25 Chicago Students Arrested for a Middle-School Food Fight

[shadowbird]

I wasn't sure how and if I should send this in as a news item, so instead am just pointing it out here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/us/11foodfight.html?_r=1

The food fight here started the way such bouts do in school lunchrooms most anywhere: an apple was tossed, a cookie turned into a torpedo, and an orange plunked someone in the head. Within minutes, dozens of middle-school students had joined in the ruckus, and spattered adults were ducking for cover.

By the end of the day, 25 of the students, ages 11 to 15, had been rounded up, arrested, taken from school and put in jail. A spokesman for the Chicago police said the charges were reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.

...

"My children have to appear in court," Erica Russell, the mother of two eighth-grade girls who spent eight hours in jail, said Tuesday. "They were handcuffed, slammed in a wagon, had their mug shots taken and treated like real criminals."

I'm from a culture (read "poor country where wasting food is mostly unthinkable for all but the wealthiest") where we simply don't have food fights. If someone throws food at someone else it usually turns quickly into a 1-on-1 fist brawl, as it would with anything else being purposefully thrown, however even to me this seems way too severe.

With all the panic surrounding children and their physical and mental safety (and "safety") in the USA, is this the logical result? Do you think we'll see more of this kind of overreactions as the "safety" of children is elevated to even more ridiculously absurd heights, and every fight, prank or other misdemeanor is treated as a potential crime and/or deep-rooted psychological problem?

(By "safety" in quotes I mean the paranoya of people believing that there's a pedofile around every corner and a drunk murderer behind every steerin wheel, despite what those damn statistics might say about most child abuse taking place at home)

 

[sms_117b]

That is a over reaction if I've ever seen one, and i've seen and partaken in a fair few!

Just wow, but, it is a secondary school, food fights are a touch immature, they should be left to primary schools, where they're all too innocent and in most cases under the age requirement for legal ramifications.

 

[uhgungawa]

Just proves school food is dangerous. =)

 

[HardRockSamurai]

Something tells me that those 25 kids are going to grow up to be the most moral, law-abiding citizens the likes of which we've never seen.........

 

[Kollega]

That is a over reaction if I've ever seen one, and i've seen and partaken in a fair few!

Just wow, but, it is a secondary school, food fights are a touch immature, they should be left to primary schools, where they're all too innocent and in most cases under the age requirement for legal ramifications.

Yeah,this. It's an overreaction,sure. As RockHardSamurai above me said,i doubt they'll respect authorities from now on.

But wasting food on stain-ifying clothes in a middle school seems just a tad childish.

 

[JWAN]

I wasn't sure how and if I should send this in as a news item, so instead am just pointing it out here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/us/11foodfight.html?_r=1

The food fight here started the way such bouts do in school lunchrooms most anywhere: an apple was tossed, a cookie turned into a torpedo, and an orange plunked someone in the head. Within minutes, dozens of middle-school students had joined in the ruckus, and spattered adults were ducking for cover.

By the end of the day, 25 of the students, ages 11 to 15, had been rounded up, arrested, taken from school and put in jail. A spokesman for the Chicago police said the charges were reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.

...

"My children have to appear in court," Erica Russell, the mother of two eighth-grade girls who spent eight hours in jail, said Tuesday. "They were handcuffed, slammed in a wagon, had their mug shots taken and treated like real criminals."

I'm from a culture (read "poor country where wasting food is mostly unthinkable for all but the wealthiest") where we simply don't have food fights. If someone throws food at someone else it usually turns quickly into a 1-on-1 fist brawl, as it would with anything else being purposefully thrown, however even to me this seems way too severe.

With all the panic surrounding children and their physical and mental safety (and "safety") in the USA, is this the logical result? Do you think we'll see more of this kind of overreactions as the "safety" of children is elevated to even more ridiculously absurd heights, and every fight, prank or other misdemeanor is treated as a potential crime and/or deep-rooted psychological problem?

(By "safety" in quotes I mean the paranoya of people believing that there's a pedofile around every corner and a drunk murderer behind every steerin wheel, despite what those damn statistics might say about most child abuse taking place at home)

Dude, its Chicago, the place known for "Chicago Machine Politics" and a breeding ground for the corrupt and stupid.

what did you expect?

 

[Deleted]

The trick is to take advantage of allergies, throw some peanut butter-covered eggs, that's my signature throw.

 

[Lukeje]

I wasn't sure how and if I should send this in as a news item, so instead am just pointing it out here.

At the top of every news articles there's a button that says "submit tip" which leads to this page:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/contact/subject/news

...and this does seem a little over the top. Should they not just all have gotten detentions or something?

 

[DoW Lowen]

Something tells me that those 25 kids are going to grow up to be the most moral, law-abiding citizens the likes of which we've never seen.........

No they play video games. All hope is lost!

Withdraw your child from school lest ye be the parent of a slain son!

 

[Lullabye]

[sub]Really?....Just, Really?[/sub]

 

[Arcticflame]

Something tells me that those 25 kids are going to grow up to be the most moral, law-abiding citizens the likes of which we've never seen.........

Well if studies are to be trusted, it will probably be the opposite. You treat someone like a criminal instead of just giving them a slap on the wrist, they tend to become criminals more readily.

Studies show that kids sent to juvenile detention or sentenced as a criminal tend to become criminals more readily than children who aren't dealt with as harshly, (A warning or the like).