Girl arrested for doodling on her desk

[Sangome]

[FONT="Microsoft Sans Serif"][SIZE="1"]I only wish I were making this up.

[URL="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35257428/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/?gt1=43001"][U]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35257428/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/?gt1=43001[/U][/URL]

[QUOTE]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.[/QUOTE]

... I... I just...I... what? What? [I]Seriously[/I]? Kids [I]carved[/I] stuff into desks at my old high school, not to mention I've seen far more profane crap drawn on bathroom stalls, and I don't see anyone getting arrested for those.

I'm just speechless right now. I'll let you guys have at it.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Magus]

[size=1][color=darkred]Wha..? WHAT!?[/size][/color]

[RedJ]

....
*opens mouth*
*closes it*
.....
wut. Just wut. o-o

It amuses me that while they were arresting her, they could have used that time to be arresting someone down the street who was spray-painting on a wall.

[chibi-master]

Desk markings of that nature are like a secret and sacred history to students! While I do not condone the vandalization of school property, I must say that this punishment was just WAY to overdone. What's the point? Other students carve crude doodles of male genetilia into some of the desks I've seen at school, so this irritates me. What a waste of the girl's and the police officers' time.

[Jabberwocky]

[quote name='chibi-master']Desk markings of that nature are like a secret and sacred history to students! While I do not condone the vandalization of school property, I must say that this punishment was just WAY to overdone. What's the point? Other students carve crude doodles of male genetilia into some of the desks I've seen at school, so this irritates me. What a waste of the girl's and the police officers' time.[/QUOTE]

[FONT="Palatino Linotype"]You can't anywhere around my hometown without seeing a penis drawn somewhere. On the benches in front of our arena, on the picnic table at the Gazeebo in front of our little store; penises are everywhere.

This however, is a little extreme? Try having someone take you seriously with "Drawn on a desk" as a felony in your record.[/FONT]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]She did the crime, now she do the time.

[spoiler]Yeah that's stupid. Waste of official resources.[/spoiler][/FONT]

[Nehszriah]

This amuses me in a sick sort of way. I mean... they're always finding new ways to mess with students these days. Gotta feel sorry for the girl; that's a suspension and fine at the most.

[Delta]

[COLOR=#35425e]Yeah, I think the Man overreacted. Even a "Push button to eject teacher" won't merit time in a cell.

This probably is an isolated case at best, or it wouldn't have been printed. But it goes to show that: 1) You could get arrested for [i]anything[/i] this days, and 2) the police need to work on that.

Did anyone else notice how many "Common sense should prevail" news they're churning out recently? Huh, makes one think if it's really that common.[/COLOR]

[Shinmaru]

I read "doodling" as "drooling" somehow, which would have made the arrest more justifiable, I think. Drooling is gross.

[Katana]

[color="RoyalBlue"][size=1]It blows my mind that they [i]arrested[/i] a [i]kid[/i] for something like this. Especially because doodling in pencil is how I always doodled on the desk, and for the very reason that it could be erased. P:

I do believe the worst of the teachers for desk-doodling when I was in high school was the German teacher who would...make you clean the desks.[/size][/color]

[Nony]

Well at least she was released a few hours later... but it shouldn't have even happened in the first place! My gosh, people! Another bit of that hope I had for humanity just died from reading this news.

[TimeChaser]

Talk about overkill. I mean I could understand detention or something for that, but arresting her? Maybe if she'd doodled something incredibly racist or filthy, but even then...

The system fails.

[SunfallE]

[FONT="Lucida Sans Unicode"][COLOR="RoyalBlue"][quote name='Shinmaru']I read "doodling" as "drooling" somehow, which would have made the arrest more justifiable, I think. Drooling is gross.[/quote]I did the same thing. In fact every time I see the thread I still keep seeing it as drooling instead of doodling. Anyway, getting in trouble I could see. Getting arrested... o_O[/COLOR][/FONT]

[CaNz]

i saw this on the news, at first i couldn't understand why anyone in their right mind would arrest a girl for such trivial things, but now i know.

those drawings were awful... she makes smiley faces with noeses! you don't need to smell to be happy!

[The Mask]

This really made me angry. Though vandalism is not good, arresting the girl was definitely uncalled for.

What the hell is going on with the educational system these days? Is the line between right and wrong that blurry already? I know common sense isn't really common, but come on! Whatever happened to detention, or demerits in grades, or a session with the guidance counselor or the student affairs officer?

And couldn't they have imagined the trauma that this incident had inflicted on the kid for such a simple act that isn't even worthy to be called a crime? She was sent to jail, [I][B]handcuffed[/B][/I], for what? Doodles on the desk?!

Oh, and apparently this happened after her Spanish teacher saw it, which led her to tell the assistant principal, who then called the cops who arrested her. (Read more [URL="http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/02/06/2010-02-06_cuffed_student_wont_draw_suspension.html"][U]here[/U][/URL].)

This better be a wake-up call for everyone. We cannot afford to have these kind of flaws in the educational system.

[Gavin]

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[Sangome]

[quote name='The Mask']And couldn't they have imagined the trauma that this incident had inflicted on the kid for such a simple act that isn't even worthy to be called a crime? She was sent to jail, [I][B]handcuffed[/B][/I], for what? Doodles on the desk?![/QUOTE]

[FONT="Microsoft Sans Serif"][SIZE="1"]I was thinking the exact same thing. Poor girl's gonna be traumatized for life. I know I would be, at least.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[JCBaggee]

[color=darkred][size=1]My lord, and they were easily erasable? Not like she carved anything permanent or obscene. Just think of all the real crimes that could have been stopped with the time and resources spent on this girl....[/color][/size]

[Heaven's Cloud]

"Gonzalez has been assigned eight hours of community service, a book report and an essay on what she's learned from the experience."

Really? She was assigned eight hours of community service for writing on a desk that could have been cleaned off in 20 seconds?

What a load of crap. I hope she writes a paper on who the nice fat settlement she expects to receive from the civil lawsuit she is filing will put her through art school.

Every adminsitrator and law officer involved in this should be fired. Talk about wastes of human beings.

[Sabrina]

[FONT="Tahoma"]I could see being required to write an essay or do some community work. That kind of punishment would have been more realistic and geared towards teaching how important it is to not deface other people's property.

I realize that markers can be removed fairly easily, but getting into the habit of writing on others property isn't a good habit to form.

In this case, it is the arrest that I believe was a complete and total over reaction. It simply doesn't fit what happened. [/FONT]

[Boo]

[font=lucida fax]I would've tased her butt.[/font]

[Rachmaninoff]

[FONT="Trebuchet MS"]Things like this make you wonder about just how paranoid we've become. I don't condone her actions but I do agree with others that arresting her for it was completely unnecessary. [/FONT]