With each passing year, the difference between America's prisons and America's public schools becomes smaller and smaller. As you read the rest of this article, you will be absolutely amazed at some of the crazy things that school children in America are being arrested for. When I was growing up, I don't remember a single police officer ever coming to my school. Discipline was always handled by the teachers and by the principals. But today, there are schools all over the country that have police officers permanently stationed in the halls. Many other schools will call out police officers at the drop of a hat. In the classrooms of America today, if you burp in class, if you spray yourself with perfume or if you doodle on your desk, there is a chance that you will be arrested by the police and hauled out of your school in handcuffs. Unfortunately, we live in a country where paranoia has become standard operating procedure. The American people have become convinced that the only way that we can all be "safe" is for this country to be run like a militarized totalitarian police state. So our public schools are run like prisons and our public school students are treated like prisoners. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world by far, and our schools are preparing the next generation to either "do time" in the prison system or to live as good little slaves in the Big Brother prison grid that is being constructed all around us. But what our schools are not doing is giving these children the critical thinking skills that they need to live as free citizens in a nation that used to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave".
Of course very few people would deny that the character of American schoolchildren has changed dramatically over the decades. Back in the 1950s, some of the biggest school discipline problems were gum chewing and hair pulling. Today, kids bring knives, guns and drugs with them to school. Gang activity is rampant in many of our schools and in some schools kids are even having sex in the school bathrooms.
So there is definitely a discipline problem in our schools.
But what is going on in many areas of the country is absolutely ridiculous. For example, in 2010 alone police down in Texas issued an astounding 300,000 tickets to school children.
Yes, if a kid pulls a knife on someone the police should get involved, but teachers and administrators should be able to use some common sense and handle the vast majority of discipline problems that happen themselves.
What you are about to read is absolutely going to amaze you. The following are 19 really crazy things that school children are being arrested for in America....
#1 At one public school down in Texas, a 12-year-old girl named Sarah Bustamantes was recently arrested for spraying herself with perfume.
#2 A 13-year-old student at a school in Albuquerque, New Mexico was recently arrested by police for burping in class.
#3 Another student down in Albuquerque was forced to strip down to his underwear while five adults watched because he had $200 in his pocket. The student was never formally charged with doing anything wrong.
#4 A security guard at one school in California broke the arm of a 16-year-old girl because she left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning up some cake that she had spilled.
#5 One teenage couple down in Houston poured milk on each other during a squabble while they were breaking up. Instead of being sent to see the principal, they were arrested and sent to court.
#6 In early 2010, a 12-year-old girl at a school in Forest Hills, New York was arrested by police and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk. "I love my friends Abby and Faith" was what she reportedly scribbled on her desk.
#7 A 6-year-old girl down in Florida was handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.
#8 One student down in Texas was reportedly arrested by police for throwing paper airplanes in class.
#9 A 17-year-old honor student in North Carolina named Ashley Smithwick accidentally took her father's lunch with her to school. It contained a small paring knife which he would use to slice up apples. So what happened to this standout student when the school discovered this? The school suspended her for the rest of the year and the police charged her with a misdemeanor.
#10 In Allentown, Pennsylvania a 14-year-old girl was tasered in the groin area by a school security officer even though she had put up her hands in the air to surrender.
#11 Down in Florida, an 11-year-old student was arrested, thrown in jail and charged with a third-degree felony for bringing a plastic butter knife to school.
#12 Back in 2009, an 8-year-old boy in Massachusetts was sent home from school and was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation because he drew a picture of Jesus on the cross.
#13 A police officer in San Mateo, California blasted a 7-year-old special education student in the face with pepper spray because he would not quit climbing on the furniture.
#14 In America today, even 5-year-old children are treated brutally by police. The following is from a recent article that described what happened to one very young student in Stockton, California a while back....
Earlier this year, a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old.
#15 At one school in Connecticut, a 17-year-old boy was thrown to the floor and tasered five times because he was yelling at a cafeteria worker.
#16 A teenager in suburban Dallas was forced to take on a part-time job after being ticketed for using foul language in one high school classroom. The original ticket was for $340, but additional fees have raised the total bill to $637.
