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Student Arrested For Classroom Texting 1246

A 14-year-old Wisconsin girl was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after she refused to stop texting during a high school math class. The girl denied having a phone when confronted by a school safety officer, but a female cop found it after frisking her. The Samsung Cricket was recovered "from the buttocks area" of the teenager, according to the police report. The girl was banned from school property for a week, and is scheduled for an April 20 court appearance for a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. I applaud the adults involved for their discretion and temperance in this heinous case of texting without permission.

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Student Arrested For Classroom Texting

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  • Sounds fine to me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @05:56PM (#26907997) Homepage Journal

    "heinous case of texting without permission."

    I think it has more to do with refusing bit than the texting bit.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @05:58PM (#26908053)

      "heinous case of texting without permission."

      "from the buttocks area"

      Sounds more like an anus case.

    • by darkmeridian ( 119044 ) <william.chuang@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:24PM (#26908573) Homepage

      At some level, citizens have to submit to authority figures. I'm not saying that we have to blindly follow all edicts, but if a cop pulls you over, you should pull over instead of fleeing. If a student is texting during class, she should stop when asked. Lying about it and causing a kerfluffle about it ought to be punishable. The same would be true if she had been passing notes in class and caused a fuss about it.

      The self-professed libertarians here who argue that she should be able to do whatever she wants are missing the fact that this is in class. The education of the class would be impossible if anyone could do whatever they wanted.

      • Re:Sounds fine to me (Score:4, Interesting)

        by mcnellis ( 1420749 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @08:10PM (#26910145)
        Label me what you want, but I still don't see how the education of the class would be impossible if the girl is allowed to text. As long as the ring doesn't sound, what's the big deal? You can't force her to be interested or learn. In college people text all class, play video games on their laptops, surf Facebook, etc. i.e. do whatever they want, and honestly it works out fine. As long as someone isn't being noisy let them do whatever the fuck they want. Sleep, surf the web, text what does it matter? It's her own loss when the test rolls around.
        • by pugugly ( 152978 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @09:51PM (#26911299)

          First of all - I am not (in all likelihood) paying for her college education. As a property owner, I am paying for her highschool education. She wants to make offensive art in art class or write erotica in creative writing, I have no objection to her doing so, but if the teacher says pay attention and get off the damn phone, then gee, sucks to be you.

          I have no sympathy for boredom or dishonesty, nevermind dishonesty fomented by boredom.

          Pug

    • by macraig ( 621737 ) <mark@a@craig.gmail@com> on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:28PM (#26908635)

      Indeed because, as we all know, refusing to comply or follow orders in a non-military school is indeed a crime against all of society punishable by a sentence decreed in a court of law!

    • by erroneus ( 253617 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:36PM (#26908775) Homepage

      Without a doubt. I read the complete police report included with the article and she was an unapologetic liar! Furthermore, she is a repeat offender as evidenced in the police report.

      "No, I don't have a phone!" "No! I don't have a phone!" "I told you I don't have a phone!!!" "How'd that get up there?"

      I know I probably sound like one of those "Get off my lawn!" old guys, but childhood is PRECISELY about developing character and learning right from wrong. This lying crap-weasel needs a huge lesson in truth and respect. If you ask me, they didn't go far enough.

  • by RockMFR ( 1022315 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @05:56PM (#26908001)
    Students shouldn't be texting in class. If a student refuses to follow the rules, you have to do something. In our lawsuit-happy culture, calling the police is pretty much the only option. If you were being insubordinate at work, you would be fired and they'd have security escort you from the building. If you refused, you would be arrested.
    • Call their parents (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pavon ( 30274 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:03PM (#26908151)

      First offense, confiscate the phone and give it back at the end of the day.
      Second offense, give her in detention, confiscate the phone and require the parents to pick it up in person if they want it back.
      Subsequent offenses, repeat step two. The parents will get sick of this pretty quickly, and she will find herself without a phone.

      It's not that hard.

    • Students shouldn't be texting in class.

      That's a heck of a generalization. If I remember my middle/high school days at all correctly, there's usually not much to do in class. And texting is not disruptive to others... so if you're that bored, why not do something instead of staring at the clock?

      I really feel like if teachers would actually focus on education and stop worrying about discipline for discipline's sake, students might actually have a chance at being engaged in lessons.

      How much of everybody's ti

  • by wabbit3.0 ( 769128 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:00PM (#26908079)
    I can recommend. I'll even cut y'all in on the finders fee.
  • by Dekortage ( 697532 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:00PM (#26908093) Homepage

    Hmm, this "phone in the butt" story appeared just after the bar of soap [slashdot.org] phone story... cue jokes about bending over.

