Not another one of these...

[jmattbassplaya]

I said it once and I`ll say it again - Common sense people. Use it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...on_a_desk.html

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."

[iamlowsound]

I used to draw on desks all the time.

lowsound

[metallicafan18]

Pretty soon they are going to ban pencils in school. Either as a weapon or as vandalism. Magic Markers for everyone!

I remember last year in my Algebra class I sat in a desk that has been in that room since the school opened in '68. It had so many band names carved into it. It just felt magical sitting in it. That desk made Algebra awesome.

[distortedbass93]

How did that happen? seriously?


and she's still suspended from that

[gold_member_321]

Back in high school during my sophomore year I was made to take a psychiatric evaluation because of a drawing in pencil on a desk of two stick figures fighting with swords or something stupid like that. The teacher was a VERY set in his ways religious man who didn't believe in any sort of violence or anything. I'm sure you all know the type. I was banned from school grounds for two weeks until I finally agreed to take the stupid test. Once I returned the teacher tried lecturing me on his religion and such to which I freaked out at and ended up getting him fired.

[Number27]

this is.. by far and away, the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard/seen/imagined in my entire life by a fairly large margin, and that includes the scene in indiana jones and the crystal skull where he escapes a nuclear blast by hiding in a fridge. how does drawing on a desk equate to being arrested?? or even suspended for that matter? completely absurd.

...


i mean who called the cops? the teacher? the prinicpal?? really? how bad are they at their jobs that they need to call THE POLICE to come and arrest a 12 year old girl for drawing on a desk?!? if i were the superintendant of that school district i'd have them all fired immediately. handcuffed for doodling... talk about cruel and unusual punishment.. what is this saudi arabia??

then there is this: "And in 2008, 5-year-old Dennis Rivera was cuffed and sent to a psych ward after throwing a fit in his kindergarten."
fire these people too.

boy i'm glad i have no plans to have kids cuz if i did i'd be seriously worried about this kinda ****.

[nortonrider]

Your Tax Dollars at work!

[Simo98]

The system works! She sure as hell isn't going to doodle on a desk again.

[Joe Gress]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

I used to draw on desks all the time.

lowsound

I draw on desks all the time.

[jmattbassplaya]

I usually scoff at overreacting parents who attempt to sue schools over things similar to this (such as the thread about the girl who was pants), but if a school arrested my child, put them in handcuffs, placed them into a jail cell, and suspended them over something as asinine as this you could bet your *** I would sue the living **** out of everyone who allowed this to happen. There are no excuses for these kinds of actions from adults. Everyone involved in this should be either placed under suspension without pay or fired.

[varunkapahi]

thats terrible totally terrible

[MIJ-VI]

Suicide Inquest Report

For 17 days, the Toronto coroner's inquest into the Dec. 11 suicide of 17-year-old Kenneth Au Yeung had listened to depressing testimony. The most wrenching moment was the July 3 appearance of Catherine Au Yeung. In a hushed voice, she testified that her son, who jumped to his death from a Toronto viaduct after being questioned by his school principal and an off-duty police officer, would still be alive if his parents had been present at the interrogation. Last week, the five-member inquest jury brought down its recommendations - and implicitly agreed with her assessment. "The principal, or acting staff member in charge," the jury wrote, "must notify the parents of students under the age 18 whenever a serious breach of discipline occurs, when a criminal investigation is commenced, when extremely unusual situations arise, or when in doubt about a situation."

The circumstances surrounding Au Yeung's death, first reported in the Feb. 2 issue of Maclean's, were certainly unusual. A student at the prestigious St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto, the teenager had been involved in a school yearbook prank, which resulted in a passage being altered in order to link longtime school choir director Henry Hodson with the Maple Leaf Gardens sex scandal. Jurors had heard testimony from Au Yeung's yearbook colleagues that he had asked to contact his parents during questioning by Toronto police Const. Christopher Downer and St. Michael's principal, John Ryall - in conformity with the official policy of the Toronto Catholic District School Board. But, the students said, they had been told the meeting was "informal" - in other words, that Au Yeung could not call. The students also said that Downer, an alumnus of the school who was present at Ryall's request, showed them his badge and warned them they could potentially face criminal charges. Hours later, Au Yeung killed himself.

The Au Yeung family had asked the jury to make recommendations to spare other families their tragic experience. "I still feel if I was there that morning, if I was called, Kenneth would be alive today," Catherine Au Yeung said during her emotional testimony. Of the school administrators who would not let her son call home, she added: "If it was their own children, they would want to be there. I find that quite difficult to take." And for the grieving mother, there was never any question that the meeting with Ryall and Downer drove her son to his death. "The significant thing is, he didn't jump off the bridge when he left home," she said. "He jumped off after the meeting."

