have gone too far, overreacting and using well-intended rules for incidents involving nonviolent offenses such as drawing on desks, writing on other school property or talking back to teachers.

 

"We are arresting them at younger and younger ages [in cases] that used to be covered with a trip to the principal's office, not sending children to jail," said Emma Jordan-Simpson, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund, a national children's advocacy group.

 

There aren't any national studies documenting how often minors become involved with police for nonviolent crimes in schools. Tracking the incidents depends on how individual schools keep records. Much of the information remains private, since it involves juveniles.

 

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.

 

The Strategy Center opposes the system. "The theory is that if we fine them, then they won't be late again," said Manuel Criollo, lead organizer of the "No to Pre-Prison" campaign at The Strategy Center. "But they just end up not going to school at all."

 

His group is trying to stop the LAPD and the school district from issuing the tickets. The Los Angeles School District says the policy is designed to reduce absenteeism.

 

And another California school -- Highland High School in Palmdale -- found that issuing tardiness tickets drastically cut the number of pupils being late for class and helped tone down disruptive behavior. The fifth ticket issued landed a student in juvenile traffic court.

 

In 1998, New York City took its zero tolerance policies to the next level, placing school security officers under the New York City Police Department. Today, there are nearly 5,000 employees in the NYPD School Safety Division. Most are not police officers, but that number exceeds the total police force in Washington, D.C.

 

In contrast, there are only about 3,000 counselors in New York City's public school system. Critics of zero tolerance policies say more attention should be paid to social work, counseling and therapy.

 

"If they have been suspended once, their likelihood of being pushed out of the school increases," she said. "They may end up in jail at some point in their life."

 

One of Lieberman's clients was in sixth grade when police arrested her in 2007 for doodling with her friend in class. The child, called M.M. in court filings to protect her identity, tried to get tissues to remove the marks, a complaint states.

 

Lieberman says police subjected M.M. to unlawful search and seizure. A class-action lawsuit, filed in January on behalf of five juveniles, is pending. It maintains that inadequately trained and poorly supervised police personnel are aggressive toward students when no criminal activity is taking place.

 

Several studies have confirmed that the time an expelled child spends away from school increases the chance that child will drop out and wind up in the criminal justice system, according to a January 2010 study from the Advancement Project, a legal action group.

 

Alexa Gonzalez missed three days of school because of her arrest. She spent those days throwing up, and it was a challenge to catch up on her homework when she returned to school, she said. Her mother says she had never been in trouble before the doodling incident.

 

New York attorney Joe Rosenthal, who is representing Alexa, plans to file a lawsuit accusing police and school officials of violating Alexa's constitutional rights. New York City Department of Education officials declined to comment specifically on any possible legal matters.

 

Several media outlets have reported that school officials admitted the arrest was a "mistake," but when asked by CNN, Feinberg declined to comment specifically on the incident. She referred CNN to the NYPD.

 

The NYPD did not return CNN's repeated phone calls and e-mails. It is unknown whether charges will be pressed against Alexa.

 

Kenneth Trump, a security expert who founded the National School Safety and Security Services consulting firm, said focusing on security is essential to the safety of other students. He said zero tolerance policies can work if "common sense is applied."

 

Michael Soguero recalls being arrested himself in 2005 when, as principal at Bronx Guild School, he tried to stop an officer from handcuffing one of his students. A charge of assault against him was later dropped. He says police working in schools need specific training on how to work with children.

 

In Clayton County, Georgia, juvenile court judge Steven Teske is working to reshape zero tolerance policies in schools. He wants the courts to be a last resort. In 2003, he created a program in Clayton County's schools that distinguishes felonies from misdemeanors.

 

The result? The number of students detained by the school fell by 83 percent, his report found. The number of weapons detected on campus declined by 73 percent.

 

Last week, after hearing about 12-year-old Alexa's arrest in New York, he wasn't shocked.

 

"There is zero intelligence when you start applying zero tolerance across the board," he said. "Stupid and ridiculous things start happening."

 

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.yo...dex.html?hpt=C1

That's the single most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. The schools and the various poice departnments should be charged with wasting state money. Teachers should be able to break up a simple food fight. Arrest at school should be for cases of actual bodily harm as a minimum.

No statement from the school then? Telling - there's no justification for putting a 12 year old through that for what should have been little more than a lunchtime detention.

i dunno .... clearly an example was being made here, and i was a victim of said example back in the 60's..lol.. on moving up to senior school, one very strict teacher deliberately over reacted to a minor misdomeanour within the first week, thus setting the standard and the clear message...no messing around in MY class. it worked, we thereafter all behaved and worked resulting in some very good exam results.

Wow just wow :mellow:

 

When you think the world couldn't get anymore daft and crazy......

Edited February 19, 201015 yr by Sabrewulf238

i dunno .... clearly an example was being made here, and i was a victim of said example back in the 60's..lol.. on moving up to senior school, one very strict teacher deliberately over reacted to a minor misdomeanour within the first week, thus setting the standard and the clear message...no messing around in MY class. it worked, we thereafter all behaved and worked resulting in some very good exam results.

