Arrested for Doodling on a Desk? "Zero Tolerance" at Schools Is Going Way Too Far

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Liliana Segura

Arrested for Doodling on a Desk? "Zero Tolerance" at Schools Is Going Way Too Far
How much longer can we tolerate abuses of power by teachers and school officials in the name of 'zero tolerance' policies?

February 27, 2010 |


This week, the FBI announced it was launching an investigation into a surveillance scandal out of Lower Merion County, Pennsylvania, where it was recently discovered that school officials had used Web cams on school-issued laptops to spy on a student, 15-year-old Blake Robbins.

Robbins was falsely accused of possessing illicit drugs after the vice principal at his high school, Lindy Matskhis, called him into a meeting where she revealed that she had seen images of him at home through his laptop. According to Robbins' attorney, Mark Haltzman, "She called him into the office and told him, basically, 'I've been watching what was on the Web cam and saw what was in your hands. I've been reading what you've been typing, and I'm afraid you are involved in drugs and trying to sell pills.'"

Matskhis, it turned out, was grievously mistaken. What looked like pills turned out to be Mike and Ike candies.

Robbins' parents sued. Now the case has prompted a debate about student privacy and the threat of technological overreach. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/145834/arrested_for_doodling_on_a_desk_%22zero_tolerance%22_at_schools_is_going_way_too_far

[Gman]

1. What about the unethical company that marketed these laptops

to school districts? They should be put out of business, if this hasn't already done it.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. That would be Apple Computer, of Cupertino, CA

The retrofit would be cheap and simple: a lens cap.

Yet it was too expensive to include in the original.

--d!

[old mark]

2. Schools have become brain dead from the top down.

No need for thought when we have regulations and policies.



mark

[Lorien]

5. And training grounds for young Authoritarians

where the rules must be followed to the letter at all times, no exceptions, ever. It takes out the need for critical thinking-which is seen as a threat by the large corporate interests who control our government-completely. Public schools appear to have become little more than factories that turn out excessively obedient service industry workers/ consumers.

[marmar]

6. Yep.....Then force them into enormous debt in college, and you've got an employee....

.... whose crushed spirit will keep him/her in line forever.

[old mark]

8. Don't forget the employer-provided health insurance, which you WILL lose

if you change jobs...or are fired. A great threat to hang over someone'e head. I know from experience how much of a strain it can be to work for a terrible employer because you literaly have no alternative because of heatlh insurance. I often wonder how much disease is caused by our wage-slave work/healthcare/retirement system. Not much freedom unless you are rich enough not to need this stuff.
I'd love to see all our benefits removed from the employer's grasp but that would be "socialism", wouldn't it.....somehow evil.


mark

[Chemisse]

3. Here is the part of the story the headline promised

On February 1, in Forest Hills, Queens, 12-year-old Alexa Gonzalez was arrested after she was caught doodling on her desk. Profanity? Threats against her teacher? No, the middle school student had written, with an erasable marker, "I love my friends Abby and Faith," along with "Lex was here. 2/1/10" and a smiley face, according to the New York Daily News.

This, apparently, was a criminal act in the eyes of her teacher. She called school security -- New York police officers -- who promptly cuffed her and hauled her across the street, to the local precinct,



Hmm, this story makes no sense. As a teacher I can't even get this response when a kid scratches out a penis on the desk, which can't even come off!

[iamjoy]

4. I Got Caught Doodling on a Desk

When I was about 14, a friend and I were caught doodling on our Biology table with our pencils. Our punishment was detention - during which we had to clean all the desks in the classroom. It was sensible and appropriate.

Arrest:wtf: