Jordan Wiser, a student at Ashtabula County Technical School in Jefferson, Ohio is rightfully confused after being being arrested for bringing a weapon into school. The “weapon” was a pocket knife that he had in his EMT medical vest . . . that was locked into the truck of his car. That’s right, in the latest example of the insane application of zero tolerance rules, the school officials called police after searching the trunk of a locked car to find a pocket knife used by a senior in his work as a EMT. He was then fed into a legal system that refused to show discretion in his prosecution. Notably, prosecutor Harold Specht ran for office based on a pledge that he would maintain a “hardline, zero tolerance policy” as a prosecutor. It was the perfect storm for Wiser: zero tolerance administrators handing a student over to a zero tolerance prosecutor. But it gets worse . . .
Wiser may now be barred from fulfilling his dream of joining the Army. School officials say that he consented to the search but Wiser insists that he declined to give consent and asked to speak to this parents or a lawyer. School officials searched the car and found the small folding knife and an airsoft gun. (The airsoft gun was legal and used in a school club). They say that they had probable cause after monitoring comments Wiser made on an online forum. They specifically referred to videos that Wiser posted on YouTube discussing home defense techniques and self-defense.
The police was called and the school moved to expel him.
He was then charged with an illegal conveyance of a weapon for the knife.
He then spent 13 days in the county jail. That’s right, 13 days.
He now must enroll in a special online program to complete his education.
We have previously followed the suspensions and discipline of students under zero tolerance policies that are used by teachers to justify zero judgment or responsibility. I have long criticized zero tolerance policies that have led to suspensions and arrests of children (here, here and here and here and here). Here is a prior column on the subject (and here).Children have been suspended or expelled for drawing stick figures or wearing military hats or bringing Legos shaped like guns or even having Danish in the shape of a gun. Despite the public outcry over the completely irrational and abusive application of zero tolerance rules, administrators and teachers continue to apply them blindly. If you do not have to exercise judgment, you can never been blamed for any failure. Conversely, even when the public outcry results in a reversals, teachers and administrators never seem punished with the same vigor for showing no judgment or logic in punishing a child.
The stripping away of fourth amendment rights of students parallels the same erosion of first amendment rights, as discussed in this recent column. We are increasingly raising the next generation in an environment of authoritarian learning.
To make matters even worse, the conditions of Wiser’s bond prohibit him from having contact with his grandfather at his home because of the presence of guns in the home. His grandfather is dying from cancer. The first judge ordered Wiser to be held on a half million-dollar bond and a psychological evaluation. He passed the exam but he was then hit with a $50,000 bond and an ankle monitor on Christmas Eve. It is important to remember that he is not charged with a conspiracy or threat against the school. The charge remains a four-inch folding knife in a vest in a trunk in a locked car in a parking lot outside of the school.
Once again, a student with a bright future has been victimized by school administrators who refuse to show an ounce of sense or humanity in the handling of children. What should have been a simple matter of a note to his parents was quickly elevated to an arrest and an expulsion. The police and prosecutor are no less at fault. Harold Specht, the chief assistant prosecutor at the Ashtabula County prosecutor’s office insisted in an interview that “We charge [people] with everything that we feel they are guilty of, and in this case, he is guilty of a felony.” Specht (right) shows the same robotic, uncaring approach of the administrators. What is lost is the welfare of this student and any element of logic. The incarceration of this boy for 13 days only magnifies the abuse. Yet, Specht insists that a trial will vindicate him and added “I know that there’s a load of people out here that just think we’re the devil because we’re allegedly ruining this young kid’s life . . . If this goes to trial, it will certainly come out in the wash.”
What is really scary is that Specht now wants to be a judge and is campaigning on his zero tolerance approach. He seems intent on convicting this young man to prove himself in the right. The kids has already been expelled, removed from this Army enrollment program, and forced into an online school. Yet, that is not enough for Specht. He wants to give him a felony record for a four-inch knife locked in the trunk of his car.
There should be discipline in this case, but it is not Wiser but the school officials, police, and prosecutors who produced this perfect nightmare.
This is why God made rifles.
Insanity reigns supreme! Yee gods. This is too stupid for words.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/12/the-dc-interviews-jordan-wiser-the-teen-facing-jail-for-owning-a-pocketknife/
Here’s an interview that provides a few more details. Someone apparently photoshopped a Virginia Tech related caption on to a real photo of Jordan holding two handguns and sent it to the school.
This is almost as bad as the Justin Carter overreaction.
A very disturbing case. If I understand it correctly, it is ok for students to have guns locked up in their cars, but not pocket knives!? While I am not in favor of concealed carry laws, is any gun less dangerous than a knife? Secondly, as mentioned earlier, it is just as disturbing that the students here should be up in arms about what appears to be the routine monitoring of students in their private lives. Finally, how do you spend 13 days in jail for this offense? Was he unable to come up with the bond? This prosecutor should be held to the same zero tolerance policy when hopefully he and the school are sued.