 

I hear what you're saying and, yes, teachers should stamp their authority from day one where possible. But this is a serious waste of the time of the police and, rather than becoming complicit in theis nonsense, they should be reprimanding the principal themselves.

i dunno .... clearly an example was being made here, and i was a victim of said example back in the 60's..lol.. on moving up to senior school, one very strict teacher deliberately over reacted to a minor misdomeanour within the first week, thus setting the standard and the clear message...no messing around in MY class. it worked, we thereafter all behaved and worked resulting in some very good exam results.

 

Minor problems in school should be dealt with by the school, what they dont send the kids to the Principal's Office in that school or put them in detention for what is, at best, a minor misdemeanour...??? Writing on a desk??? FFS, it's not exactly bloody Columbine is it....? We've all sat idly doodling on our desks or jotters, etc.... I'm with Richie on this, a total and utter waste of tax-payers money and an absolutely obscene form of punishment for a "crime" that doesn't even deserve the name...

 

"Zero Tolerance"??? Zero Intelligence more like.... I hope one of these parents brings a Class Action lawsuit on the grounds of Human Rights tbh.... I'm all for discipline in schools, but the discipline should come from the teachers and the Head-teachers, not be enforced by a bunch of jumped-up fukkin' Hitlers-with-a-badge on a power trip and who have had little or no training or experience in how to actually deal with kids in a school environment....

 

Fukk Tha Police..... <_<

You'll have seen that this week my local force have been wasting their time reprimanding a local kilt shop for selling anti-England World cup t-shirts in their window display. If this is high in their priorities then there's clearly little to keep them occupied and maybe these public spending cuts we keep being told are inevitable will be ok after all.

You'll have seen that this week my local force have been wasting their time reprimanding a local kilt shop for selling anti-England World cup t-shirts in their window display. If this is high in their priorities then there's clearly little to keep them occupied and maybe these public spending cuts we keep being told are inevitable will be ok after all.

 

Any chance you could post up some pics of these 'offending' articles....? :lol:

 

I would say anything that's against the absolute shower of b/astards, criminals, liars, media whores and love-rats that seem to make up the England football squad these days is pretty much on the mark... :rolleyes:

 

Poor Fabio Capello, he really doesn't have much to work with does he....?

 

I mean, Britain won its first individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics in 30 bloody years, and what was the "big sports story" this week....? John fukkin' Terry selling his soul to the media (again...) with his "reconciliation" with his wife, and Wayne Bridge quitting the England squad, oh and Ashley Cole being dumped by the "lovely" Cheryl... Big deal.... They're a bunch of fukkin' LOSERS anyway who wont even get past the quarter finals.... Howabout the media actually reports on winners and positive role models like our Golden Girl Amy...?

The t-shirts are now on the front page of Slanj's website - selling like hot cakes now thanks to all the publicity I'll bet.

 

http://www.slanjkilts.com/

 

I'll be supporting England at the world cup - the nation though, not some of the idiot players - and I won't be putting any "The Sun supports England" bumper stickers anywhere either since they clearly don't support England and are willing to show it by disrupting team morale yet again before a major championship.

The t-shirts are now on the front page of Slanj's website - selling like hot cakes now thanks to all the publicity I'll bet.

 

http://www.slanjkilts.com/

Is that it? Presumably the police were responding to a complaint which means that some numpty actually went to the trouble of making a complaint. Some people obviously have too much time on their hands.

The t-shirts are now on the front page of Slanj's website - selling like hot cakes now thanks to all the publicity I'll bet.

 

http://www.slanjkilts.com/

 

I'll be supporting England at the world cup - the nation though, not some of the idiot players - and I won't be putting any "The Sun supports England" bumper stickers anywhere either since they clearly don't support England and are willing to show it by disrupting team morale yet again before a major championship.

 

Agreed, I'm English but I find the T-Shirt's hilarious.

 

Put it this way those people who buy those T-Shirts are far less of national traitors than fukkin' Rupert Murdoch Inc.

who will have the bare face cheek to claim they support "Engerland" come the World Cup having already done so much to undermine Capello's preparations.

 

... And they are certainly less offensive than a Fat Les (yep Keith Allen & Alex James are apparently planning another) unofficial "Engerland" World Cup record to assault the chart with (I bet Keith is trying to persuade his daughter to help out....).

 

I mean I joke about the "sweaties" in my local, but I don't watch the likes of Andy Murray; Chris Hoy; Colin Montgomerie; our Men's & female Curling Teams; or National Rugby Union; Football; Cricket Teams; etc and hope they lose just because they come from "North of The Border" (unless they are taking on England).

 

I mean my all time favourite footballer is Kenny Dalglish ....

How stupid.

 

I've written on desks back when I was a kid, and they made me clean the desks of the whole classroom as punishment. No need to go overboard with these kind of things.

The t-shirts are now on the front page of Slanj's website - selling like hot cakes now thanks to all the publicity I'll bet.

 

http://www.slanjkilts.com/

 

I'll be supporting England at the world cup

 

God, these are pretty innocuous.... What's the big deal....?? :rolleyes:

 

I'm not supporting England.. I've got family in the Netherlands (my Auntie married a Dutchman, and I have three cousins living in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Haag), so the Dutch are getting my support....