  • by cryfreedomlove ( 929828 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:02PM (#26908125)
    When I was in High School, disruptive kids got sent to the Vice Principal for this kind of thing. Why did this get charged as a real crime? Don't schools have any discretion or judgment left to them anymore?
    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:07PM (#26908253)
      No, because in today's world the brat's parents would sue.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Jeff DeMaagd ( 2015 )

      Probably not anymore. Some parents are only too happy to sue or threaten to sue the district for actually trying to educate or discipline the students.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by uberjoe ( 726765 )

      Don't schools have any discretion or judgment left to them anymore?

      No, they have zero tolerance rules. Or as I like to call them zero judgment rules.

  • by erroneus ( 253617 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:02PM (#26908137) Homepage

    "No more butt-dialing!"

  • by thetoadwarrior ( 1268702 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:02PM (#26908145) Homepage
    Oh wait you said butt not vag.
  • by slashdotlurker ( 1113853 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:10PM (#26908315)
    Had this been another country, one more serious about education, and parenting, this character would have been given an immediate failing grade and forced to repeat. But this is America, and we molly coddle our kids, who generally end up laying an egg when it comes to technical topics in high school.
  • Hang on... (Score:5, Informative)

    by retro128 ( 318602 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:23PM (#26908553)

    Before everyone goes spouting off about how we're becoming a police state, has anyone (including submitter) bothered to read the linked police report? The cop refers to "prior negative contacts" with this person for both him and the administration. The chick ignores the teachers, lies to the cops, and brazenly continues to text in class. It's too bad the cops had to waste cycles getting involved, but judging from the police report the school personnel were at the end of their rope.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Locke2005 ( 849178 )
      Gee... perhaps if they didn't force kids under penalty of law to attend schools they clearly don't want to be in, then they wouldn't have these kind of problems? The main purpose of schools is not to educate or to make people productive members of society, but rather to train them to function in an institutionalized setting. Public schools like more like jails every day -- soon we won't be able to tell the two apart.
  • Escalation (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Troy ( 3118 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:41PM (#26908853)

    I've personally been involved in situations where a student's refusal to cooperate lead to the situation escalating far beyond what was necessary. I think sometimes they believe that if they dig in their heels, nothing bad will happen and the adult will let up. They don't understand that digging in just escalates the situation. When I encounter such a student, I usually have to explain the complete consequences of their actions (including ultimately getting cuffed and hauled out if need be), before they relent.

    From reading the report, it's pretty clear that the student had multiple opportunities to come clean before being arrested, and refused to take advantage of them. Yes, I agree that arresting the girl was overkill, but the report mentions that the officer had prior [negative] dealings with the student before, so I would suspect that there is a story here that goes back a little farther than "ZOMG STUDENT ARRESTED FOR TEXTING." Arresting the girl was overkill *if* this was her first disciplinary issue. If this is one of a long string of issues, it's a different story. When sane, measured discipline isn't getting through to a kid, it may be a good time to over-react and try to get the kid's attention.

    I don't know the kid, and I don't know her history, so I can't judge whether or not the officer was out of line. I can imagine plenty of scenarios where it is, and plenty where it isn't. I've had students get in a disproportionate amount of trouble for similarly stupid reasons, and it usually plays out the same way: a student with a long disciplinary history tries to press their luck over something moronic, and comes up with the short straw.

    • Re:Escalation (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @06:51PM (#26909021)
      While in many ways school children have no rights, in one way they have far too much right -- it is almost impossible to expel a child from school. Kids that don't want to learn and are disruptive should be removed from the classroom so that the teacher can do their job and teach the kids that are there to learn. As school districts pack more and more kids into each classroom, less and less learning gets done because teachers spend more and more time dealing with disruptions. What is needed is a quick, effective way to remove disruptive students from the classroom so that other kids can learn. (And yes, sending a student to the principal's office would be a lot less disruptive to other student's learning than calling in law enforcement to physically remove a student from the classroom. Imagine trying to get students to focus on math after observing this incident!)
  • by lophophore ( 4087 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @08:30PM (#26910419) Homepage

    The student was not arrested for texting. The student was arrested for refusing to turn over the phone and lying to the instructor and the police officer about it.

    Had this student turned over the phone to the instructor, there likely would have been a small punishment, perhaps confiscation of the phone and detention. Now this kid gets a juvenile record (purged at 18), a court appearance, and will perhaps learn a lesson...

One man's constant is another man's variable. -- A.J. Perlis

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