12 year old arested for drawing on desk

[jimmy olsen]

What the fuck is this retarded bullshit, just have her stay after class and clean it up.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/02/05/2010-02-05_cuffed_for_doodling_on_a_desk.html

Queens girl Alexa Gonzalez hauled out of school in handcuffs after getting caught doodling on desk

BY Rachel Monahan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, February 4th 2010, 11:57 PM
Alexa Gonzalez, a student Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, Queens, was handcuffed and detained at police precinct for doodling on her desk with erasable marker.

A 12-year-old Queens girl was hauled out of school in handcuffs for an artless offense - doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker, the Daily News has learned.

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]."

"She's been throwing up," said her mom, Moraima Camacho, 49, an accountant, who lives with her daughter in Kew Gardens. "The whole situation has been a nightmare."

City officials acknowledged Alexa's arrest was a mistake.

"We're looking at the facts," said City Education Department spokesman David Cantor. "Based on what we've seen so far, this shouldn't have happened."

"Even when we're asked to make an arrest, common sense should prevail, and discretion used in deciding whether an arrest or handcuffs are really necessary," said police spokesman Paul Browne.

Alexa is the latest in a string of city students who have been cuffed for minor infractions. 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.

Alexa is still suspended from her school, her mother said. She and her mom went to family court on Tuesday, where Alexa was assigned eight hours of community service, a book report and an essay on what she learned from the experience.

"I definitely learned not to ever draw on a desk," said Alexa. "They told me with a pencil this could still happen."

[The Brain]

America sucks.

[HisMajestyBOB]

This wouldn't be a problem if teachers could still smack their students with rulers.

[Iormlund]

Pedobear in 3 ... 2.. 1. ..

[DontSayBanana]

We interrupt your regularly scheduled post by Siegebreaker to bring you this:

That's fucked up; it's excessive on the parts of the school faculty, the responding officers, the prosecutor, and likely the judge as well.  I'm wondering if it came out right away that it was washable marker.

[Neil]

What the fuck is this retarded bullshit, just have her stay after class and clean it up.

Why?  If you do that, you face a multi-million dollar lawsuit.  This way, you get to split it with the cops, the city and the state.

[Jaron]

"I definitely learned not to ever draw on a desk," said Alexa. "They told me with a pencil this could still happen."

Sounds like effective discipline to me.

[Barrister]

Sounds like a valid charge of mischief to property to me (under $5000).   

[Agelastus]

"I definitely learned not to ever draw on a desk," said Alexa. "They told me with a pencil this could still happen."

Sounds like effective discipline to me.

Doesn't stop it from being a fucked up and disproportionate response to the offense.

I take it from this case that American schools can't hold kids back for detention these days? That's all the offence warranted.

[Eddie Teach]

Sounds like a valid charge of mischief to property to me (under $5000).   

[DontSayBanana]

Sounds like a valid charge of mischief to property to me (under $5000).   

Valid, yes, but the court fee alone is so many times the cost of a bottle of Windex that I'd think there'd be no point, except to "make an example."

[Martinus]

And in 2008, 5-year-old Dennis Rivera was cuffed and sent to a psych ward after throwing a fit in his kindergarten.

[Martinus]

Anyway, I'm glad the law enforcement authorities finally recognize that kids (and especially teens) are evil. Should have jailed her fucking whore of a mother too for spreading her legs and bringing this spawn into the world.

[Brazen]

Maybe they wouldn't have been punished if they'd spelled "arrested" correctly.

[The Brain]

It's easy to laugh at America, but this stuff has a long and proud history in that great country. Open any book on the Old West and you cannot miss the tales of daring but evil pre-teens and the heroic men who went after them: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson... men who brought law to the lawless and tamed the little children of the young United States. To this day the story of vile Snowball Tommy, 7, who was finally brought in by a veteran team of Pinkertons after a 20 minute reign of terror on Main Street will freeze your blood.