A girl in my english class was arrested yesterday because she had, apparently, made threats concerning fellow students and staff. From what I know, she had a death list and may or may not have had a map of the school.
This isnt the problem though. The REAL problem here is that a girl was arrested for craving attention. Yes she was a moron and I never liked her in the first place, but you know what? She wasn't going to shoot up my school and there was absolutely nothing to be afraid of. I think she should have been expelled, but she was ARRESTED.
Also, because of this, we had peddle needless fear en mass to all of the students and thier parents. It's force fed to us as if it was some kind of nasty medicine. (And in a sense, it is) And of course, the average individual will eat it all up. In fact, they are happy to have thier thoughts and emotions spoon fed to them. 'concerned' parents were calling the school all day, and in such large numbers that the staff could not leave the phones for a minute. Of course, the girl had already been arrested, so there was obviously no danger of her shooting anybody, but in the name ofdramasafety people overlook that little tidbit. There were kids who were talking about how 'freaked out' they were but in reality the danger was so minimal to begin with any 'fear' was not only unwarranted, it was absurd.
The Chandler police department asked the school not to release the name of the student in order to uphold the 'integrity of thier investigation'. The school complied, to a degree... Instead of telling us her name, they narrowed it down enough that any student could figure it out. We were told in a letter by the principal that the suspect was a "17 year old sophomore female." There are very few seventeen year old sophomores at my school, and even less 17 year old female sophomores. Now, had we not been given this information the whole notiong that "Kelly did it" would have, for at least a little while, remained solely as a baseless rumor. However, now everybody knows who did it. We didn't need to know that. No one but higher ups in the administration and the police needed to know that. This, in my opinion, shows that not only does my school have no respect for it's students, it also has no respect for the Chandler police department.
There were cops all over my school today. It's a bit unnecessary, but it's completely understandable. However, there were also undercover cops at my school today. I know that this is nothing new, but undercover police officers have NO BUSINESS In a school setting, and I most certainly do not appreciate them in my school. First of all, the girl was NOT AT SCHOOL! Plus, I think regular cops are enough to deter anyone from pulling out a gun and shooting people. All under cover cops are useful for is to catch people in the act.
In my mind, having under cover cops at any school, for any reason, amounts to lying to the entire student body. It's treacherous, it's deceptive, and it's down right immoral. I personally would have rather risked a school shooting than have the police present at my school.
Now, I am by no means condoning what this moronic little girl did. She should have known that talking about that stuff can get you in a lot of trouble. She is immature and I have never liked her even in the least bit, and quite frankly, in any other situation I would be glad to see her gone. However, what is going on is copletely unnecessary and very little good is coming out of it. What's worse is that this is now standard in situations like this. It's being handled wrong and it's hurting everybody involved in the process. I am sick of being force fed fear when there is no danger. I am just plain sick of the absurdity that is this entire situation.