<p>[Queens</a> girl Alexa Gonzalez hauled out of school in handcuffs after getting caught doodling on desk](<a href=“http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/02/05/2010-02-05_cuffed_for_doodling_on_a_desk.html]Queens”>http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/02/05/2010-02-05_cuffed_for_doodling_on_a_desk.html)</p>
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<p>Apparently, similar arrests aren’t so uncommon:</p>
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<p>Doodling? We used to carve words on our desks!</p>
<p>That’s so ridiculous. Of all the things police have to worry about on a daily basis, they choose to waste their time arresting a 12-year-old girl for doodling with DRY-ERASE marker on a desk?! This story kind of reminds me of my friend. She got suspended for two days for writing in her locker with dry-erase marker even though everyone does it.</p>
<p>I think it is time we adopted a Zero Tolerance policy as regards to school personnel when their inappropriate actions negatively effect children, and also to law enforcement personnel when their inappropriate actions negatively effect anyone.</p>
<p>My classmates do things many times worse every five minutes of every class. </p>
<p>I can’t recall a single arrest. Ever. In fact, rarely do they ever get sent to the office for any of it. </p>
<p>Honestly? This is utterly ridiculous. </p>
<p>And the 5 year old? Seriously? What is wrong with the school administration?</p>
<p>Disturbing</p>
<p>If anyone ever does something that ridiculous to my daughter, they will be sued into oblivion. It’s utter insanity to do that to a child.</p>
<p>Ridiculous. Did you hear the story about the little 9 year old boy in Staten Island who was almost suspended because he brought a toy gun to school? The toy gun was a silly little lego piece that went to the little lego policeman action figure. </p>
<p>[9-Year-Old</a> Patrick Timoney Punished For Bringing Tiny Toy Gun To School - cbs13.com](<a href=“http://cbs13.com/watercooler/toy.gun.suspension.2.1469701.html]9-Year-Old”>http://cbs13.com/watercooler/toy.gun.suspension.2.1469701.html)</p>
<p>Where is the common sense in our school districts?</p>
<p>For a second there I thought she was arrested for drooling on her desk!</p>
<p>When my son was in high school, he was accused based on a handwriting analysis of writing his name in graffiti tagging on a bathroom stall. He was brought to the vice principal’s office and interrogated by the vice principal and the school “resource officer” i.e. plainclothes police officer and told that if he admitted to it, he would be suspended for 10 days and if he did not, he would be charged with a felony. He steadfastly denied for more than an hour of interrogation that he had done it and it was only at that point that the vice principal called me. I met with the vice principal that day who claimed that the police expert in handwriting analysis has concluded my son had done it. </p>
<p>Long story short, I knew the police officer that the school claimed had concluded my son was the culprit and met with him. He told me that he had never said that he identified my son as the perpetrator and in fact had told the school that he could not conclude it was my son. I also retained a top flight forensic handwriting analyst who serves as an expert witness who reviewed all the materials relied upon by the district and affirmatively ruled out my son as the perpetrator. I sent a blistering letter to the principal of the school advising of the consequences that would occur if my son was suspended or criminal charges were pursued. The school dropped the matter. The only reason I did not sue the school and administrators involved was because it would have created a public spectacle around my son. It was unequivocally clear the vice-principal had screwed up. In their unmitigated arrogance, neither the vice-principal nor the principal would offer an apology to my son for falsely accusing him. A great irony in this was that the high school prided itself on promoting “values” and the value of the month when this incident occurred was “integrity”.</p>
<p>People so lacking in common sense shouldn’t be around our kids. I also vote for zero tolerance for those idiots.</p>
<p>Take post Columbine fear, add to it the cosmetics of public relations imagery that seem to drive many school districts, mix in administrators who are more concerned with garnering “awards” than in being real educators and top it off with a desire to have simplistic and quick responses that are “one size fits all” and you have the perfect formula for abandoning common sense proportionate responses to situations and for promoting a structure that is rife with over reaction, abuse of power and “Zero Tolerance”. Problem is most individual parents don’t have the resources and rarely do primary and secondary school parents as a group stand up to moronic administrators and say “Enough”.</p>
<p>I personally have zero tolerance for idiotic school personnel so I home educate my children. It has been a pleasant experance for all of us.</p>
<p>I saw a llittle six year old in my practice for this last week. Trying to ask an open ended question I said to her…“how did that happen?”. She looks at me earnestly and says…“Well…I put the marker on the desk and moved my hand around…”</p>
<p>It was in one if the NYC newspapers today the the NYPD announced that they will be acquiring Velcro handcuffs for use on school children.</p>
<p>So nice of them.</p>
<p>Both the principal and the cop that arrested and hand cuffed her are child abusers. They should be prevented from being allowed near any children. Even their own.</p>
<p>Something has to missing in this story, because arresting someone for writing on a desk makes no sense, unless the school consider it to be vandalism. Even then, I think explaining to the kid why it is wrong to destroy someone else’s property by writing on it would have made more sense.</p>
<p>The kid wasn’t destroying property; she was making it dirty! The marker is described as “erasable.” Why didn’t someone just make her clean it up and come up with some appropriate punishment?</p>
<p>I’m wondering if the adults who made the horrific decisions to 1.) call in the police; 2.) arrest the child; 3.) lead her away in handcuffs will be punished appropriately. </p>
<p>The police, for example, are under no obligation to arrest anyone anytime a citizen tells them too. “Hey officer, my twelve year old wiped off her make-up on this towel, arrest her!” generally does not lead to the child being taken into custody. “Hey officer, this twelve year old got some washable marker on this desk, so instead of making her clean it up and giving her detention, arrest her,” is right up there in the same category. </p>
<p>Have the officers who arrested the child been suspended, or are they still out there exercising the same bad judgment?</p>
<p>And what about the Spanish teacher? Is he or she still there in front of the classroom bullying children? Doesn’t the district have some sort of criteria for suspending or firing teachers who demonstrate this level of stupidity?</p>
<p>I’m not suggesting that the school should tolerate a child writing all over the furniture, but the actions that were taken were so disproportionate and so undermine any respect for correct authority that the children who witnessed those actions might have, I really don’t want to see the adults involved maintaining positions of authority over children, or, for that matter, having access to handcuffs and guns.</p>
<p>Even if it was the tenth time she did it, and even if she had been told not to repeatedly, and even if she was a smirkingly defiant, horrible brat, they went too far.</p>
<p>Make her clean it up after school, call in her parents, give her detention, even suspend her, but having her arrested and taken out in handcuffs is ludicrous.</p>
<p>And cuffing a FIVE-YEAR-OLD??? Are the police completely nuts?</p>
<p>This story is just ludicrous, but in general there is something really sick going on in our society when it comes to treating kids like adults. How can it be that the more we learn about brain development, about how human beings are not really grown up until they reach their mid twenties, the more we want to prosecute underage people as adults when they commit a crime?</p>
<p>When a society starts in practice lacking empathy for its most vulnerable citizens, that is a frightening symptom of a dangerous trend.</p>