VT Desk Graffiti

Although this is sort of late, a few weeks ago a 12-year old girl was arrested for writing “I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10 ” on her desk.  She was humiliated in front of her classmates as we was escorted out of her seventh grade class in Forest Hills, New York and was taken the police precinct across the street.

To think that the education system has gotten this strict is unbelievable, arresting a preteen for an innocent drawing!  It’s not like she was threatening the school, simply expressing her love for her friends.  I remember in second grade a class bully drew on the floor under my friend’s desk in crayon and my friend got blamed for it.  However, after he pleaded his case and the culprit was caught, the bully took a trip to the principal’s office to be scolded.  This is the proper punishment for students who haven’t matured to the responsibilities of a college student (which isn’t saying much considering the theme of this blog).  Although this is vandalism, it just scares the child for life and causes them to “not go to school at all.”

Later in the article it mentions 25 children being arrested for having a food fight in a cafeteria in a middle school in Chicago, Illinois.   This rings very close to the recent arguments students being banned from playing tag in the playground because officials believe this is a dangerous sport because of students “running into each other.”  Either these “officials” must have been the students who sat on a bench all alone during recess because they had no friends or they were always in detention and so never saw the game of tag in their lives.  Either way, these official banning tag and arresting students for first time desk graffiti offenders are crazy.

To read the whole article please visit http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.york.doodle.arrest/index.html?hpt=C1