Remember the story about a Junior High student who was handcuffed and perp walked for doodling on her desk? The 12-year-old schoolgirl and her mom are now suing for $1 million:
The legal papers describe Alexa's ordeal as an excessive use of force and a violation of her rights. "We want to stop this from happening to other young children in the future," said the family's lawyer, Joseph Rosenthal.
Alexa was perp-walked out of the school in front of her classmates with her hands locked in metal handcuffs behind her back.
Alexa's mother pleaded with the officers to accompany her daughter to the police precinct, but Camacho was told to go home and wait for a call.
Officers placed Alexa in "an enclosed room" at the precinct and handcuffed her to a pole for more than two hours, the papers note.
City lawyers declined to comment, but city officials acknowledged in February the arrest was a mistake.
Rachel Monahan of NY Daily News has more: Link (Photo: Pace for News)
So does one overreaction deserve another? Is this a reasonable quest for justice or simply a case of greed? What do you think?
Perhaps the answer really is tazing all students who write on their desks?
At any rate, she has a right to pursue an offense against her person in civil court. This is America. If they don't think she has a case they can throw it out or the jury can return a low verdict.
At any rate, she has a right to pursue an offense against her person in civil court. This is America. If they don't think she has a case they can throw it out or the jury can return a low verdict.
As for students writing desks going "unpunished" because they aren't arrested - that's a fatuous argument. Detention, suspension, fines, clean-up punishments, revocation of extracurricular privileges like cheerleading or prom or assorted other punishments were and are available. When you come right down to it, the school can sue for destruction of property and recoup the expense of clean-up, repair, or replacement of damaged desks .
IMO: clearly the school was out of order; this is likely the only way that they (and other schools) will be deterred from this and similar stupidities. I wish them good luck.
I think the whole thing has gotten out of hand. And it has now become a case of greed.
Better go for 10 million.
Cops/City Admin's/School Admin's (which of course are mostly taught in public schools) are stupid, and without sufficient zeros on the paperwork won't take the lesson seriously.
If it was a Crayola erasable marker she used to doodle with - those are made for paper.
Make her clean the desk and buy her a sketchbook. But now, this overreaction has caused panic, and the parents think an epidemic is in place. Both sides are wrong, and I'll bet the girl thinks so too. As a student artist, I feel like being arrested for drawing would be pretty sweet.
I have no idea how, but somehow the chain of command and responsibility has become really screwed up at this institution. I imagine that somewhere in the school's charter is a document called 'Student Disciplinary Procedure' which outlines what the students may be punished for and exactly how they may be punished. Any establishment without one (and a sibling publication called something like 'Student Complaints Procedure') is asking for trouble.
Then, as part of the enrolment process the student signs that they and their parents have read these ToCs and will abide by them. As will the institution.
Situation sorted. How did this get so out of hand?
The school administration was stupid to call the police. The police were even more stupid for effecting the arrest- I would have laughed in the principal's face if presented with this when I was a deputy. The police are becoming more and more like vicious, stupid thugs.
I remember doodling all the time in school on the desks. Names, dates, ink rivers flowing from one corner to the next...Who cared? No one.
The lawsuit cannot be properly considered an "overreaction". In cases such as these the authorities need to be punished in the most public and practical way, i.e., public shaming and significant financial compensation to the victim. To just let this egregious action on the part of the school and the police to be dismissed with a simple apology would provide no incentive to ensure that such a thing not happen again.
This is a case of the dumb leading the dumb and we will have to pay for it.
A windfall like this only happens once, maybe twice, in a lifetime. Only a fool would pass this opportunity by.
"Excessive?" No, a crime was, in fact, committed. You can be arrested for that. Was the punishment over the top? Yes, but her rights weren't violated. How about the rights of the other students to use school equipment that was not vandalized?
She was not held for an unreasonable amount of time. She wasn't formally punished by the state.
Why was she handcuffed? That's the question. Did she at anytime refused to go voluntarily?
I consider myself an artist at heart, but I don't tolerate vandalized. It is a defacing and denial of another person's property.
(or a school administrator)
How about, sorry we handcuffed you. Thank you, Im sorry I vandalized school property. Case over.
The lawsuit is way too low, they should be suing for 10 million dollars. What happened to a trip to the prinicpal's office for infractions?
Arresting and cuffing a minor for what basically amounts to removable graffiti is beyond the pale.
also, "vandalizing" is a matter of definition. if doodling on your school desk gets a 12 year old arrested in handcuffs, chained to a pole and separated from her mother, something is DEFINITELY screwed up in the system.
since students have pretty much always been drawing on their desks, why not be consequent and provide paper surfaces and crayons? a well trained teacher could learn many things about each individual student by analyzing the drawings after class.
The one or two times I got caught, the punishment was staying after class or after school to clean the desk. I always got "called out" in front of the class, which led to enough embarrassment that I only doodled on the desk once or twice after getting caught the first time, and never again after getting caught the second time.
Getting arrested is ridiculously excessive. So is suing. The cops should have apologized, the girl's parents should outwardly have said "this is absurd and we accept the apology" but at home the girl should have been told "pay attention in class and don't doodle on the desk again."
Besides, if the marker did not wash off, wouldn't it be more logical to have the girl pay for a new desk?
On the other hand, asking to be paid $1 Million for, essentially, committing an act of criminal vandalism, doesn't seem right either.
FAIL and FAIL.
(I'm rather young and physically attractive, and slightly intellectual.)
Dry erase markers only work on the dry erase surfaces.
As has been said there is a clear diciplinary procedure for situations like this, why was it not followed? If an example must be set make her stay behind after class and clean the desk or fine her the cost of a replacement.
The fact is the girl was 12, not an adult and so shouldn't be treated like one. Even if an adult sat down in an office and doodled on a desk they wouldn't be arrested and escorted from the building in cuffs, get real.
At that young an age an experience like that is traumatic and as has been said wouldn't incline the student to behave, but to instead view the system as broken and callous. And when a kid starts to view themselves as unnecessarily persecuted by a callous system you get a spiral of delinquency. Such an astonishingly poor call...
To me, that's getting off kind of light.
use mind before the force and the arm of the law,SPEAK!,reproach(of course),but never a violence like this for a so unimportant thing(a kid with a water-based marker...)
concerning the lawsuit,1 million is ok(or few)thinking about the consequences on her child's mind:i wouldn't be surprised if she will have mental disorders after this episode...
bye
The girl was wrong. The school was more wrong. And the police were almost as wrong as they could be in this situation unless she was verbally or physically abusive towards them.
They should be required to pay for her to attend the school of her choice until she graduates. She will most likely receive a better education and the whole of society will benefit.
This girl looks set to be the next Tia Tequila for sure.
Fame is poison, to seek it out in such a way is all kinds of wrong.
Lessons will never be learnt, past the point now.
So this Girl and her mother should be to blame for something she clearly shouldn't have done. And I can Guarantee that either the case gets thrown out of court and put on probation or she wins and then the School will sue them for destruction of school property as well as her being expelled, either way this Case is Greedy, they mother should be ashamed of herself, and the student has to grow up and realize that the world doesn't revolve around her, cause if she does win the lawsuit, more and more parents will take advantage of that and Greed will get the best of this country.