November 27, 2007, - 5:33 pm
Public Schools’ “Police State” Behavior Run Amok
By Debbie Schlussel
Many public schools in America, today, are run exactly like they would be in a Communist state. Anything goes when it comes to what is taught there. Nothing is too ridiculous. But when it comes to “discipline,” schools go overboard acting like a Communist police state (and don’t actually discipline anyone for truly objectionable behavior).
I’ve written about this phenomenon before.
No, I’m not talking about things like dogs sniffing lockers for drugs (which I think is reasonable). I’m talking about this from the Detroit suburb of Belleville, Michigan (thanks to reader Mike for the tip):
Cameron Coleman has been anxious for weeks.
He is having trouble sleeping. He is failing his science class.
And he is fearful each day when he goes to school, ever since he was ticketed by a school resource officer for “skipping class” while retrieving his jacket from the bathroom during his lunch hour.
Now, the 11-year-old South Middle School student must appear in court on Dec. 6 with his parents for a mandatory interview with a juvenile probation officer to determine his penalty for the disorderly person charge, a misdemeanor offense.
“You don’t charge an 11-year-old kid with anything,” said Cameron’s father, William Coleman. “If it was a gun or knife or a threat to the school I can see it. But that’s a bit too much.”
Cameron, an average student who has missed three days this year for having the flu twice and a Staph infection last month, has been tardy only a handful of times, Coleman said. Most times, it’s because he takes too long in the bathroom. Frequent trips are a side effect of medication he takes to control his genetic condition — chronic granulomatous disease, a rare illness that causes repeated bacterial infections.
Coleman said he’s made many trips and phone calls to the Van Buren Public Schools seeking answers since his son was instructed to bring home the appearance ticket.
On Oct. 29, Coleman said, Cameron was permitted to use the bathroom at the start of his lunch period. Afterward, while waiting in the lunch line, he remembered he’d left his jacket in the bathroom and returned to retrieve it. When he exited, school resource officer Kris Faull of the Belleville Police Department ticketed and detained him. Cameron was held in the school office for several hours, deprived of lunch and forced to miss a make-up test in his science class, which resulted in a failing grade for the marking period.
Even worse, Coleman said, his concerns have been ignored by district officials and the officer who wrote the ticket.
“I wanted to know why it was so important to punish him this way,” Coleman said. “The cop was belligerent and told me she’d take me downtown and press charges against me.”
Stalin would be proud. Ferris Bueller is lucky he took his day off in the ’80s. Today, he’d be headed for court.
Save Ferris . . . AND Cameron Coleman.
Tags: America, bacterial infections, Belleville, Belleville Police Department, Cameron Coleman, chronic granulomatous disease, Communist police, Debbie Schlussel Many, Detroit, juvenile probation officer, Kris Faull, Michigan, officer, rare illness, school resource officer, South Middle School, Stalin, Staph infection, William Coleman
Debbie, I don’t know how old the average age of the posters here is but when I went to Middle and High School we had what was then known as “lockers”. When my daughter graduated in the class of 2000 lockers were largely a thing of the past. Why? Because of guns and drugs. They (guns and drugs) were too easy to hide in lockers. Druggies and Gangsters screwed it up for everyone for all time. Bare in mind I live in the Harbor Area of Los Angeles and we have a serious gang and drug problem here, so it’s understandable why police dogs have to search lockers. However, the school in the story above has its priorities seriously screwed up. Here, the teachers unions have the L.A. school system so fouled up they may never get back to the three R’s. What we need to do is quit the touchy feely bullshit that now permeates our school systems and return to learning.
Rich B on November 27, 2007 at 6:12 pm