Academia, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Lawyering, Politics

Ohio Student Expelled, Arrested, Jailed For 13 Days . . . After A Small Pocketknife Is Found In His Locked Car Trunk By School Officials

jordan-wiser-e1394634913232Jordan 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.

1551583_1383209458610125_2084158175_nOnce 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.

69 thoughts on “Ohio Student Expelled, Arrested, Jailed For 13 Days . . . After A Small Pocketknife Is Found In His Locked Car Trunk By School Officials”

  2. Reblogged this on saboteur365 and commented:
    This article provides an example of a totalitarian police state that is growing ever more confident in its ability to abuse the citizenry. It seems that the New World Order is anxious to see that everyone has a police record, the easier to control us when that is the case.

    The former USA, now the USSA, has embraced this insanity, as we eat our young. Professor Turley is a national treasure for his defiant attitude and his outspokenness. If I hadn’t read this extremely important case here, where else would I see it. The sunshine of publicity, though, does not seem to be having any effect on the System as it ruins a young man’s life. So, what do we do about it? The meanness in this country probably means that half the population approves of this insanity. May it prove to be a case of temporary insanity, but I’m not optimistic.

  3. One more little warning. Leave America if you can afford to and your roots aren’t too deep.

  4. Zero tolerance policies are a bad idea. It removes the requirement to use any sort of logic, reason or good judgement. You get to hide behind the letter of the law, no matter how inappropriate the punishment is compared to the “crime”.

  5. I wonder if anyone noticed that the car the knife was locked in is a far more dangerous weapon, if one desired to hurt people.

  6. I find it funny how lawyers and law professors ponder how our legal system has gotten the way it has…. a complete mystery.

  7. @Charlton S. Stanley

    You make all good points that I happen to agree with except for “It realIly raises my suspicion bump when some commenters use anonymizing and IP spoofing when posting.”

    I always use a VPN when away from home to protect myself from hacking. There is nothing sinister about that.

  8. Interesting how one word can change the entire meaning of a sentence, yet how revealing it can be:

    “He’s a loose cannon with serious behavioral issues who can be trusted with the responsibility that goes with public safety.”

    I suppose that would explain the mentality of the officials who hold this young man’s future in their hands. According to this statement, this is exactly the type of people they recruit to spy on peoples private lives, conduct searches without permission, and jump to ridiculous conclusions. It’s a shame that the actions toward this young man are based almost entirely on fear. I say this because fear is often the cause of irrational behavior, and from the information provided, this appears to be quite irrational.

  9. Jude,
    That reminds me of a criminal court judge I used to know. When a jury was empaneled, he would thank them for their service and explain the duties and responsibilities of serving on a jury. Standard stuff. He would finish his talk by telling them they were responsible for finding a guilty verdict for criminals and acquitting the innocent.

    Then, he would turn to the Bailiff (a deputy sheriff), saying, “Mr. Sheriff, please bring in the first criminal.”

  10. “he is guilty of a felony.”

    Wow, guilty before he even appears in court!

  11. Kids are being farmed……no fancy words needed. Home-school them to save them. These are cretin institutions we speak of here, both public and private.

  12. As a former law enforcement officer myself, I recall receiving several calls of this nature. I generally responded that is was not a law enforcement issue and moved on. Schools didn’t like that and I believe that if competent officers did not respond to such calls by fully enforcing the extent of the law onto children, or anyone in such cases like this, then such zero tolerance polices might lose some weight. I question the mental caliber of an officer, prosecutor and school official, who, after seeing the facts of such a call, and then continues with the “legal” process at taxpayer expense. This is an example of social engineering. If this authoritarian spirit, combined with the exploitation of law enforcement, becomes dominate again within the entity of American government, all the progress made towards liberty, and the founders fight against aristocracy, actually digresses the US back into the subject and master plateau of human history. Sad.

  13. Heaven forfend I grew up in this age of the immortal video and post and text and sext. It’s painful enough to simply remember what a self-conscious nerd I was, from the hard drive that exists only in my brain.