#17 A few months ago, police were called out when a little girl kissed a little boy during a physical education class at an elementary school down in Florida.
#18 A 6-year-old boy was recently charged with sexual battery for some "inappropriate touching" during a game of tag at one elementary school in the San Francisco area.
#19 In Massachusetts, police were recently sent out to collect an overdue library book from a 5-year-old girl.
Unfortunately, what is going on in our schools is a reflection of the broader society as a whole. Our schools are being turned into prisons because our entire society is being turned into a giant prison.
Our nation is rapidly heading down the toilet, and the children of this nation do not have a bright future to look forward to.
If the police really want to find some criminals, they should start investigating some of the sickos that are in charge of some of these classrooms.
It seems like almost every day now there is a news story about some public school teacher that is involved in some kind of really perverted stuff.
For example, just check out what police down in Los Angeles recently found that one teacher was hiding....
A former Los Angeles elementary school teacher has been arrested for felony molestation of nearly two dozen students, accused of gagging children and putting live cockroaches on some of their faces. Deputies say the crimes were committed on campus.
Sickos who do that kind of stuff to kids should be punished very severely.
America's schools are changing, and not for the better.
Personally, I went to public schools all my life, but I would not recommend that anyone send their kids to public schools today. There is just way too much crazy stuff that goes on.
And our kids are learning less than ever in these public schools. As I have written about previously, many of them are coming out of the system as dumb as a rock. Instead of teaching our kids how to think critically and examine all sides of an issue, these schools are indoctrinating our kids and pushing particular social and political agendas on them.
There are a few public schools out there that are still good, but the vast majority of them are horrible. They are not producing the leaders of tomorrow and they are not preparing the next generation with the tools that they need to survive in a complex world.
So is there much hope that our schools can be turned around? Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....
“Of course very few people would deny that the character of American schoolchildren has changed dramatically over the decades.”
Do you have anything to back this up? What is “character” in this instance? Saying “Very few people would deny” is using “weasel words” to make an assertion that you aren’t backing with any real facts.
“Back in the 1950s, some of the biggest school discipline problems were gum chewing and hair pulling.”
I seem to remember this being passed around Congress for their speeches back in the 90′s. I think a staffer simply made it up. The biggest school problems in the Fifties were not gum chewing and hair pulling. Again, you don’t back this up with anything., and I don’t think it’s true.
“Today, kids bring knives, guns and drugs with them to school. Gang activity is rampant in many of our schools and in some schools kids are even having sex in the school bathrooms.”
And this is different from the 60′s, the 70′s, the 80′s? How about the 30′s and 40′s? Haven’t there always been knives, drugs, and bad kids? Am I supposed to assume that “of course it’s SO MUCH WORSE NOW?”
I originally liked this website, but the article has a fear mongering tone with hysterical “Hell in a hand basket” style opinions written as though they are fact.
Perhaps these problems existed, but gangs were a statistically small problem 50-70 years ago. I’ve known folks who were trusted to bring firearms to class only 30 years ago and go hunting afterwards with no problems. I don’t think the police manned school entrances back then, nor do I remember hearing about kids being arrested for farting or wetting themselves or hugging each other or any of the other insane reasons. I would be tempted to guess the first examples of police guarding schools may have been when folks were fighting over integrating them…
Also, back in those earlier days you mentioned, education was still considered something to be desired. You wanted to learn. Or you could leave and go look for work. Or work on the farm, as many kids did for the warmer months of the year. I had a relative who actually ran away to join the circus during the Depression. And Red Skelton talked about how he left school as a kid to look for work because he was too hungry to learn.
FloO
Your understanding of this subject is low. I worked in the court system and constantky heard case after case concerning this subject. You couldnt be mor ewrong in what you say.It is so rediculous to see an eight year old female being escorted to court by a three hundered pound deputy for some real crime like having an asprin in her lunch bag. im here to tell you that the schools are indeed out of control with the almost marshall law state of affairs today. God help us now in this country. We certainly cannot and dont know how to correct this problem we created.
