Student, 12, Arrested for Doodling on Desk

I found this story on KTLA News.

Alexa Gonzalez is a 12-year-old student at Junior High School in Forest Hills New York. She was arrested for writing her name on her desk during class. She wrote, “Lex was here. 2/1/10,” she also wrote, “I love my friends Abby and Faith” on her desk as well. Lex said she was trying to kill time while waiting for her Spanish teacher to hand out their homework. She was escorted out of the school in hand cuffs. Although she had a perfect attendance record, she was handcuffed and taken into custody at the police station across the street from her school. After appearing in family court Tuesday, Lex was assigned, “8 hours of community service, a book report and an essay on what she learned from her mistake.” A DOE spokesman said, “the principal made a mistake and has lifted the suspension.”

My first reaction to this story was how ignorant this was, and how bad our school systems have gotten.

I cannot believe this 12 year old girl was handcuffed and taken out of school for something so minor. I think 90% of kids that age either do or want to write on their desks. I understand that it is wrong and also vandalizing. But what do you honestly expect from kids? They are going to do things you don’t want them to do. This girl had perfect attendance and no other problems. I bet there are lots of parents out there who wish that was the worst thing their child has done. I’m curious if it wasn’t something the principal was trying to set an example off. Lex got expelled from school, buy obviously the principal knew he went overboard with it, because he took it back and allowed her to return to school. I would understand her being expelled from school, had she been in trouble numerous times previous; but for this being her first offense, this is ridiculous. I know if this had been my child, I would be very upset, and the principal and the police station would have heard from me. I’ve seen kids when I was in school do worse and not have such a harsh punishment. And I also think that it was weird that the judge assigned her 8 hours community service, a book report and an essay about “what she learned from her mistake.” That was way overboard as well. Is a judge even capable of forcing a 12 year old to write a book report and essay? Seems like the girl won’t have much to write about; she might write about how things got blown way out of proportion or about how “writing on desks is punishable by death.” Even the school thought their punishment was to harsh.

It’s amazing how the world changes as you get older. When I was in school, the worst punishment for writing on your desk, was having to clean it off yourself, or sitting in the hallway; it may not have even been bad enough to go to the principal’s office. I can’t imagine what the other kids think, and I bet they are all scared to breath thinking if the teacher hears them they might get a criminal record. It’s stuff like this that shows how bad things have gone downhill. Kind of like the story about the young girls sending naked pictures of themselves to their boyfriends, they got charged with child pornography and are now sex offenders for the rest of their lives. What’s the point of that?