Six girls have been arrested after students were invited on Facebook to take part in "Attack a Teacher Day" at two middle schools.
One girl was accused of inviting about 100 students on the social networking website to participate in the event Friday, and the other five were accused of responding with online threats against specific teachers, Carson Middle School Principal Dan Sadler said.
The Nevada Appeal in Carson City reported the girls were booked Wednesday at juvenile hall on a misdemeanor charge of communicating threats. Their names were not released...
The 12- and 13-year-old students were arrested after allegedly posting threatening statements against six teachers at the two schools. One student used the word "die" before a teacher's name, while others wrote that they would "attack" certain teachers, Sadler said.
No specifics, such as weapons or how the attacks would be carried out, were mentioned, said Carson City sheriff's Deputy Jessica Rivera, the school district's resource officer.
Supposedly these were "good" kids, too. News flash: kids make bad choices sometimes. Really bad, stupid, uninformed choices. It doesn't make them bad people, it makes them kids--it's why we adults need to monitor them.
I've seen all kinds of stuff on my children's "friends'" facebook statuses as well. These people are usually quietly deleted over the summer break.
ReplyDeleteI agree, parents should have been monitoring. Facebook should be doing a better job of monitoring.
ReplyDeleteI also think these girls should suffer the consequences of their actions, severely. The day of the "slap on the wrist" needs to end.
School - expel the girls
Teachers - press the maximum charges the juvie system allows
Parents - no more computers or cell phones for a loooong time. Written notes of apology to the teachers and the school. Mandatory volunteering in the community. I know the juvie system may handle this but I think the parents should also impose some as well.
The idea is the punishment is severe enough, that they will think twice before doing something like this again.
Unfortunately, what will probably happen is this:
School - 3 days suspension
Parents - nothing because they will feel the girls were punished enough with the embarrassment and exposure of it.
Teachers - may press charges, may not.
And, the girls? They will brag about this until the cows come home.
And? Society will continue to be shocked again and again, wondering why this is happening, and demand the government act on it. So they will make a law, and we will lose yet more freedom.
Darren
ReplyDeleteNeed to borrow one of my off duty's? :<)
The previous poster's comment boils down to:
ReplyDeleteChildren acted childish, so throw the entire power of the State at them.
Do they merit punishment? Of course. But expelled from school, stint in jail (juvie), police record, etc? That's a severe overreaction not merited by the situation.
Is there any evidence that actual attacks were planned? And no, a Facebook posting "gonna beat up my &^$* teacher" is not evidence of a real planned attack.
Kids of the future? How about the 22 year old who shot congresswoman Gabriel Giffords?
ReplyDeleteThere will always be crazies, Scott. Sometimes they're young, sometimes they're old.
ReplyDeleteMy comment was a jab at those who say we should do everything "for the children", because "they are our future".
There's a theory in policing that says if you cut down on small crime, you end up with less crime overall. Too many schools give in early in the game to intimidation by parents. Case in point-when my kids were in school, two cheerleaders (yes, it's Texas-*sigh*)jumped a third girl for the unforgiveable sin of sleeping with one of their boyfriends. They cracked her skull with a bat. She ended up in the hospital. But because the cheerleaders came from so-called "good" families, their parents whined that a stint in Alt. School would ruin them. They got kicked off the squad and that was that. The sad thing is that three years earlier complaints of hazing and bullying had been made against the girls and nobody took a stand. Bad Behavior unchecked will grow worse. Parents also intimidate over race. When a minority student ran in a classroom and sprayed my son, who he didn't know, in the face with deodorant, I had to go toe to toe to keep my son from being expelled for lashing out and pushing the kid. The other kid got NOTHING because of the fear of administrators. Strangely enough, the teacher in that class was later fired for failing to report the incident.
ReplyDeleteI hate to echo Barney Phyfe but if you nip it in the bud early, problems don't accumulate.