RE: Girl Arrested For Writing On Desktop
Part of me is playing devil's advocate here and part of me means what I'm about to say, but...
H0w does this work in the context of a "broken window policy?" After all, this girl did deface public property. In the case of the aspirin, that's essentially a victimless crime and outside of school wouldn't be considered a crime at all. Likewise, when schools punish both kids involved in a fight, even if one was purely defending himself, there's another example of a ludicrous application of a zero-tolerance policy. Once again, outside of school it would be very rare for someone to be punished for defending themselves if they were the victim of an assualt.
But outside of school vandalism and graffiti is still an offense punishable by law. Granted, this is a very very minor example of it, and relative to all the other crimes New York police have to deal with this one would probably never even be a blip on the radar. Nevertheless, this wasn't her property she was defacing nor does she have any level of justification for doing so. And, at 13 years old, she should know better than to do something like this.
We're constantly demanding that children learn the realities of life that we often perceive schools aren't preparing them for. I realize that this does seem harsh, but maybe this lesson in consequences now will prevent her and others from growing into adults who believe they can do no wrong or have to answer for their actions.
Or maybe not.
H0w does this work in the context of a "broken window policy?" After all, this girl did deface public property. In the case of the aspirin, that's essentially a victimless crime and outside of school wouldn't be considered a crime at all. Likewise, when schools punish both kids involved in a fight, even if one was purely defending himself, there's another example of a ludicrous application of a zero-tolerance policy. Once again, outside of school it would be very rare for someone to be punished for defending themselves if they were the victim of an assualt.
But outside of school vandalism and graffiti is still an offense punishable by law. Granted, this is a very very minor example of it, and relative to all the other crimes New York police have to deal with this one would probably never even be a blip on the radar. Nevertheless, this wasn't her property she was defacing nor does she have any level of justification for doing so. And, at 13 years old, she should know better than to do something like this.
We're constantly demanding that children learn the realities of life that we often perceive schools aren't preparing them for. I realize that this does seem harsh, but maybe this lesson in consequences now will prevent her and others from growing into adults who believe they can do no wrong or have to answer for their actions.
Or maybe not.
posted by David Casper @ 12:32 PM
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