NYC Student, 12, Arrested for Doodling on Desk

[Amused]

At first, I was shocked by the story. Especially on the heals of the kid busted for the lego gun. But then I saw her pic and thought, "holy crap, she's 12???"

NYC Student, 12, Arrested for Doodling on Desk
Friday, February 05, 2010


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NYDailyNews.com


Alexa Gonzalez.
NEW YORK — A New York City middle school student has been arrested for doodling on her desk with a marker.

Twelve-year-old Alexa Gonzalez scribbled "Lex was here 2/1/10" on her desk Monday. She also wrote "I love my friends Abby and Faith." The girl says the doodles could have been erased, according to the Daily News.

Moraima Tamacho says her daughter was released several hours after she was taken in handcuffs to a police station.

Education department spokesman David Cantor said the incident shouldn't have happened, and that common sense should prevail.

Last month, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit alleging more than 20 instances of wrongful arrests and assaults by school safety officers.

Gonzalez has been assigned eight hours of communityservice, a book report and an essay on what she's learned from the experience.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584933,00.html

 

[Fox5]

I could think of some pretty good essays to write about what she 'learned' from the experience.

 

[Hacp]

Gonzalez has been assigned eight hours of communityservice, a book report and an essay on what she's learned from the experience.

She got off easy. In other countries, you'll be missing a finger after they're done with you.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Welcome to the Nanny State! Seriously, just wow. Figures this would happen in NY or California. Pretty much all of the desks in my high school had some sort of drawings and/or writing on them, and they were much, much worse than "Lex was here."

She should have gotten maybe a day of detention to clean off the desk. Nothing more.

 

[StageLeft]

She's vandalizing school property. Should be charged and given 30 day jail sentence and probation after. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance!

I'm sure none of us used to do that. I think that the quarterly issuance of mr clean powder and scrub brushes to my entire class in school so that we could wipe writing off desks was merely a dream I had. And if it happened, well, we were savages back then. Kids these days are much, much better and should be held to an exacting standard of perfection.

 

[drebo]

Wow. New York education administrators are fucking morons.

This only reaffirms my view that the administrators in the educational facility need to be downsized by 75%.

 

[MotF Bane]

Zero tolerance for the fucking lose.

 

[Hacp]

Wow. New York education administrators are fucking morons.

This only reaffirms my view that the administrators in the educational facility need to be downsized by 75%.

I agree with your post. They let her off too easy.

 

[StageLeft]

I agree with your post. They let her off too easy.

Why are you doing that?

 

[WHAMPOM]

She got off easy. In other countries, you'll be missing a finger after they're done with you.

I am Glad to hear of your standards.

 

[Hacp]

I am Glad to hear of your standards.

Haha, all I'm saying is we've been pussified as a nation. Why do students talk back to teachers? Because if teachers give the students a beating, parents will complain and teachers will get fired. Now these days, students have all the power and teachers are at their mercy. And people are wondering why the US has such a horrible education system...

 

[StageLeft]

Haha, all I'm saying is we've been pussified as a nation. Why do students talk back to teachers? Because if teachers give the students a beating, parents will complain and teachers will get fired. Now these days, students have all the power and teachers are at their mercy. And people are wondering why the US has such a horrible education system...

I defy you to find a country with a better education system than the US that would lop a kid's finger off for writing on their desk.

 

[Moonbeam]

Haha, all I'm saying is we've been pussified as a nation. Why do students talk back to teachers? Because if teachers give the students a beating, parents will complain and teachers will get fired. Now these days, students have all the power and teachers are at their mercy. And people are wondering why the US has such a horrible education system...

You idiot, every child is born loving learning. Schools destroy that love because they don't know how to teach. It isn't about being promiscuous or strict in education, it is about consciousness. You can't keep knowledge from those who want it.

But what am I saying, you are ignorant because you went to school. You died mentally a long time ago. What was I thinking, prodding you in your sleep.

 

[drebo]

Haha, all I'm saying is we've been pussified as a nation. Why do students talk back to teachers? Because if teachers give the students a beating, parents will complain and teachers will get fired. Now these days, students have all the power and teachers are at their mercy. And people are wondering why the US has such a horrible education system...

While I tend to agree that discipline has gone way down hill and students are much more unruly than they should be, common sense MUST enter the equation.

Arresting a 12 year old girl (even if she does look like a little harlot) for writing on a desk in a manner which can be erased is just plain stupid. Period.

Likewise, nearly expelling a SEVEN YEAR OLD KID for playing with a Lego gun also lacks common sense.

Discipline is fine, and both kids should be disciplined for breaking school rules, but knee-jerk bullshit reactions like this only waste money. They don't teach the kid that bringing toy guns to school isn't bad, and they don't teach the little harlot that writing should best be done on paper. All they do is serve to sour both kids and parents against the establishment.

 

[Moonbeam]

While I tend to agree that discipline has gone way down hill and students are much more unruly than they should be, common sense MUST enter the equation.

Arresting a 12 year old girl (even if she does look like a little harlot) for writing on a desk in a manner which can be erased is just plain stupid. Period.

Likewise, nearly expelling a SEVEN YEAR OLD KID for playing with a Lego gun also lacks common sense.

Discipline is fine, and both kids should be disciplined for breaking school rules, but knee-jerk bullshit reactions like this only waste money. They don't teach the kid that bringing toy guns to school isn't bad, and they don't teach the little harlot that writing should best be done on paper. All they do is serve to sour both kids and parents against the establishment.

The disturbing question to me is how have adults running schools become such psychopaths. They are deeply afraid of something, no?