This is the education industry, time to flush it and start anew.
This is assinine on every level
First, it’s a POCKET KNIFE folks and is it is a tool used by EMS personnel, firefighters, and cops. The student says it was for cutting seatbelts. He is right about that because I carried one for that purpose.
I’ll be willing to bet there knives that students possess in school. Like in the kitchen or home economics. Ever considered a pair of scissors might be in this school. Well I’ve handled numerous cases where scissors were used as weapons. Hope they don’t have a wood lathe in shop class; an arsenel of weapons available there.
Good thing this student did not have a syringe in his EMT kit or else he would have been charged as a heroin dealer.
There was no probable cause whatever to search this student’s vehicle. Just because he made a video defining home defense does not equate probable cause to search. If the search gets thrown out, there goes the criminal case
Oh and for Mr. Zero Tolerance, Esq. in the prosecutor’s office: Your own election webpage shows why you should not be elected as judge. The blind, senseless mantra shows that you are going to make a point to convict everyone standing before you. Judge Zero Tolerance, now there’s a frightening thought.
I don’t know if this student is really going to see justice in this county. If this prosecutor is any indication of the criminal justice system there the student is in for a long ordeal.
The quickest way to end this would be for the prosecutor to believe his election campaign for judge would be ruined if this student is convicted of anything.
Worth reviewing: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/01/15/10-reasons-the-u-s-is-no-longer-the-land-of-the-free/#comments
10 Reasons The U.S. Is No Longer The Land Of The Free
1, January 15, 2012 by jonathanturley
(…the names have been changed, but the faces are the same: grows more valid at the rate of our own forgetfulness).
I would expand the fitness evaluations for officials that OS has proposed to include the first judge, and the school administrators. This is so outrageous that I hope that all of the officials concerned are removed from office ASAP. I also think that a lawsuit would be appropriate since it is one way of restoring some sanity to people like this.
gbk,
This should give pause:
“They say that they had probable cause after monitoring comments Wiser made on an online forum. They specifically referred to videos that Wiser posted on YouTube discussing home defense techniques and self-defense.”
Probable cause was based on monitoring his comments . . . ? Why did “school officials” do this in the first place?
I’m with Charlton on this….. This has to be the bananas running the fruit chain….
This young man should counter sue.
Whoever his attorney is should point out to the jury that this knife is a tool not a weapon used by every fireman and EMT.
Counter sue.
Stephan Patterson
The point is not that pocket knives, Danish, legos, etc. are bad. The point is that viciously attacking defenseless people is wrong, including military attacks, capital punishment, police violence, and miscarriage of justice.
Why did they search his car in the first place?
School officials, police and prosecutors have all lost their minds.
Welcome to your new and ever expanding police state. If this was the son of a wealthy corporate executive or a campaign contributor, this kid would have been on his merry way without any worry of prosecution. Two-tiered justice; one for the wealthy and connected and one for the other 98%.
I grew-up a county over from Ashtubula which always had a rep for being a very conservative and deeply stupid place. ironically, the grandstanding prosecutor didn’t care that he had a stun gun in his car! The origin of the charges seems to have been a series of self-defense-related youtube videos. It seems like this is one series of invasions of the youth’s privacy after another.
As he points out in the HuffPo link, this is a very rural area (the largest town in the county has ~20,000 people and is a declining Great Lakes port) and it wouldn’t be unusual for students at his school to have knives or even guns (pheasant and deer hunting are common around there).
Thank god he didn’t have a “lighter” in his pocket!
CONFUCIUS : THE GREAT DIGEST, THE UNWOBBLING PIVOT, THE ANALECTS. Translation and Commentary by Ezra Pound. Stone Text from rubbings supplied by William Hawley. 288 pp. New York: New Directions, 1951 and Reissued.
It is in Pound’s translation of ‘The Great Digest’ that we find the striking line: “If the root be in confusion, nothing will be well governed” (p.33)
I hope the jury does the right thing. An EMT? Give me a freaking break.
Zero tolerance means zero common sense. I also get a sense from the story that somebody is lying about permission for the search, and I don’t think it is Wiser.
Based on what I read, and having done a lot of fitness for duty evaluations, I suspect the wrong person got the psychological evaluation, and I have to wonder if Harold Specht could pass an exam. He comes across as a mean-spirited, heartless, sadistic, mindless robot with no common sense. Other than that, he may be fine.
I am so sick of situations like this! They should pay punitive damages in the millions of dollars to this guy. It wasn’t that long ago when students brought rifles to school for target practice during P.E.