NYC student arrested for doodling on desk

[deja vu]

(msnbc)NEW YORK - A New York City junior high student has been arrested for doodling on her desk with a marker. Twelve-year-old Alexa Gonzalez scribbled "Lex was here 2/1/10" on her desk Monday at Junior High School 190 in Queens. She also wrote "I love my friends Abby and Faith." The girl says the doodles could have been erased. Moraima Tamacho says her daughter was released several hours after she was taken in handcuffs to a police station.

Education department spokesman David Cantor said the incident shouldn't have happened, and that common sense should prevail. Last month, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit alleging more than 20 instances of wrongful arrests and assaults by school safety officers. Gonzalez has been assigned eight hours of community service, a book report and an essay on what she's learned from the experience.

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Her parents should be talking to a lawyer about suing the teacher, school and maybe the cops, depending on the laws of that state. The girl gets punished and the teacher is not? The teacher should be charged, where is that teachers common sense? The girl should clean up the desk and pay for any supplies that have to be used to clean the desk up but the rest is nonsense. Where are they getting these teachers from? Their first reaction to something so minor is call the cops and have a child arrested?

If they arrested all the kids for doodling in N. America, the schools would be close to empty. We all did it growing up and none of us were hauled off to jail. Where was the schools principal while this was going on?

[Smitty]

The teacher or assistant Principal to Principal could have had a word or two with her. That would be all that is needed for word would have got around to fellow students to not follow her wrong doings. Especially if the doodling on the desk could have been erases.

So often in high school I found my desk would have someone's enitials or such CARVED into the wooden top. No problem in writing over the above if one used a few pages & when exams came up the teacher realize something like what I used was with sensible reason & not a form of cheating.

It reminds me of the young Club rifle club in the USA, of which he was good in, was into trouble because he wore a t-shirt with indications of shooting or possibly the Club's t-shirt. Many a member has bought our Club golf or t-shirts with the clubs name to our baseball caps with our name on the cap (seeing the logo of our club with name finishing off with SHOOTING CLUB) & NO ONE HAS COMPLAINED or raised their voice at the different schools in this area considering Cdn is so much against firearms.