The night before he died, Au Yeung told his parents about the prank, although he did not tell them he and another boy were responsible. He said Ryall had threatened to call the police if no one confessed. "I said to Kenneth, 'Don't worry, if they call the police I have to be there,' " Catherine Au Yeung testified. But she wasn't there - and many of the inquest jury's 23 recommendations were designed to ensure that such a lapse not occur again. Among other things, the jury said that schools in the Toronto Catholic District School Board should "be directed to comply with the board policy requiring mandatory notification of parents if access to the student involves police investigation," and recommended that teachers should be retrained in such policies every year.

But the jury's recommendations also touched on police practices. Police, the report said, should develop guidelines for the actions of off-duty officers, and that if an off-duty officer is asked to a school, "the matter should be cleared with the appropriate supervisor and the events documented." As well, the jury said that police should "focus a training program, or expand on existing programs, dealing with a better understanding of adolescent development."

After the report was brought down, Downer told Maclean's that the recommendations were "insightful" - but that he still thought his actions had been appropriate. He said there was no question that the inquest would change the way both police and school officials do their jobs, but added: "I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. We have to be very careful of the schools not becoming a haven for delinquent behavior. I don't think the message should be sent that it's OK to do what you want inside the school because the principal will be scared to pick up the phone and call the police for help."

As the inquiry finally ended, there was an air of relief outside the coroner's building in downtown Toronto. Downer, Ryall and Hodson hugged family members and supporters. "On balance, I think a lot of good things came out of this," Hodson said. "I don't think there is anything in the recommendations that is harmful to the school. On Dec. 9, I was proud of our school - and on July 10 I am proud of our school." But Au Yeung's parents clung to each other in a tearful embrace. Then, without speaking to reporters, they left, carrying the thin sheaf of recommendations intended to ensure that other parents might be spared their pain.

Maclean's July 20, 1998

Author STEPHANIE NOLEN

--------

I remember reading about this in the paper. The off duty cop who interrogated 17-year-old Kenneth Au Yeung (a sheltered schoolboy and computer wiz who wanted to go to university) told him that he would lay charges resulting in a criminal record which would destroy any chance of Kenneth getting the higher education that he'd pinned his whole future on.

That off-duty cop knew which panic button to push, and shortly afterward, Kenneth Au Yeung jumped from a nearby bridge.

That poor kid survived the impact (use your imagination) and in a condition of nightmarish suffering, slowly succumbed to his injuries and the bitter cold of a winter night.

Authority figures who terrorize impressionable youngsters should be fired. Period.

[Number27]

jesus...

how can that cop just sit there and go "yea i'd have done it again"... no remorse at all? come on now.

[Buslady7803]

I used to doodle on my desk in pencil but then remove it at the end of class. Nothing hurt, no big deal. That's just retarded, she used erasable materials. It wasn't like she engraved into it!

[tycobb73]

Back in HS a classmate made a bomb threat and they had a robot come in and find it. Turns out it was a flare with a watch. He wasn't arrested.

[FL Knifemaker]

I think it's great!! My tax dollars pay for those desks. I also think people that stick gum under them should be hauled off as well.

And GET OFF MY LAWN

[Relic]

I'm pretty sure that there's more to this story than mentioned in the article. Most stuff written nowadays is custom-designed to shock and outrage while leaving out or downplaying some key points.
Not saying that what happened to this gal isn't true, I'm just saying that I'm not buying the story as is.

[FL Knifemaker]

Originally Posted by Relic

I'm pretty sure that there's more to this story than mentioned in the article. Most stuff written nowadays is custom-designed to shock and outrage while leaving out or downplaying some key points.
Not saying that what happened to this gal isn't true, I'm just saying that I'm not buying the story as is.

Very true. I'm not for throwing kids in jail but when I was a kid you didn't want to get caught writing on a desk. It's about respecting school property. Let one thing slide, let another thing slide and you have the downward spiral our society seems to be headed.

[Kwesi]

This is insane! I really can't believe that there are enough people anywhere to agree that arresting a child for desk drawing is a fair punishment and then after that she has a suspension, 8 hours of community service, a book report and a essay?! That is completely and utterly excessive in every possible sense of the world! If I were her parents I'd appeal everything. She should really only have to clean the desk. There was a similar situation with my little brother though not nearly as overblown. He drew a bit on his desk and the school tried to force my parents to buy a new desk! Pure stupidity, imo. I shudder to think of what the US would be like if this becomes acceptable on a large scale. I really hope there's a serious push to stop crap like this.

[Joe Gress]

Kid should have to clean the desk, and then be given a doodle pad.