Texas school police ticketing students as young as 6

Article< br />

School police officers in Texas are doling out more tickets to children as young as 6, who under past disciplinary practices would have been sent to the principal's office instead, according to a report by a Texas nonprofit.

"Disrupting class, using profanity, misbehaving on a school bus, student fights, and truancy once meant a trip to the principal's office. Today, such misbehavior results in a Class C misdemeanor ticket and a trip to court for thousands of Texas students and their families each year," says the Appleseed Texas report (PDF). It examined data from 22 of the state's largest school districts and eight municipal courts.

The study found that where a child attends school -- not the severity of the allegation -- was the best indicator of whether the child would be ticketed instead of sent to the principal's office. Black students and special education students were overrepresented among those ticketed.

Really? I mean come on, seriously? Treating children young as 6 as criminals? I cant even to begin to attempt to wrap my head around any of the "logic" behind this. Who even thought up this stuff???

These children recieve Class C misdemeanors, according to the article, and heres a few other offenses that fall under Class C misdemeanors

•Simple Assault (by threat or offensive contact)
•Disorderly Conduct (no firearm)•Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol by a Minor (DUI)•Issuance of a Bad Check •Minor in Possession of Alcohol (MIP)•Minor in Consumption of Alcohol (MIP)•Possession of Alcoholic Beverage in Motor Vehicle
•Public Intoxication

Source

Maybe the state thinks this is an easy way to make some cash? Or maybe they do have safety as the concern......making society safer by getting them as young as 6!!!!!.......(sarcasm)

That's ridiculous, I thought we all knew better than this. It's called child development, they are just beginning to learn right from wrong so throwing them into court is going to scare them into doing right? Hell no, this is stupid.

I'm undicided on this.
These kids are no longer intimidated by scolding adults and obviously something has to be done.
KIds these days are real brats, and if this type of experience impresses them then that is what is needed.

Until you have dealt with and unruly 6 year old, you should withhold the notion that this is ridiculous.

This is just awful. I can see this as instilling in the youth the idea that "I am a criminal." Which can potentially become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If this is standard practice for long I see the future crime rates of Texas skyrocketing.

Originally posted by OhZone
I'm undicided on this.
These kids are no longer intimidated by scolding adults and obviously something has to be done.
KIds these days are real brats, and if this type of experience impresses them then that is what is needed.

Until you have dealt with and unruly 6 year old, you should withhold the notion that this is ridiculous.

seriously????

you would condone having your child hauled into court, if, he/she used the word hell in class???

"Disrupting class, using profanity, misbehaving on a school bus, student fights, and truancy once meant a trip to the principal's office.

Disrupting class....that is a very broad subject. Theres so many things that could be called "disrupting class". Whispering to your classmate can brand you a criminal nowdays. Even writing on a desk can be "disruptive" nowdays and get you arrested. Link

Alexa Gonzalez, 12, was arrested for writing with a lime green marker the words “I love my friends Abby and Faith” on her desk. She also added “Lex was here. 2/1/10” with a smiley face.

reply to post by buni11687


I think you hit ther nail on the head - it's a way to infuse more cash into the system. Of course, with Texas' school district police forces, they can keep all the money "in house" - but I wouldn"t be at all surprised if there's not some kind of revenue sharing or expense offsets going on in other localities where the local PD is involved ("referral fees" perhaps?).

ganjoa

I did a quick search for any other articles about this and so far have only found 2. The first is from June of last year.

Article

group says in the 2006 - 2007 school year 30,000 tickets were issued alone in 30 different Texas public school districts. If a child gets one, there's up to a $500 fine, along with court costs and/ or community service time.

Theres a short 2 minute video on that page. Im not sure if its possible to post the video on here though.

Heres a link to the second article. This one is pretty long.

Class C Ticketing, Arrest of Youth at School is Introducing Thousands to Justice System, Says New Appleseed Report

Austin, TX. – A growing police presence in Texas public schools is coinciding with increased Class C misdemeanor ticketing and arrest of students for low-level, non-violent behavior that historically has been handled at the school level – sending more youth to court and increasing their chances of academic failure and future justice system involvement, according to the third in a series of reports on Texas’ “school-to-prison pipeline” released today by the public interest law center Texas Appleseed.

Also of major concern is the broad discretion given to school police officers to use pepper spray, Tasers and other types of force – and the lack of transparency around some schools’ “use of force” policies, Fowler said. “These types of force have been shown to cause physical and psychological harm to adults, and the impact on children can be even more devastating,” she said.

