Academia, Criminal law, Society

Mother Rushes To School To Calm Panicked Disabled Child . . . School Calls Police After She Fails To Sign In

article-2587307-1C83AE0C00000578-610_634x380We have yet another example of how we have criminalized our schools and society with the arrest of a mother at the Walnut Groves Elementary School in Missouri. Niakea Williams was responding to an emergency call that her boy with Asperger’s syndrome was having a panic attack. She ran straight to his room to comfort and calm him . . . she was then promptly arrested for failing to check in at the front office.

Williams received the call at home and rushed to the school. Notably, she had just met with the principal a day or so before. Thus, the principal knew Williams. However, ran up to her in the classroom and told her that she failed to sign in. When Williams noted that she was comforted her child and could sign in if someone brought the book, the principal told her it was too late — the police were on the way.

Let assume for a second all the principal saw was not a women with whom she just met but a blur running past the office. Once she clearly saw it was the mother of this panicked child, why wouldn’t she call off the police. Instead, the mother was arrested and charged. This brings us to the officers who could have shown greater judgment and simply escorted out the mother with a warning. Then there are the police supervisors and prosecutors who could have declined the charge. No one exercised a modicum of judgment in this situation of a mother rushing to her child.

She was charged with trespassing. The school was locked down briefly and a letter sent to all parents about the incident. It was a mother rushing to her crying child.

It is not clear from accounts whether the prosecutors are proceeding with the case.

I have previously written about my concern with the criminalization of conduct in America, particularly at our schools. We have seen even pranks charged as crimes. The question is why these cases (which used to be handled as a disciplinary matter for the school) had to be handed over to the police and prosecutors. Both students and parents alike are finding themselves handed over to the police for violations of school policies and practices.

37 thoughts on “Mother Rushes To School To Calm Panicked Disabled Child . . . School Calls Police After She Fails To Sign In”

  1. Someone above said that “You cannot cure stupid”. We state it that you cannot “fix stupid”. The fix word has its origins in Buck v. Bell, a Supreme Court case wherein Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes agreed with forced sterilization of adults and he stated that “three generations of imbeciles are enough.” In this situation they need to sterilize the school board and the Principal. That way the next generation will not have offspring of these imbeciles.

  4. To: Robinh45

    ……wondering how long will it take to put a zero tolerance and permanent end to some of the more miserable posters on the blogs????

    As long as the professor is in charge…. Even idiots get to post….. Inciter ……

  6. Pingback: The Idiots Are Running The Educatorium | Bydio

  7. nick,
    no one is using a scatter gun on the topic. A very interesting choice of words, but not at all accurate. Merely drawing a comparison to how quick we are to arrest a mother who was not doing anything wrong, but yet other people are seemingly exempt from prosecution. Your suggestion that the Left is now gone the way of fascism as suggested by your Brown Shirt comment is way off base and not supported by the facts.

  8. RobinH, So you like zero tolerance! Interesting. Colleges have close to zero tolerance to students, profs, guest speakers, campus newspapers, etc. that isn’t left wing. The left has gone from during my youth being the bastion of tolerance and openness to now being Brown Shirts.

  9. maybe the schools will learn their lessons when others learn how to mind their business and post on topic. with that said

    what justice holmes and rafflaw said….

    wondering how long will it take to put a zero tolerance and permanent end to some of the more miserable posters on the blogs????

  11. And these are the people imparting their “knowledge” on kids!!

  12. Almost all parents can vote. They can vote for a school board or run for a position on the school board. Bad schools are a function of bad or dysfunctional school boards. This lady ought to run for the board and when elected send the principals involved running for the outer suburbs for a new job.

  13. It’s the “Death of Common Sense”. These folks want a non-thinking, “If this, then we do that” kind of situation. No assessment, no thinking, no judgement involved.

  14. The people who did this to the child’s mother are college trained and educated and their job title comes under the headings of teachers and educators. Looks as those they have book sense but no common sense. How much can children learn in an atmosphere staffed by people like that? God save America , please .

  15. If Niakea Williams had simply stopped to genuflect at the schools office before running off to attend to her child she wouldn’t have placed herself in jeopardy.

    Everyone who has been conditioned in the US public school prison system knows it is slavish obedience to the rules before children.

  16. Yes, I know, I forgot to review my spelling. “Administrators” and “Interactions” would be intended.

  17. This is typical of educational institutions, and has been for many years. In the classroom setting, teachers and adminsitrators are used to black and whire, hard and fast rules. “No talking on the way to lunch”. “Always close your desks before recess”, that kind of thing. That mentality then tends to bleed over into the rest of their lives, including intereactions with parents, third parties, etc. This is NOTHING new, and only seems that way because the internet allows all of us to see and read about the transgressions in every school system, rather than just our own.

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