We 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.
The topic is the education industry, not banking. When you take the scatter gun approach you take away the culprit on topic. Maybe that’s the intent, w/ someone supportive of the education industry diverting to another corrupted industry?
I am with Justice Holmes. If we can arrests a mother who was requested to come to the school, then we should be arresting dozens of banksters.
They knew who she was, they could have easily let her “sign in” after it was all over. This is a problem with authoritarianism which can be seen in everywhere.
More of the move to compliant citizenry for the feudal state. Parents absolutely must follow all rules or face arrest. The rules are more important than your child. In this case, it seems the mother was arrested in front of her already totally stressed out child.
If the prosecutors choose to pursue this, the mom will have to hire a lawyer and spend countless hours fighting the bogus charge. Just the kind of stress she needs. She needs a lawyer to sue them false arrest and extreme emotional distress. Her son should also sue them for extreme emotional distress. Then they should probably give the school system what it really wants: get the kid out of that school.
When are school administrators going to grow up?
Punish from the lowest common denominator and rise it slowly before people figure out they have no rights…..
This has been like one of Merv Griffin’s theme shows of late @ the Turley blog. The education industry exposed!
more school idiocy (although they quickly came to their senses and let her back the next day) http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/25/us-usa-colorado-shavedhead-idUSBREA2O21C20140325
Girl who shaved head in support of her friend on chemo suspended from school
To quote Forrest Gump “Stupid is as stupid does.”
What Dredd and Justice Holmes said.
Will it solve “the problem” if “The Gaya Principle” finds human life to be a violation of the laws of nature, and cures the disease of human existence forever after?
If there is no “The Gaya Principle” to save life on earth, will not humanity’s incessant drive toward destroying itself generate a form of Gaya Principle?
The problem of social norms grounded in tragic error is simply that, to preserve the social norms, the error must also be preserved; and, if the error destroys human life, surely we may have found the final version of the My Lai Effect?
Not so long ago, I mentioned the book by James Reason, Human Error.
Perhaps Anthony Storr, Human Destructiveness, Grove Weidenfeld, 1991, would be worth finding and reading. “Zero tolerance” profoundly reminds me of the essence of genocide.
Arrested for being a mother and doing what mom’s do…
What’s next Amerika?
Someone must have let her in because, if the schools are like the ones where I live a person can only get to the office reception desk. After that someone has to push a button to let them thru the door to get to a class room. What they did to this woman is obscene & disgusting. Then they wonder why they get sued on a regular bases for their stupidity.
There was a Walnut Grove Elementary School in Ferguson, MO. Is this the same one?
Isn’t it interesting that we can arrest this woman for failing to sign in when she came when called by the school but we seem unable to even investigate banks and bankers. Schools should start exercising some judgment and common sense.
“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.” – JT
It doesn’t have to be that way, it is just that we have lost our soul.
These issues always seem to involve a minority (they will not be ‘minority’ soon, so what term do we use instead??) – so my immediate first feeling on this is
a) SPITE on the part of the staff who did what they CAN do and didn’t think past their instincts.
b) no common sense in anything anymore
BUT it is the direct result of recent history – they are all now so petrified of being the next school catastrophe they are now completely over-reacting to anything, in case they are accused of not doing ENOUGH !!
Everything humans do has an equal and opposite reaction – a price for everything.in due course – God help this country – on a downhill road now if policies and beliefs do not change soon.
Another example of the transition to Gestapoism in America. Authority has run amuck.
It seemed to me she went past at least one teacher to her son’s classroom. That might have been a bit hasty and I could see the sign in procedure being disrespected but let’s be real. http://num.to/84-81-69-47-89-50
there are a couple of issues that need to be read in the police report just to fill any gaps. First, I can only see a traspassing charge if she was told to leave the school and refused to leave just after that. The fact that she was called down there to begin with by a school official pretty much sends the traspass probable cause out the window. In my mind, with the limited information I have, I could only see a trespass charge if she was afterward told to leave.
I read in one of the articles on this before she was “buzzed in”. So that would be a sign of permission to enter. It seemed to me she went past at least one teacher to her son’s classroom. That might have been a bit hasty and I could see the sign in procedure being disrespected but let’s be real. It’s not that big of a deal, especially when they knew who she was.
As for the police being called. I cannot see this at all being reasonable if the principal did in-fact call them before meeting her in the classroom as she claimed. If later maybe.
The only thing that might give the issue of trespass credibility in my view if she was being very disruptive in the classroom, told to leave and refused. If that is not the case I cannot see probable cause. In that respect it would be a simple issue for the police. “Did the teacher ask you to come to the school Ma’am” “Yes” (asking the teacher) “Did you invite her over to the school to attend to her son?” “yes I did” We’re done here.
Lockdown? seems an overreaction to me.