E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSA burp in class was enough to get an Albuquerque 13-year-old handcuffed, arrested and hauled off to Juvenile Detention Center last year, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The school principal, a teacher and a police officer were named in the suit that claimed they used excessive force and violated the boy’s civil rights with an unlawful arrest and unlawful strip search during two incidents involving the child.
The Albuquerque Journal was first to report the story.
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 marijuana to another student.
The boy was never charged.
"Criminalizing of the burping of a thirteen-year-old boy serves no governmental purpose," the lawsuit said. "Burping is not a serious disruption, a threat of danger was never an issue …"
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. In the other case, the parents of a 7-year-old boy with autism accuse an Albuquerque police 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 city police department.
"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 spokeswoman for the police department said the department does not comment on pending 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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More news and feature stories from msnbc.com:
- Dog show judge linked to animal abuse case
- Exercise buff in unusual gear causes bomb scare
- Woman denies injecting patients' buttocks with 'Fix A Flat'
Leave a Comment:
OK. .I know I am going to get slammed for this... something doesn't seem right about this. Arresting for burping?!?!?! ...NO.. However, I remember in high school (which was a very long time ago.. babyboomers)... a guy did this in class ALL the time. He could do it on command. He truly was trying to disrupt the class (and did) and it was actually nauseating. Police for this .. NO! This isn't about a kid burping ONCE...... there is definitely another side of this story. Parents are looking for $$$$$$. sorry.. just sayin.... I have a feeling this kid was probably doing this every 30 seconds or so.... nice parenting!
Wow. What an article! Not! Here's what I ascertain from the this:
Yeppers! It was everyone else, not the ones responsible.
And who's fault is it that this kid is a problem children (I'm not talking about those that have mental or physical handicaps)?
Glad she clarified who is responsible for this child's behavior. And here I was thinking responsibility for this kids actions were someone else.
Now this is a good one since now we're not blaming the school, police department, teacher, police officer, or the principal. They're now blaming a policy.
No where does it state that the problem child who is disrupting the class is to blame. God forbid one lays blame with the actual one responsible. Shhs! Take responsibility for ones own actions, be they good or bad. I'm with Cat on this, there's something missing and her assumption is dead on.
As for the schools reaction, can we say mole hill meet mountain? Way over the line. How about taking the kid to the Principal's office and calling their PARENTS not the police? Give the parents a chance to rectify the issue themselves if the kid is a disruption. Heck, my Mom knew the principal by name at my school due to my disruptive behavior once. It was handle quite well by my parents (not to my satisfaction though, but my parents). If the parents can't correct their child's actions, then suspend the kid. Problem solved.
This is a perfect example where if the school handled it properly, the boy wouldn't turn out to be this poor victim. Put a shoplifter in the gas chamber, and the community will poor out to support this criminal. Give a shoplifter 30 days in jail and it is a shoplifter being held accountable.
Do you really think that cuffing, restraining, and hauling this kid off for burping in school is a normal punishment? Forget normal, what about common sense?
If this happened at my dinner table I'd punish my kids in 1 way or another, but I wouldn't cuff'em to the radiator either.
Schools and their employees have gone way overboard on this crap. They are public employees and not dictators. They need to be brought into line. 0 tolerance is the policy of a dictatorship and not a free democracy.
I agree, our schools have gone bonkers with calling the police over silly things like burping. I understand 0 tolerance in regards to weapons, but not ridiculous things like burping. There's another story of a 7-year old being charged with sexual harrassment for hitting the kid who was choking him in the groin. Kids that haven't even reached puberty should not be charged with sexual harrassment, and kids that are being bullied should not be charged for fighting back. We need something we've lost in our school systems, common sense.
Oops! Better place for this post is under Cat's comment.
Quite an example of the overreaction of people in authority when they're annoyed or don't like someone. It happens all the time in the real world. The courts are no better than the cops or cranky educators.
How many injured weren't wearing seat belts?
What this teacher can't handle this on her own? She had to call in back-up. That's embarrassing.
Another SLEAZY lawyer getting rich off making "mountains out of mole hills".
And a cop on an ego trip.
Any chance we can put them ALL in detention for a month??
Parents won't discipline their kids. The only options school staff have are extreme discipline measures, which are being used for even minor disturbances. If teachers were allowed to send the kid to the principle, or have ISS this wouldn't be an issue. Soon, extreme measures (which should be reserved for extreme infractions) won't be allowed either. Would you send your kids to a school named "Lord of the Flys"?
Once upon a time, time out, going to the principle's office, ISS, or parent-counselor meetings were used as disciplinary measures. Police were called only for infractions such as battery, bringing guns on school grounds, etc. But angry parents shouted down school districts who sent truant children to truancy court, or had the audacity to make accusations that their perfect children weren't. They wouldn't allow teachers or principals to have control over their classes. They weren't allowed to defend themselves when attacked. Teachers weren't allowed to use the word "no", or use whatever measures they felt necessary to get their students to learn the curriculum. Parents had the school boards change rules so that schools are now loosely knit day care centers. No discipline is ever allowed. So the only options that schools have are to call police for everything.
Kids have learned that it takes little to get attention. They have learned that if they stick their lower lip out, parents will throw fits and sue the schools for using the only disciplinary means that the parents left to them. Students can't read, write or do simple arithmetic. Academically, American students can't keep up with 46 other countries.
What is the lesson of this bedtime story? Be destructive and litigious.
Definately not getting the full story here.
Arrested and strip searched for burping? Another great example of why kids are laughing at authority figures. If he were my kid, I'd be mad that he was disrupting class/misbehaving, but I'd be livid pi$$ed that he was arrested/searched without my knowledge. They went way overboard.
burp!