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The Age of Criminalizing Children Victoria Hardy
March 13, 2008
Sometimes I..m pretty sure I..ve unknowingly fallen into an alternate universe and more and more, I know I am a stranger in a strange land. It..s hard to pinpoint exactly when this odd change occurred in our society and when it became acceptable to arrest and handcuff young children, but in this brave new world we are living, it seems to be approaching the norm. I wonder where common sense has gone and I ache for the children growing up under these over-the-top rules that have become so popular these days.
I remember when I was in school, misbehaving children received a visit to the principal..s office, detention, in-house or off grounds suspension, but now schools have police or "safety" officers on the grounds, quick to view our kids as hardened criminals. I..ve seen a few headlines of late about children being handcuffed in school and I wondered how often these "isolated" events happen and shockingly, with very little effort, I found case after case. I..m not talking about children who are threatening other students or bringing guns or knives to school, I have been dismayed to learn that simple and typical childhood behaviors are now introducing children to the criminal justice system.
Two 4-year-old boys were removed from a preschool class and handcuffed by the school safety officer for refusing to take a nap. The boys said the officer told them "You know what happens when you don't go to sleep in there? . . . When you go to jail, you're not going to have no fun, no TV, no toys." The parents of the boys are suing the city. New York Post [www. nypost. com/seven/03102008/news/regionalnews/public_enemy_no_1_101271. htm]
A 6-year-old girl was arrested on charges of disruption of a school function, battery on school employees (a felony), and resisting arrest for throwing a temper tantrum in class. The child was taken to the county jail, fingerprinted and had a mug shot taken. The chief of police stated, "Those are the normal procedures for anyone who is arrested." The battered school employee was left with a red mark. Welcome to Pottersville [welcome-to-pottersville. blogspot. com/2007/04/bob-herbert-6-year-olds-under-arrest. html]
A 5-year-old boy with speech problems and asthma was handcuffed by a school safety officer for throwing a temper tantrum in class. School officials refused to turn the child over to his baby sitter who had rushed to the scene and sent the boy to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. WCBSTV [wcbstv. com/local/queens. child. handcuffed. 2. 638112. html]
The parents of an 11-year-old disabled boy filed notice of claim as a preclude to a lawsuit that their child..s civil rights were violated by a school security guard who handcuffed him on the playground. The boy, who has a rare genetic disorder and has learning issues, had picked up a small stone to add to his collection of "lucky rocks", when his aide told him to put it down. The boy was then thrown to the ground and handcuffed behind his back, dislodging his feeding tube. After the incident, the principal suspended the child for a day for "aggressive behavior toward himself and staff members." FOX News [www. foxnews. com/story/0,2933,286796,00. html]
An 11-year-old boy spent 72 hours in a juvenile jail for accidentally shooting another student with a slingshot made of a stretchy balloon, a milk cap and rubber bands. The sixth grader was arrested on second-degree felony charges of shooting or throwing a deadly missile. The boy claimed he shot a plastic pellet into his locker and it ricocheted hitting a classmate, leaving a small welt on injured child..s chest. Information Liberation [www..rmationliberation. com/index. php?id=20461]
And if we can stand anymore, a 13-year-old boy was arrested on battery charges for throwing a piece of a broken pencil at children who were calling him names, the intended target ducked and the pencil piece hit another child in the back of the head. TC Palm [www. tcpalm. com/news/2008/feb/07/13-year-old-arrested-battery-charge-after-he-threw/]
A 12-year-old boy was arrested and charged with disruption of an educational institution for stomping in a puddle and spraying his classmates. Court TV [www. courttv. com/archive/national/1999/1208/puddle_ap. html] A 13-year-old girl was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and the making of graffiti for writing the word "okay" on her school desk. WCBSTV [wcbstv. com/topstories/arrest. dyker. heights. 2. 243317. html]
And a 12-year-old autistic boy was arrested and charged with a felony for grabbing a teacher..s arm. FOX Gulf Coast [www. myfoxgulfcoast. com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5611310&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3. 2. 1]
I feel compelled to ask, have we all gone insane? When did normal childhood antics become criminal behavior? Have our teachers, principals, school boards, safety officers, administrators and policy makers become so numb, blind and fearful that they can no longer differentiate life threatening events, from simple childish pranks and behaviors? Or is it deeper that that? Are we knowingly training our children to live in a police state where any minor misstep may lead to imprisonment?
