Suit filed after NM teen cuffed for burp in class <cite class="byline vcard">By JERI CLAUSING | AP – <abbr title="2011-12-01T22:42:31Z">6 hrs ago</abbr></cite> Email Print ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A 13-year-old was handcuffed and hauled off to a juvenile detention for burping in class, according to a lawsuit filed against an Albuquerque school principal, a teacher and school police officer. The boy was transported without his parents being notified in May after he "burped audibly" in PE class and his teacher called a school resource officer to complain he was disrupting her class. The lawsuit also details a separate Nov. 8 incident when the same student was forced to strip down to his underwear while five adults watched as he was accused of selling pot to another student; the boy was never charged. The suit was one of two filed Wednesday by civil rights attorney Shannon Kennedy, who says she has been fighting the district and police for years over the use of force with problem children. She says a review of school and Bernalillo County records shows more than 200 school kids have been handcuffed and arrested in the last three years for non-violent misdemeanors. In the second lawsuit filed Wednesday, the parents of a 7-year-old boy with autism accuse a school officer of unlawful arrest for handcuffing the boy to a chair after he became agitated in class. New Mexico law prohibits officers and school officials from restraining children under 11. The suits come one year after the same attorney settled a class action lawsuit against the district that was prompted by the arrest of a girl who Kennedy said "didn't want to sit by the stinky boy in class." And Kennedy says she has a number of other cases she is preparing over treatment of students in Albuquerque by school officials, school police, city police and sheriff's officers. "I am trying to get all the stake holders in a room to get people properly trained to prevent this from happening," Kennedy said. Kennedy said the problem lies with the schools more than with the law enforcement agencies. "It lands in the lap of the principal. There are good schools and bad schools. The principals ... who are handling their schools properly don't need to have children arrested. It's ridiculous." A spokesman for Albuquerque Public Schools did not immediately return calls and emails seeking comment on Thursday. A police spokeswoman said the department does not comment on litigation. One school board member, Lorenzo Garcia, said he had not seen and could not comment on the lawsuits, but he did say he was concerned about what appeared to be schools getting stuck on a "zero tolerance policy." "Really, in my opinion, this really increases the whole idea of the schools-to-prison pipeline," he said.
"Zero Intelligence Policy" is more like it! What the heck is going on anymore? Has the whole country LOST it's senses? Talk about a sad state of affairs....! I am so glad that my youngest is about to turn 23, if he lives that long!....I'll give him another week to straighten up!
Goodness....I'd hate to even consider the consequences for a child that farted in class at that school??? Perhaps the school principal's name is Draco????
APD and BCSO have a history of these types of problems. They tend to think that since they are the largest departments in the largest metro area in the state that they are right in anything they do. Sent from my Ally
Some of us "latent genius' " types had remedial classes ( see: history) taught by one of 3 coaches...No, messing around, no burping, passing gas, or much anything got by them...Push-ups or running around the track for several hours in the hot desert sun quelled "much" of our shenanigans! But there were good times as well...NOT all teahcers were taskmasters, some were quite interesting and fun, not to mention it, but some actually took an interest in TEACHING! Who Knew? We all knew of at least one kid in school that was a class clown....and that was ok, even a lot of the teachers found them amusing too...Today, you are not allowed to be an "individual", much less think outside the BOX! That was my gig...I was an outsider, that drove some teachers nuts! Today, they'd have me shot at sunrise, or boiled in oil! ( don't ask questions, just do as you are told!)
I'm not sure we have all of the info here... was the student continously burping? was it a single event? what other history duid the child have... (apparently quite a bit if they were thought to be selling drugs...) in NC you can also be arrested for disrupting class... additionally any individual transported for any crime is REQUIRED to be restrained... Personally as an educator and parent think this might have been handled in a better way... but to me education is a privilege... not a right and when a student who chooses not to learn is preventing others from learning... i want that individual out...
education is sposed to be a right if it was a priviledge they couldnt arrest your parents for not sending you i too was a troublemaker but i knew my safe limits and usually stayed in them
The right to an education includes the right to equality of opportunity in every case, in accordance with natural talents, merit and the desire to utilize the resources that the state or the community is in a position to provide. That does NOT say that the community MUST provide the resources. Further, it does not say, nor should it, that the "right" is God given nor pre-existing the document; in fact the document ginned up by man grants the right. It DOES provide that the individual should take advantage of their own talents and desires, and thereby earn merit (to take advantage of the doors that will be opened.) The opportunity is always there, it's up to the individual to find it; in other words, to work for it.