My hometown middle school has now been turned into a alternative school for grades 6-8 (for troubled kids) the other kids have been moved to an elementary school. This is not a minority thing this is a repression thing and we need to fight for our kids, become better roll models ourselves. We can do more to help out the schools and students to avoid police involvement. Anyone can attend a PTA meeting, that’s a start at least. It is obvious that it has gotten totally out of hand. We have more problems with police over reacting with our kids than we do a terrorist! What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
I would rather not let my kid get anywhere near a gov’t school. They suck for a reason.
Read John Gatto’s, Underground History of American Education, here free of charge!
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/
Gatto explains the truth about the system he worked in for 30 years. Gov’t schools, by design, are only supposed to teach your kid to be just smart enough to function as an employee for someone who went to a private school. They’re not for education, just babysitting, indoctrination, and stifling creativity and thought.
I first experienced (11th grade) public indoctrination beginning in 1975 after spending 10 years in private schools.
Nothing has changed at all, as far as public indoctrination goes, since then. Nothing has changed at all. Nothing has changed at all.
Such mass brainwashing merely evolved from doobs in the parking lot to prescribed medications. From Zeppelin and ZZ top to whatever control vibes get rammed into kids ears today. Pop culture went from 8 track to devices but with the same effect. Mass distraction and indoctrination into a subservient meme worshiping “life”.
Nothing has changed, just evolved in due course as expected.
And common sense isn’t taught anywhere in America to adults or children obviously.
Where are the men? Have the fathers of these children been neutered?
This will not stop until the fathers in the neighborhood band together, walk down to city hall, and tell them emphatically; give us the officers and the school officials.
If you’ve been led to believe that we are in the middle of a peaceful revolution, or there is a chance to have one, take time to learn from history. There has never actually been a peaceful one, nor can you have one if one side has a monopoly of force. The most glaring misrepresentation is Gandhi in India where thousands were murdered, and the country was left in desparation for decades.
men are not allowed to be men anymore .. imprisonment is the penalty for being a man
My 14yr old Daughter first year in High School @ TL Hanna in Anderson South Carolina was a disaster her 2nd week of school! She was suspended for 5 days for having a pacifier on her school badge. Mind you they were passed out by the Senior Class for Baby drop of day on a Friday! The following week she wore it around her neck for an entire week and nothing was never said to her or any other student until that Friday AFTER school let out and she was walking to meet a friend to catch a ride home. A counselor stopped her and said you can not get on the bus with that pacifier around your neck and she replyed im not riding the bus im riding with a friend and she said “my daughter” I will take it off and will not wear it anymore. So my daughter proceeds to walk off to catch her ride and the 11th and 12th grade Asst.Principal who comes outta no where who didnt even hear conversation between my daughter and counselor grabs my daughter by her book bag and jerks her back…mind you my daughter 14…4’7…98lbs and gets in her face yelling to the top of his lungs telling her shes gonna take that pacifier off now!!! So as she goes to grab it to take it off evidently she wasnt moving fast enough for him and he grabbed her by her arm and jerked her hand down and he snatched her entire badge from around her neck. And told her when she returned to school to report to the office! So when she returned to school that next week she went to her 9th grade counselor she spoke with my daughter gave her the badge and told her to go to class. 20min after her reporting to class they called her back down to office and told her she was suspended for 5 days for being DEFIANT!! This was done to a child who is an “A”-”B” honor roll student she made Principal List has been playing the Violin since 2nd grade Played in the All County Orchestra here in Anderson and so on. She WAS a very out going child and student and what they put her through her first year of High School was TOTALLY uncalled for!!
Hmmmm I didn’t know they let pigs on the school grounds.
Someone needs to call the animal catcher immediately.
I am glad my boys have all grown out of elementary and high school,there would be definitely fewer teeth in both women and mens mouths if they yelled at my child.
The pigs are being trained and paid for their uncivility.
They will learn their lesson just as the children are learning theirs.
I’m sorry for your little girls and yours heartache.
I wear a pacifier around my neck for no reason at all and I dont get in trouble. I’m a fifteen year old girl and a freshman in high-school. Tell your daughter that if anyone yells at her at school again for something as stupid as that to be as defiant as she can be. She was not treated fairly. No one should be treated that way. Ever. Sadistic pigs….