Another thing I find disturbing is that the school police officers supposedly recieve little training on dealing with children.

“School-based policing is one of the fastest growing areas of law enforcement,” Fowler said, “yet school police officers receive little training specific to child development or working in school environments, and there is little to no review of ticketing and arrest practices at the school level to determine their impact and effectiveness in improving student behavior and no required reporting of this data to the Texas Education Agency.”

According to the 2nd article, 275,000 tickets were issued for offenses commonly associated with school-based misbehavior.....but, due to poor record keeping (our tax dollars at work).....it is impossible to know the actual number.......

In the 17 districts providing 2006-07 arrest data to Texas Appleseed (accounting for 13 percent of the state’s total enrollment that year), 7,100 students were arrested. The state’s two largest districts with stand-alone police departments, Dallas and Houston ISDs, could not provide any requested student arrest data.

The entire ticketing young children thing looks like it was poorly designed and was something that was just thrown into the school system without any oversight or stated goal. Just an easy money grab.....until people started noticing it

Originally posted by ParkerCramer

Originally posted by OhZone
I'm undicided on this.
These kids are no longer intimidated by scolding adults and obviously something has to be done.
KIds these days are real brats, and if this type of experience impresses them then that is what is needed.

Until you have dealt with and unruly 6 year old, you should withhold the notion that this is ridiculous.

seriously????

you would condone having your child hauled into court, if, he/she used the word hell in class???

You exaggerate. Have you no idea of what a truly unruly child in the classroom is like?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I fail to see how this experience would cause the child to think of himself as a "criminal".

Have you ever been to court for a traffic violation? How about your friends.
Did it make you consider yourself a criminal? Do your friends report that they now consider themselves criminals?
You are getting carried away with yourself too.
-------------------------------------------------------
I think a $500 fine is excessive.
The whole experience however should give some of the parents the incentive to teach their children good social manners.
The community service is a good idea.

reply to post by buni11687


I view this a symptom of a VERY sick society.

We have had a good fifty years or more of the bleeding hearts telling parents and teachers that disciplining childern is CHILD ABUSE. We now see the result. Since teachers and parents can not effectively discipline the kids the cops are called.

Now really what the heck do you expect would be the end result of the no discipline trend?

And yes I work with kids and sometimes I really wish I could call the cops... ON THE PARENTS!

Hey, do not knock it, the sooner a citizen can be put into the system, the better it is for the collective.

Come on, these criminal 6 year olds have to be controlled.

I think we should put them into a system that controls their behavior. Hmmm, I am thinking like a system where we have government operatives that continually monitor everyone's activities.

Hear me out. We have like 3 government agents for every citizen. The 3 agents watch the citizen in a rotating cycle to make sure they do what is good for the collective.

This would be GREAT. I mean who is the best decision maker, the individual or the collective governemnent?

You people are freaks, anyone disagreeing with this technique should be put into a re education camp.

I say we make this mandatory IMMEDIATELY!

Originally posted by OhZone
I'm undicided on this.
These kids are no longer intimidated by scolding adults and obviously something has to be done.
KIds these days are real brats, and if this type of experience impresses them then that is what is needed.

Until you have dealt with and unruly 6 year old, you should withhold the notion that this is ridiculous.

You're right they are no longer intimidated by scolding adults, because adults can no longer scold a child the way they should be scolded when they do something wrong.

When I was a child I sure would have rather gotten a ticket if I did something wrong, than face my parents, that's for sure.

In my parents days, if you acted out, no matter where you were, an adult was always there to see to it that you were punished for acting up, and it wasn't always the parent, but they sure had the parents support.

Punishments also more so than not fit the crime.

No days, you will either be sued or have CPS called on you and your child taken away from you, if you dare spank a child, including your own.

sadly, these children are now being taught that the state are there daddies and mommies, not there real parents, which they are taught to just walk all over.

Just wait until these kids grow up, it's just going to get worse

No just no

These kids are no longer intimidated by scolding adults and obviously something has to be done.

Form a parents group to meet and talk about different tools and techniques available to discipline children, the school is a good central location to help organise things like this. Children's parties are also another great opportunity as well to talk with other parents and find out what works and what does not. Raising children can be tough and challenging at times, there are lots of good ideas out there and it does take community support to help get them around. It comes across that all this fuss would be more fun for a 6 year old rather than a serious attempt to help them grow up. They do look up the adults for how to behave, mistakes are a certainty.

reply to post by buni11687


Hey, cops!

Leave little kids alone!

So, the first experience is negative - get away and leave them alone!