I don..t know how to stress enough, these are children, have we forgotten how we felt when we were young? These children are being traumatized and molded, these things don..t "just happen" and these "isolated" events are not so isolated. When I hear weekly of yet another "lockdown" in schools across the country or hear of the "training" going on in schools where armed adults enter terrifying and traumatizing young minds, I wonder when schools became prisons. Whether or not we want to see it, this is not happenstance, this breaking down of our children is devised, planned and has a definitive ending point and as parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents, it..s time we opened our eyes.
It is required that we send our children into these government education systems and I suspect home schooling will soon no longer be an option for most, as California recently declared that parents who teach their own kids must possess teaching credentials. A judge in the case summed up what we are facing when he stated, "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare." SF Gate [www. sfgate. com/cgi-bin/article. cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/07/MNJDVF0F1. DTL]
And here most of us believed the primary purpose of education was to teach our children so they could grow strong and become free, successful and independent minded adults. It has become clear that the ones who create the laws and the ones who follow them, have distinctly different agendas.
We must wake up, folks and realize that the cozy, loving, idealistic view we have of school does not exist. We..re turning our children over to institutions that have a far different view of how kids should be treated, than we do. Most of the cases above happened in New York and Florida, but don..t for a second think that this view of children as criminals is not growing and spreading, because that is exactly what diseases are known to do. I understand there are difficult kids who need to be dealt with sternly, but when we, as a society, approve of 6-year-olds being arrested and booked or 5-year-olds being sent for psychiatric evaluations over temper tantrums, we have collectively gone insane and there..s not a pill in this world that can cure us.
SOURCE: www. californiachronicle. com/articles/55204
The Age of Criminalizing Children Victoria Hardy
March 13, 2008
Sometimes I..m pretty sure I..ve unknowingly fallen into an alternate universe and more and more, I know I am a stranger in a strange land. It..s hard to pinpoint exactly when this odd change occurred in our society and when it became acceptable to arrest and handcuff young children, but in this brave new world we are living, it seems to be approaching the norm. I wonder where common sense has gone and I ache for the children growing up under these over-the-top rules that have become so popular these days.
I remember when I was in school, misbehaving children received a visit to the principal..s office, detention, in-house or off grounds suspension, but now schools have police or "safety" officers on the grounds, quick to view our kids as hardened criminals. I..ve seen a few headlines of late about children being handcuffed in school and I wondered how often these "isolated" events happen and shockingly, with very little effort, I found case after case. I..m not talking about children who are threatening other students or bringing guns or knives to school, I have been dismayed to learn that simple and typical childhood behaviors are now introducing children to the criminal justice system.