Christina, I once received a phone call one afternoon at home from some counselors at my daughters high school who proceeded to tell me that they were questioning my girl about some CANDY she may or may not have given to some other girl (who evidently didn’t have a problem taking the stuff in the first place) and that it may have given her an allergic reaction etc. etc. etc. It was so surreal I thought it had to have been written in Hollywood. I kept saying to myself, “What the hell are these clowns carrying on about?!”. They seemed hell bent on turning the most minor of things into nonsensical issues. Why worry about the idiocy in the students when the staff exhibit signs of psychosis!
This is not an article; it’s nothing more than a propaganda piece. By presenting a dozen or so little one-sided snippets of information on a subject, the author is attempting to enrage a feeble-minded audience.
I, too, believe that our law enforcement and criminal justice systems are becoming overbearing. But this one-sided little polemic does nothing to convince me of anything.
ONE is too many
No adult should hurt a child ,physically,mentally or emotionally!
It all has to do with money the school will lose if not teaching the children to respect and fear the hand of the controller.
Just as the scans at the airports.
It is sickening!
Use Your Brain,
Well, you certainly failed to take your own advice on this one, didn’t you? I for one, have been very critical of Michael on some of his articles when I felt it was warranted. In this case, he is on target with his assessment of where things are going, although he does not explain WHY THIS IS HAPPENING. I have explained why on many occasions. Usually middle and upper class whites have fallen sucker to the platitudes of tough on crime from corrupt politicians and police officials who merely wanted an excuse to UNLEASH THE DOGS OF WAR on mostly minority populations. Well, the criminal gangsters with guns and badges are now targeting all of us, and that includes middle class whites, occupy people, students, etc. Sociopaths and psychopaths with guns and badges will target with exteme violence anyone they feel they can successfully get away with said violence. But this goes to what Nick posted when he asks where are the men and fathers during all this?
Use Your Brain, if you take away nothing else then take away this: An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere…………..
POLEMIC? HE LINKED TO THE STORIES SO ONE COULD READ AND DECIDE…….ARE YOU OPPOSED TO THE MANY ARTICLES, NEWS REPORTS, VIDEO SHOWING POLICE RAID DRILLS IN SCHOOL, UN-ANNOUNCED WHERE KIDS ARE A T GUN POINT ROUNDED UP AND SOME WET THEIR PANTS, CRY AND NEED HELP LATER FOR WHAT TO THEM WAS NOT A DRILL, BUT REAL?
USE YOUR BRAIN FOR ONCE……..USEFUL IDIOT.
I know exactly what you mean. In my 12 years of school the only time police were ever called was when someone phoned in a bomb threat. There was never a bomb, just kids calling in for a prank.
Now it’s nothing unusual to read about kids of all ages arrested for everything trivial and not. Why? Because the schools are run by Democrats, and Democrats love big government.
false paradigm alert!!!
No Child Left Behind-does that sound familiar to you at all?
your 12 yrs in school, clearly public schooled….
It might be worth noting that my high school was actually designed by an architect that designs prisons. Now that’s pretty interesting in light of what you just wrote about in your article. In fact, over the summer, my school put in all new security measures. The doors are constantly locked (From the outside of course), and an administrator watches over them from an enclosed office. Interesting huh? I actually happened upon this site while looking for sources outside of the mainstream media. I’m in a class called “modern problems”… Its required to graduate. I think I’ll look around some more.
Every American in this country deserves everything that is happening in what used to be called America the free. For all of you that still think you live in a free country, you better stop what ever your smoking and wake the hell up! Communist America is too mild a word to use. The last of the communist countries don’t even treat their people and children the way our government treats their people. Nazi Germany is a much better example. Unless you the people demand the government to get out of our personal lives, it will keep getting worse. I’m smart enough to realize that’s not going to happen though,and the only way to take back the country will be a revolution, and it’s right around the corner.
Wow! After reading these tidbits, I feel soooo relieved I live and teach in Canada. I witnessed many repugnant, racist comments from colleagues when I taught in Virginia and viewed many teachers who could barely read and write ‘attempting’ to help their students memorize mundane facts. Is it any wonder America scores near the bottom of the barrell in most International tests? Is it any wonder the bottom is falling out economically? Stop paying cops to police your schools!!Pay teachers what they deserve and you will attract good people to the profession. When I taught in the U.S. teachers with Master’s degrees were earning less than $30,000…in Canada, with a Bachelor’s, I’m earning $80,000.
