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....
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.
Exactly.
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.
Please don’t blame us teachers! School administrators and superintendents are the ones out of control. I can think of a few I would like to tie up and ship off for psychological evaluations. I have taught since the ’70s and have seen nutcase after nutcase in principals’ offices. Instead of getting better, they are getting worse.
And by the way, they treat us teachers like criminals, also.
Susan: I believe you! It isn’t (with exceptions) the teachers per se, it’s the system as a whole. My daughter has a really bad math curriculum in second grade in the public school. I spoke to her teacher about it. The teacher said, I completely agree, but my hands are tied. I’m forced to teach this garbage. So I spoke with the principal. Same story. I finally got hold of the bureaucrat who picked the curriculum. She gave me the “your just a parent,what do you know?” routine until I told her that I was a licensed teacher. Turned out she had never implemented the material herself, had, in fact, never taught a day in her life and knew very little in any practical way about teaching. Yet she was picking my daughter’s curriculum and there was nothing that could be done about it. Except pull my child out of the school system. THAT is where the problem lies.
You can all say whatever you want to , but our decline started when they took Christian Prayer and beliefs out of our school systems !
I don’t blame the teachers. I blame the policians and the principals.
In Colorado, we recently had a little girl handcuffed and sent to a ‘holding facility’ because she was ‘rude’ to an assistant principal. People are applauding what that happened to her, not understanding that often kids will see the higher ups abuse the teachers. If we want kids to respect teachers, the principals and their underlings need to model that behavior.
As a mother of four little girls, I’m furious. I don’t know if I should petition our politicians to gut the funding for the holding facility, force principals and their staff into political correctness training (as it was a little girl they handcuffed for not being subservient), or ask them to get the SROs out of public education.
It’s a mess. I wish more civil minded parents ran for school board positions. Maybe we could change a thing or two.
With the exception of the sick teachers, most teachers care about the students and their wellbeings. Administrators on the otherhand are corrupt, and the USA is falling into a society that will be chained and Imprisoned like the school systems current or near future point.
I disagree with the God comments however, while I understand that the PEACEFUL values of faith must be understood and practiced, the enforcment of religion upon many 1st and 2nd generation immigrants to the nation would discourage them, rather I suggest a more active approach from parents in implementing these values and lightly reinforcing such attitudes like kindness and good behavior.
At my school students are given Positive referals and fake money for prizes for doing good deeds, like you have to be rewarded. And in the classroom you can here kids comparing how many referals theyve gotten, and in the upcoming classes, good kids are few and far between.
There is something fishy in the water, and I feel the only way to solve it is by direct revolution. I will not stand idly by while the nation I grew up in in freedom is slowly and covertly being stolen from me, take it from a student like myself, I understand the problems in the world, and there are fellow students like me at some schools that arent in the middle of corrupt societies but slowly falling prey to them. We know there must be reform, however many do not wish to take action. Im hoping some of the more observant and active elders will join in as the time approaches when we must end this democracy.
The Democracy we live in has brought tyranny that must be expunged, only the restoration of a Powerful Monarch to keep command over the representatives of a republic can give new vitality to the nation. But it must be one of our own, the checks and balances of our founding fathers was good, but the democratic experiment has mutated to far from the control, and it must be terminated.
what about charter schools or are they still under the thumb of the gov/ administration. this is all the work of the washington evils behind obama and nwo! they want to train people to except this kind of treatment that they are preparing for the amerikan people! to be compliant, obey just like the tsa crap at the airports!
A lot of the kids are a direct result of being SPOILED BRATS! Not taught Manners or Common courtesy. But all you have to do is look at the parents.
I’m a 17 year old student nd according to the way your schooling systems work, all the students would be arrested daily ,, personally I’d beat the living day lights out of a security gaurd or teacher who would attempt to do that to me ,, I frown upon your discipline standards,, your education systems are pretty messed up if that’s how children are handled not to all the schools only those selected ones ,,, wtf I’m kinda pissed off that the children accept that nd that they dnt attempt to change it.
As a senior in highschool, my school has definately become a prison. We have to wear ids, we have hall sweeps and if u get caught in one they have a scanner that scans your ID. The walls are pure white with an exception of newsletters and other garbage. We have an unreasonable dress code such as you can get suspended for having a hole in your pants… a friend of mine got in trouble for having a rebel flag on his car. I almost got a trespassing ticket for returning to school from a release…******** THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS THE REAL TEACHERS ARE OUR PARENTS!!!!