 

[drebo]

The disturbing question to me is how have adults running schools become such psychopaths. They are deeply afraid of something, no?

Honestly, I believe that they genuinely believe they have the kids' best interests at heart. I believe that school administrators are a bit sociopathic. Most of them have a "think of the children" mentality to such an extent that they're incapable of objectively analyzing a situation and deconstructing it to offer a proper solution.

It's either that, or they just don't care at all. Having tenure and no fear of recourse, they're free to knee-jerk.

I'd prefer it to be a case of the former, but I don't doubt that cases of the latter abound.

 

[AreaCode707]

I did something similar when I was in 5th grade. The school (private BS school) made me stay two hours after school for four weeks and clean both the girls and boys bathrooms. I was 10. That school had the worst POS teachers and administration...

 

[Dari]

I used to see crap like this a lot in high school. I'm glad she was arrested.

 

[Thump553]

Back when Mr. 9/11 was still mayor, NYC adopted a "broken windows" policy, where the police would go after everyone for any act of vandalism, no matter how minor. Many commentators contend that this policy had a great deal to do with lessening the cesspool that was NYC and in fact substantially reducing the overall crime rate there.

I strongly suspect the school's action was a continuation of this policy, and has absolutely nothing to do with liberalism or pussification. It's a cornerstone policy of a hard line "coonservative."

 

[AreaCode707]

I used to see crap like this a lot in high school. I'm glad she was arrested.

I think that's a tad different. By high school you have the reasoning ability to see and evaluate the consequences of your actions. At 12 you're developmentally at the point where you may be able to see those consequences but lack the ability to evaluate and act based on those actions.

Should she have been punished? Yes, it helps to develop that evaluatory process. Should it have been by arrest? No, that's out of proportion.

 

[HumblePie]

I think that's a tad different. By high school you have the reasoning ability to see and evaluate the consequences of your actions. At 12 you're developmentally at the point where you may be able to see those consequences but lack the ability to evaluate and act based on those actions.

Should she have been punished? Yes, it helps to develop that evaluatory process. Should it have been by arrest? No, that's out of proportion.

Uhh... what kind of mental giant of a 12 year old were you? Hell, most kids by the age of 2 start recognizing what is "wrong" and most of them know why. Try raising a kid one time. That doesn't mean kids don't have an need to try pushing their boundaries every so often. Many kids do things they know are wrong mainly because they want the attention it gives them. It has nothing to do with their mental capacity in determining right or wrong. It has everything to do with their developing social capacity and skills.

However, if this girl is still looking for attention in 6 years she should look me up j/k

 

[StageLeft]

Back when Mr. 9/11 was still mayor, NYC adopted a "broken windows" policy, where the police would go after everyone for any act of vandalism, no matter how minor. Many commentators contend that this policy had a great deal to do with lessening the cesspool that was NYC and in fact substantially reducing the overall crime rate there.

I strongly suspect the school's action was a continuation of this policy, and has absolutely nothing to do with liberalism or pussification. It's a cornerstone policy of a hard line "coonservative."

Interesting. I guess key info missing here is has she done this in the past? Is she a good student? Is it a school full of good students or is it a hell zone filled with little btards all of whom by default should be beaten every day they arrive at school preemptively?

 

[1prophet]

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato



Societies with loose and relative morality, selfishness, disrespect for elders, lacking manners and etiquette turn to absolutism in order to save them from themselves but by then it is too late and the children usually end up suffering the most.

 

[AreaCode707]

Uhh... what kind of mental giant of a 12 year old were you? Hell, most kids by the age of 2 start recognizing what is "wrong" and most of them know why. Try raising a kid one time. That doesn't mean kids don't have an need to try pushing their boundaries every so often. Many kids do things they know are wrong mainly because they want the attention it gives them. It has nothing to do with their mental capacity in determining right or wrong. It has everything to do with their developing social capacity and skills.

However, if this girl is still looking for attention in 6 years she should look me up j/k

It's not a question of determining right or wrong, because most kids at that age are able to do so, it's a question of impulse control. Kids around that age (taking into account differing levels of maturity) will often do petty things wrong that get them into trouble. When asked if they knew it was wrong, they say yes. When asked if they knew they'd be caught, they say yes. When asked, "then why did you do it?" they can't give an answer. Their brains are still connecting those pieces. Do you know anything about child development whatsoever?

And since you decided to malign my mental acuity, I scored in the 90th percentile or higher of every standardized test I ever took, graduated high school at 15, graduated college at 19 and started working corporate at a Fortune 500 company the same year. The discussion in question isn't about intellect or a knowledge of right or wrong, it's about the ability for children of a certain age to make decisions based on their predictive knowledge of the future.

Link to prove I'm not making shit up

 

[Thump553]

Interesting. I guess key info missing here is has she done this in the past? Is she a good student? Is it a school full of good students or is it a hell zone filled with little btards all of whom by default should be beaten every day they arrive at school preemptively?

I don't think that's even considered under Guiliani's plan, which basically was arrest everyone who vandalized, littered,etc. and eventually world would get spread throughout society not to do those things anymore-and by any measure, NYC residents have slowed way down on these nuisance crimes.

I find it supremely ironic that "conservatives" here ridicule Guiliani's system as liberalism gone mad, pussification of society, even ignoring the fact that it is the ACLU fighting it.

Personally I originally thought of it as a dumb idea, too much social meddling and wasting of valuable police resources on trivial matters but I think now I have been proven wrong by the results.

I know one thing is for sure-the rest of the kids in that classroom got "scared straight" when the police led that girl out in handcuffs-at least for a while.