Charter schools…don’t get me started…absolute bullshit!! Teach your students to question the status quo so your next leaders don’t bail out the top earning 1% of your population. Education is to create intelligent THINKERS…PEOPLE WHO CAN THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX…
I would suggest we dump all the current teachers, dismantle the teacher unions and their ridiculous extortion racket (watch Waiting for Superman some time), dump a majority of the administrators who choke up the system, and hire teachers individually on a performance basis. Bonuses to good teachers, pink slips to bad ones. No excuses. Wouldn’t it be novel if teachers were only given raises and bonuses if they were good at what they did? Also, after meeting some Ed Studies majors who hoped to become teachers, I think they probably ought to just dump that major and hire teachers from the real world, whether or not they have Masters and PHDs. What good is a degree in teaching if you know nothing worth learning?
I’ve routinely carried a knife since age 10, and I can’t believe my schools would have made a fuss.
Sometimes I’m glad I never had children.
How would you control your cattle? If you let them get to much confidence they’re a lot more difficult to handle. It’s much easier to beat them down when they are young and weak.
As a public school teacher I can say The vast majority of teachers are well intentioned, hardworking, caring professionals. Like any profession composed of human beings there will be “sickos” that some of you are talking about. Children’s behavior in school has changed because parenting, or the lack thereof, has changed. When a kid is flipping out, fighting, cursing out teachers, writing on walls and school property, touching others inappropriately, etc most parents don’t do anything significant and the behaviors continue. In SOME scenarios schools are forced to bring in police to stop dangerous behaviors because parents are either ineffective or nonexistent. In addition, parents of students who are victims of these kids are quick to sue the school for “negligence” if swift and sometimes harsh punishments are not implemented. Disciplining kids in schools has become a very complicated situation. Throw the extensive gun, gang, and violence problems into the mix & it gets very complicated. I don’t believe the stories discussed above. They are one-sided, small pieces of information without all the circumstances surrounding them mentioned. It’s anti-teacher propaganda and its bullshit. Every non-teacher likes to say how easy the job is and all the things we should and could do. I challenge you… Go to my NYC classroom. Stand in front of my 16 year olds and teach 30 students biology. See how “easy” it is. Then leave a comment. Until then keep an open mind.
Ps: we deserve our summers off after playing teacher, parent, psychologist, friend, mentor and every other role many parents fail to
ohh it’s not about individual teachers,don’t be so defensive! whether you like it or not, public schools are and have been the training ground for the future slaves of the facist country the USA is becoming at a break neck speed. I yanked my kids out of school last week. nice to have prayer, pledge,bible study added to their math, reading, spelling lessons. put GOD back in school and you wouldn’t be having these problems
Read Gatto? What’s your take?
And what are you, your fellow teachers and administrators doing to get rid of the “sickos”?
Oh, I forgot, in New York you give them a desk to sit behind until they can retire.
(snark off)
Most teachers do their best, but the unionization of teachers has had the same effect it did elsewhere- it is nearly impossible to get rid of even the worst teacher. Meantime, I’ll bet you have more administrators than you do teachers in your district, all working very hard and equally in need of the summer off.
we are being tough how not to have common sense but to always be given an answer. the problem is that we are not even tough how to ask the question
The Children of today know these old methods, and what they are exposed to is wrong. To the depths of their souls! Meg Blackburn Losey has researched this for her career. The children are more knowledgable coming into the world now, than the collective knowledge of the adults that are trying to control them. The children are feared because they will (and are) shifting our reality. The system of education was not designed for these evolved souls. Children now, do not fit, nor do they belong in a “boxed” educational system. They know the incongruent messages they are sent “Think outside the box!” then they are ridiculed for doing so. Our children are our future and they coul teach us more than we have learned thus far in our lifetimes. The problem is so much deeper than blame. So much deeper than ego. The sooner parents and teachers “wake up” meaning go within and take the action to support children the way they deserve. The sooner the reflection of our world will shift to the bliss these children know exists.
