Kids’ lives must be ruined FOR THE CHILDREN

[Raistlin]

I’ve been saying for years that the main prerequisite for becoming a school administrator appears to be not having a brain. Many of these disturbingly vapid, unbending individuals love the excuse of “zero tolerance” policies claim no discretion for their asinine conduct, well beyond any legitimate school interest. From strip searching a 13-year-old girl for fear of Advil to refusing to release a diploma based on saying the word “hell” in a valedictorian speech to expelling a student for being annoying, it seems like common sense is regarded as an evil to be avoided. Fortunately, many of these problems eventually go away once the media and/or courts catch wind of the case.

But it’s another thing entirely when the police get involved.

A recent highly disturbing trend in many areas of the US is for school administrators to call the police for student misconduct. This can make sense when the student misconduct involves, say, serious physical injury or weapons. But it makes much less sense when the only misconduct is typical childish antics or stupid pranks. E.g.,

Police called due to water balloon fight, then arrest seven students and beat up another.

Science experiment mistake results in explosion, police being called. The student was charged with a felony.

Student who changed another student’s last name to “Masturbation” in the yearbook gets charged with a felony.

Police arrested an eighth-grader who refused to remove his NRA shirt after a (clearly unconstitutional) demand from a teacher.

And those are just major stories from the past month or so that I remembered off the top of my head.

What stupid trout did you pull in middle and high school that, if you did today at that age, would result in the police being called on you and your life ruined?

[fire_of_avalon]

Okay. Okay, Wes I agree with you completely BUT. But when I was in school, teachers literally had no recourse than to get the "resource officer" (cop volunteer) involved because of the tremendous impact even fussing at a snot nosed piece of trout would cause their career. My favorite teacher ever once broke up a fight between two boys who were really hurting one another and because he did it "physically" he was almost troutcanned.

So I agree, this is a waste of police time and a waste of taxpayer money. But if people didn't raise such troutty kids and completely validate their trouttiness to the point of destroying another person's teaching career if they even verbally reprimand them the problem wouldn't exist.

[Unbreakable Will]

I wore a palm tree necklace that I acquired in Florida that was mistaken, ignorantly, for a marijuana leaf and was forced to throw it away. Not take it off, not give it to the teacher for safe keeping, throw. it. away.

That thing cost me 20 bucks.

[Quindiana Jones]

My friend's mum once confiscated my fart spray.

Outside of bloody school, as well!

Oh, I once kind of brought a knife to school. I'd bought this really cool Swiss Army pen thing (I loooove gadgets) and decided to show it to my friends. Obviously it was confiscated, but I just went and had a word with my head of year and got it back.

[Shorty]

A kid I knew wore an "oh my god they killed kenny" shirt to school when I was in the fifth grade and they sent him home because it took the lord's name in vain.

I wish I were joking.

[Psychokitty]

I went outside while it was pouring down rain, and sat in the classroom and the teacher just told me to try not to get wet next time.

My senior prank was me barricading myself in the principal's office and rick rolling the school on the intercom. I graduated without a problem.

[Psychokitty]

EDIT: Wait what? I posted this in a different thread, but it posted here instead?

[noxious.sunshine]

I never pulled pranks in highschool. I mean, other than when I went to the Private Christian School I went to and was trying to sleep during study hall.. The teacher kept trying to wake me up, but I'd just go back to sleep with my head down. After about the 50th time, I finally yelled "I'M PRAYING, DAMNIT!" (got like a ton of demerits and detention for a week. wooo.)

Public school, I just did anything and everything possible to -not- do anything in class. I'd smoke a blunt on the way to the bus stop, hit another blunt a friend had in a bathroom, and sleep in every class. And not do my homework. Christian school ruined me, obviously. Sadly, when the Great Flood of Nashville 2010 happened, the Christian School's Pre-school (which was in a trailer home) went floating down the interstate and Extreme Makeover Home Edition re-built it. I was kinda -not- expecting that. Without the pre-school, the school would've shut down and I would've been like "Haha, Karma's a BYATCH!"

.... But I digress. My bad.

[Raistlin]

Okay. Okay, Wes I agree with you completely BUT. But when I was in school, teachers literally had no recourse than to get the "resource officer" (cop volunteer) involved because of the tremendous impact even fussing at a snot nosed piece of trout would cause their career. My favorite teacher ever once broke up a fight between two boys who were really hurting one another and because he did it "physically" he was almost troutcanned.

And why was he almost troutcanned? Why does he have to mindlessly obey such a strict-line policy? Oh yeah, retarded school administrators. This isn't about the teachers, though some of them can be dumb too.

A kid I knew wore an "oh my god they killed kenny" shirt to school when I was in the fifth grade and they sent him home because it took the lord's name in vain.

I wish I were joking.

smurfing Mormons.

[kotora]

The "lol America" score for this thread is off the charts. I have never heard of anything like these crazy things ever happening here. Since when do cops even show up if they're called about a water balloon fight or anything student-related. "Arrested for obstructing the education process"? What the smurf?

[Pike]

Don't forget the one where the undercover cop posed as some autistic kid's only friend and then managed to get said autistic kid to snag half of a joint off of a homeless guy so the cop could turn around and arrest him (Source)

[Raistlin]

Oh god yes, Pike, I just read about that the other day and almost flipped my chair over in outrage. I didn't even think of it for this thread, I guess because I was trying to think of situations where police were called for silly reasons. Still a complete outrage.

And that reminds me of this story, where a cop slammed a learning disabled kid against the locker then pinned him to the floor for... having his shirt untucked and refusing to tuck it back in.

This sort of story is why I agree with Scott Greenfield in the above link 100% that having cops stationed in schools is likely to cause more harm than good.

[Pike]

Yeah, that undercover cop one had me steaming for like three hours after reading it, and the one you linked is just as bad. This trout seems to happen to disabled kids a lot of the time because of "misunderstandings" and it's just disgusting.

[Raistlin]

SHOCKING: Actually trying to work with students and giving proportionate responses to misconduct has better results than automatic harsh penalties.

I haven't had time to read the whole article yet, but they were obviously thinking about how to deal with kids, which in and of itself is a step in the right direction.

[CimminyCricket]

I just want to throw out that not all police officers are deplorable human beings. Many are stand up ladies and fellows and do their job exactly the way they are suppose to do it.

The rest of them are dirt bag turds, though and reading the articles that Raist and Pike put up about those autistic kids made me very disappoint.