A 14-year-old girl in a Wisconsin
high school paid the price for ignoring her teacher with a court date and $298
in bail. The student was reportedly text messaging throughout math class,
despite her teacher’s requests to stop texting and to hand over her cellphone.
She was sent to campus security, where she repeatedly stated
that she did not have a phone on her. A female police officer was called to
arrest the student for disorderly conduct. Upon frisking the student, the
officer found the phone hidden in the girl’s “buttocks area.” (That’s certainly
all the detail we need on that point.) The girl was barred from school property
for a week and has a court date set to answer to the misdemeanor charge against
her.
There’s no question that this girl has serious behavioral
problems and needs to understand that there are consequences to her actions. But
it seems like the school should have other remedial tools in place before
getting the police involved. If we called the cops every time a kid ignored a
teacher, we’d have one clogged justice system. For instance, if the school had
enacted an outright ban on cellphones on school property (as many school
districts have already done), the girl would have to deal with peer shaming for
her misbehavior, perhaps the most effective disciplinary action for teenagers.
Then again, without knowing the full story, it’s impossible
to judge whether or not the girl was so out of line that school officials felt
law enforcement was the only option.
What do you think? Does some classroom misbehavior warrant
arrest?
Related Post:
Do Cellphones Belong in the Classroom?