I have to say that when I taught one year only in one of El Paso’s “drive-by highs” (after six years in rural-small town HS), nearly assaulted by one gangster with a ninja star that was one inch from my left eye, that I would have appreciated a cop being around in my classroom, let alone in the hallway! Which is why I have not taught in a public school classroom since, and have homeschooled both kids (one who graduated from Texas A & M in 2010 and is now gainfully employed by NOAA, and the other of whom is in college now and wants to be a teacher–in Japan!). But on the whole, I agree with most of this article…it is ridiculous that kids are being arrested for writing on desks (something I did all the time back in the 60s) or farting or belching!
At almost every University in the country the College of Education is considered as the magnet for the less capable of the student body. This is the unfortunate truth. Our society does not value education. The parents refuse to educate their children at home because they were not educated beforehand.
I listen to the myopic children whine about having to learn History or Geography or Algebra. They will prophetically claim that they will NEVER USE THE KNOWLEDGE once free from the school system. Then I ask them if they will ever have children. When they stop to ponder that question I will simply follow up with the following question..
Will you be able to teach your own children if you do not learn this?
That is why I think that home schooling for most will be a disaster. The parents are more incompetent than the incompetents that fill the Colleges of Education. JMHO.
And to think this is OUR taxpayed dollars at work. Parents need to remind the beuracracy of this detail and then stand on their head whenever an absurdity happens. The threat to the money flow of this system would help right the issue. Start writing legislators. Also, think about all the begging your school does. They never seem to have enough money. They want parents to give (fundraisers) and use the scare tactic, “you’re kids need these things in order to grow and learn’ as a carrot dangle. If they can’t make the system work with the tax money given to them then something is WRONG.
I noticed on another site where the older generation was being blamed for the problems schools have today. When i graduated in 1962 there were no police in our schools. A student sneaking a smoke at recess time was the worst offense that ever happened in our school.I believe it was the lack of discipline by million of parents as the real reason why we have many of these problems today. Once the Supreme Court removed the Bible, prayer, the Ten Commandment and any mention of God from our schools our children didn’t stand a chance.like many have pointed out, our children are being taught only the subjects and given the information the establishment wants them to have.High praise to those who are home schooling their children.They recognize the damage being done to their young minds in our public schools.
I am a high school teacher in a large county and I only wish that kids would be arrested for some of the things they do. I can hardly believe that kids are actually arrested for some of these things. The high school kids at this city school are incredibly rude, inconsiderate, and disrespectful and have no desire to learn. All they care about is their cell phone and their social life. I hear the F— word several times a day along with other profanity. Kids are getting 20-30 referrals before they ever get suspended. Yes, there is a problem with our public school and it isn’t because they are too strict or are creating a “prison” for our children. I am a very hard working teacher and try very hard to challenge my students and help to succeed. But, how can I compete with all this technology that the parents shouldn’t even be letting them bring to school in the first place. Most teachers are good teachers and are doing it because they care, but the pressure is being put on us, not the kids. It is our fault b/c they are failing-not thiers, according to the “expert administrators” who have forgotten what it is like to be in the classroom or are oblivious to it. Classes are way too big and discipline is way too short. There are still some good school and good kids out there, but those school pay way too little for a single person to make a living.
[...] will detain U.S. Senators at our airports for “security reasons” and if they will issue hundreds of thousands of tickets to school children, then there is no reason to believe that you are going to be treated with [...]
I personally know a teacher (husband of a good friend of mine) who tried to break up a fight between two girls in a hallway during lunchtime and his life and career was ruined. Even though the whole incident was on videotape (the school’s) the parent of one of the girls pressed charges against my friend’s husband and he was suspended from teaching for 3 years, nearly was arrested, was publicly defamed on local television (repeatedly) was threatened with numerous lawsuits, had to undergo at least TWO psych evals,
had to go before the state teacher’s board of education to “explain himself”….and it would all have been needless, if the videotape would have been BELIEVED. Even though school officials, police officers, judges, and others actually VIEWED THE TAPE, they didn’t believe it. They believed the little girl and her mother.
They made an example of him because she was a different race than the teacher.