    @bldfarm, Your post sure doesn’t look all that “adult.” Really. Actual adults can tell. ‘just saying.

    So people, perhaps even some nominal adults don’t like him. That much was clear from the nature of the story but thanks for providing evidence of sorts. Anything can be made to look creepy if we look, if we want to find it. It can look any way we want if we look through our own filter. There are no inflections in typed text, and English is a most inflective language. We subconsciously provide them when we don’t actually hear them, they therefore come from us.

    Even so and he were not suited to the work and uneasy to get along with, why not let him graduate, and let him leave for the Army that would smooth the rough edges, as rough as 18 year olds can have, or not, and deal with him. I don’t understand.

    But rumor, photoshop, youtube videos and posts, and a pocketknife? Really? I remember growing up in the 70s looking at the 50s and thinking how stupid people could be, how incomprehensibly stupid, giving up freedoms, hunting “communists,” supporting McCarthy while droning on and on about freedom. I think we’ve doubled down and yet in real time it’s still incomprehensible.

    School shooters are the new Islamic terrorists who are the new ritual child sexual abusers (remember that?) who are the new witches. “it will all come out in the wash” is the exact same as if after dunking a suspected witch died, it was OK because she’d go to heaven. Arrest, indict, and prosecute them all and let the judge sort them out? What country am I living in??

    CIVIL RIGHTS ARE NOT ENUMERATED FOR THOSE WE LIKE. They wouldn’t have to be for those we like would they? They are for the marginal, the minority, even the ‘guilty.’ Yet they are for ALL no for none. Felony prosecution just can’t be used because you know “he’s dangerous.” I’ve seen his videos and I’ve seen your post, remarkable how quality trumps quantity.

    Sure begs the question whether there’s anybody in that County worth protecting…

    Even so he seems to want to – yeah that’s abnormal. Abnormal GOOD.

    Interesting issues of this case are:

    Can policies set forth in a student handbook really substitute for a warrant or imply consent for a search?
    Can a judge really intimidate someone to call for a cessation of a change.org petition? (as effective as those may be)
    The Army lets in those with felony convictions now, why not this minor one, is it too new? (if it resolved into that)
    Why, oh why, would “conveyance of a weapon” not include a stun gun? (a legislative ‘what were they thinking’)
    How many school shooters, or felons of any type made gun *safety* videos? Bueller??
    And who, really, has the hate-on for him?

  14. Just ridiculous. Well on a positive note in someway, if the kid is convicted and given a felony thus ruining his dreams of being in the military and any future public service, perhaps he will see how oppressive, senseless and bureaucratic our government and justice system is and that will make him happy to not be apart of it. Then he can join the ranks of the people who have seen past this illusion of freedom that we have in this nation,

  15. BigFatMike wrote:
    “Cherish your pain. It is nature’s way of telling you are still alive.”
    ~+~
    Very true Mike.

  16. How ironic that Jordan Wiser has been sanctioned by the institution which he seeks to serve?

    Of dubious note, been searched without a proper warranty, having a pocket knife which acts principally as a tool be described as a weapon of assault, and how an individual who incidentally carries what could be described as a weapon is rough housed by an increasingly ‘terrorist’ state apparatus which of course mandates that it only wants to preserve our freedoms…

    Of course one can’t help but wonder if John Wiser has an incident with instruments that could be considered as assault weapons in the past, something that to date has not been revealed….

    http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2014/03/jordan-wiser-spend-13-days-jail-carrying-pocket-knife-car/

  17. “pain is weakness leaving your body”

    Cherish your pain. It is nature’s way of telling you are still alive.

  18. Darren,
    Well done. The first one sounds almost as if he were one of my suicide hotline trainees. Very good, excellent points and upbeat.

    And a memorial service. With bagpipes yet. Truly dangerous behavior on the part of several dozen students, and I notice sergeant’s stripes on a police uniform at that prayer service. Maybe we need to investigate that officer too.

    Curious that suddenly apologists for the authorities come out. It really raises my suspicion bump when some commenters use anonymizing and IP spoofing when posting.

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