Two 4-year-old boys were removed from a preschool class and handcuffed by the school safety officer for refusing to take a nap. The boys said the officer told them "You know what happens when you don't go to sleep in there? . . . When you go to jail, you're not going to have no fun, no TV, no toys." The parents of the boys are suing the city. New York Post [www. nypost. com/seven/03102008/news/regionalnews/public_enemy_no_1_101271. htm]
A 6-year-old girl was arrested on charges of disruption of a school function, battery on school employees (a felony), and resisting arrest for throwing a temper tantrum in class. The child was taken to the county jail, fingerprinted and had a mug shot taken. The chief of police stated, "Those are the normal procedures for anyone who is arrested." The battered school employee was left with a red mark. Welcome to Pottersville [welcome-to-pottersville. blogspot. com/2007/04/bob-herbert-6-year-olds-under-arrest. html]
A 5-year-old boy with speech problems and asthma was handcuffed by a school safety officer for throwing a temper tantrum in class. School officials refused to turn the child over to his baby sitter who had rushed to the scene and sent the boy to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. WCBSTV [wcbstv. com/local/queens. child. handcuffed. 2. 638112. html]
The parents of an 11-year-old disabled boy filed notice of claim as a preclude to a lawsuit that their child..s civil rights were violated by a school security guard who handcuffed him on the playground. The boy, who has a rare genetic disorder and has learning issues, had picked up a small stone to add to his collection of "lucky rocks", when his aide told him to put it down. The boy was then thrown to the ground and handcuffed behind his back, dislodging his feeding tube. After the incident, the principal suspended the child for a day for "aggressive behavior toward himself and staff members." FOX News [www. foxnews. com/story/0,2933,286796,00. html]
An 11-year-old boy spent 72 hours in a juvenile jail for accidentally shooting another student with a slingshot made of a stretchy balloon, a milk cap and rubber bands. The sixth grader was arrested on second-degree felony charges of shooting or throwing a deadly missile. The boy claimed he shot a plastic pellet into his locker and it ricocheted hitting a classmate, leaving a small welt on injured child..s chest. Information Liberation [www..rmationliberation. com/index. php?id=20461]
And if we can stand anymore, a 13-year-old boy was arrested on battery charges for throwing a piece of a broken pencil at children who were calling him names, the intended target ducked and the pencil piece hit another child in the back of the head. TC Palm [www. tcpalm. com/news/2008/feb/07/13-year-old-arrested-battery-charge-after-he-threw/]
A 12-year-old boy was arrested and charged with disruption of an educational institution for stomping in a puddle and spraying his classmates. Court TV [www. courttv. com/archive/national/1999/1208/puddle_ap. html] A 13-year-old girl was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and the making of graffiti for writing the word "okay" on her school desk. WCBSTV [wcbstv. com/topstories/arrest. dyker. heights. 2. 243317. html]
And a 12-year-old autistic boy was arrested and charged with a felony for grabbing a teacher..s arm. FOX Gulf Coast [www. myfoxgulfcoast. com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5611310&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3. 2. 1]
I feel compelled to ask, have we all gone insane? When did normal childhood antics become criminal behavior? Have our teachers, principals, school boards, safety officers, administrators and policy makers become so numb, blind and fearful that they can no longer differentiate life threatening events, from simple childish pranks and behaviors? Or is it deeper that that? Are we knowingly training our children to live in a police state where any minor misstep may lead to imprisonment?
I don..t know how to stress enough, these are children, have we forgotten how we felt when we were young? These children are being traumatized and molded, these things don..t "just happen" and these "isolated" events are not so isolated. When I hear weekly of yet another "lockdown" in schools across the country or hear of the "training" going on in schools where armed adults enter terrifying and traumatizing young minds, I wonder when schools became prisons. Whether or not we want to see it, this is not happenstance, this breaking down of our children is devised, planned and has a definitive ending point and as parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents, it..s time we opened our eyes.
It is required that we send our children into these government education systems and I suspect home schooling will soon no longer be an option for most, as California recently declared that parents who teach their own kids must possess teaching credentials. A judge in the case summed up what we are facing when he stated, "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare." SF Gate [www. sfgate. com/cgi-bin/article. cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/07/MNJDVF0F1. DTL]
And here most of us believed the primary purpose of education was to teach our children so they could grow strong and become free, successful and independent minded adults. It has become clear that the ones who create the laws and the ones who follow them, have distinctly different agendas.
We must wake up, folks and realize that the cozy, loving, idealistic view we have of school does not exist. We..re turning our children over to institutions that have a far different view of how kids should be treated, than we do. Most of the cases above happened in New York and Florida, but don..t for a second think that this view of children as criminals is not growing and spreading, because that is exactly what diseases are known to do. I understand there are difficult kids who need to be dealt with sternly, but when we, as a society, approve of 6-year-olds being arrested and booked or 5-year-olds being sent for psychiatric evaluations over temper tantrums, we have collectively gone insane and there..s not a pill in this world that can cure us.
SOURCE: www. californiachronicle. com/articles/55204
