By Mark Esposito, Weekend Contributor
Author’s Note: Grace Under Pressure is an ongoing series of posts honoring everyday people who courageously make positive differences in their own lives and consequently in the lives of others. It is my own personal affirmation that unexpected heroes live among us and that their service is quiet but unshakable proof that virtue really is its own reward – and ours, too.
A Pittsburgh area teen thought he was doing the right thing to end his bullying but his audio recording of the abuse only resulted in criminal charges for wiretapping. Sophomore Christian Stanfield had endured a miserable school year at the hands of two classmates who tripped, shoved and even attempted to burn the 15-year-old with a cigarette lighter. Pleas for help to his teacher went unheeded for the teenager who suffers from comprehension delay disorder ( a brain disorder involving slower processing speed for information than is normal) ADHD, and an anxiety disorder. So last month Christian decided to get the proof he needed to make school officials listen. Sitting in his math class, he activated his Ipad as his tormentors launched another verbal fusillade. “”They were talking about pulling his pants down, and some things I can’t repeat, and laughing and cutting up like it was a big joke, it was not a joke, not at all funny,” said Christian’s mother, Shea Love, who heard the recording at her kitchen table that afternoon.
Ms Love was being generous with her words. The actual recording allegedly contained sexual references and demeaning language. With a teacher helping Christian with a math problem one of his bullys is overheard on the tape saying, ““You should pull his pants down!” Another student replies, “No, man. Imagine how bad that (c**t) smells! No one wants to smell that (t**t).” Then, a loud noise is heard—the sound of book being slammed down next to Love’s son after a student feigned hitting him in the head with it. The teacher screams. Laughter follows.
Ms. Love and her son transcribed the audio and then called the principal’s office the following morning to demand some action amid deflections that the school’s hands were tied because the teen had no proof of his abuse. (I guess the teacher missed what was happening directly in front of her.) Principal Scott Milburn told Shea he was going to do something and Shea sent her son to school for the expected remediation. Instead of anger at the perpetrators after confirmation of their bullying, Principal Milburn summoned South Fayette Township Police Lieutenant Robert Kurta to the school to interrogate her son in the presence of the associate principal and the dean of students. With his mother now at work, the four male authority figures threatened to charge the special needs teen with felony wiretap unless he erased the recording. Bullied again, Christian complied and was then told he would be receiving a break – only a misdemeanor charge.
In a rambling decision District Judge Maureen McGraw-Desmet found Christian guilty of disorderly conduct .“Normally, if there is — I certainly have a big problem with any kind of bullying at school. But normally, you know, I would expect a parent would let the school know about it, because it’s not tolerated. I know that, and that you guys [school administrators] would handle that, you know. To go to this extreme, you know, it was the only alternative or something like that, but you weren’t made aware of that and that was kind of what I was curious about. Because it’s not tolerated, but you need to go through — let the school handle it. And I know from experience with South Fayette School that, you know, it always is. And if there is a problem and it continues, then it is usually brought in front of me.” Huh?
Christian and his lawyer had had quite enough of this Pennsylvania justice and appealed the conviction.
Attorney Jonathan Steele took the case saying what happened here was no crime at all and contending Christian attempts to fight back did not trigger the anti-wiretapping laws. In a remark that should top every school discipline handbook, Steele added, “The lesson is zero tolerance doesn’t necessarily mean zero common sense.” After discussions with another reasonable man, District Attorney Stephen Zappala, the charges were dismissed at the appeal hearing.
Mike Manko, a spokesman for Zappala, said Judge Robert Gallo signed the order Thursday to withdraw the citation against the teen.”No one in our office who is authorized to give advice on wiretap issues or school conduct issues was ever contacted in this matter. We have made multiple attempts to contact the officer who wrote the citation and (the) results have been unsuccessful,” Manko said in a written statement. “We do not believe this behavior rises to the level of a citation.”
Christian has returned to school but no discipline has yet been handed down to his tormentors or the look-the-other-way teacher. No evidence exists you see. School Principal Milburn remains at his seat but his chair is getting hotter. Lawyer Steele promises that the case is not over and the hubbub has caught the ear of more enlightened government officials. The U.S. Office of Civil Rights has been contacted and an investigation is in the offing.
South Fayette Township School District Superintendent Bille Rondinelli declined to comment. That’s about the only thing the school district has got right in this case.
Source: WTAE; PINAC; The Foundry
Kudos and thanks to my brother-in-law Mark Daley of Uniontown, PA for bringing this story to my attention.
~Mark Esposito, Weekend Contributor
In this particular case, the teacher was problematic as well. She did nothing to stop the bullying, even while it was going on right in front, to the side, behind her. We need teachers who will do the right thing, and not ignore bullying.
(Was the teacher elderly, hard of vision, using a hearing aid? Was the classroom dimly lit with background noise to create a mild cover? Probably not, but I don’t know…)
Unless the student wiped the disk, not just erased it, they should be able to resurrect that audio file.
Annie said:
Eventually a bully does meet up and start bullying someone who gets the better of him and then it doesn’t end well or the bully.
Wise words.
Eventually a bully does meet up and start bullying someone who gets the better of him and then it doesn’t end well or the bully. It’s a travesty when young people have to take things in their own hands because the adults are unable, unwilling, mistaken or ill equipped to stop the bullying. I’m glad the charges were dropped on this poor kid, I hope he and his mom get some monetary retribution.
rafflaw
Exactly.
As seen when a common sense DA got the information it was handled properly, there may be no need for additional laws. We just have to bring common sense into the administration of these so-called zero tolerance. I have zero tolerance for zero tolerance and I believe most school districts should as well.
samantha,
I don’t how to respond to your comment. The problem with zero tolerance isn’t teachers, it is the administration and school boards. The administration and school boards force these stupid policies on teachers and students. The teachers can be disciplined if they do not follow those policies. And we have seen how students are treated.
Education hirelings who hate their jobs. They do not look at the clock waiting for 5 o’clock to arrive but, instead, they look at their calendars waiting for retirement. Isn’t it about time to press the reset button, erase all laws and start over? That would also include getting rid of the taxes that draw sickos to easy paychecks like porch lights that draw insects.
I don’t know if I would go to the degree that David2575 believes but I do believe the laws are incorrect on this issue. Political motive is always dangerous because ultimately, despite the exaggerated pleas of altruism and fairness, somebody is trying to benefit at the expense of everybody else. I think these laws have been instituted to specifically protect the oligarchs from being recorded. Because if they want to record somebody, they just go get a court order. In business if they want to harass a competitor that is getting to big for their britches they just have a SEC investigation started and the shareholders and clients run like scared rabbits. A friend of mine caught an insurance company, his comptroller, a outside CPA firm and a prominent Miami Lawyer over billing his company in a conspiracy to bankrupt the company and buy it up for pennies on the dollar. He sadly chose the wrong law firm to prosecute and 11 years later, was only able to settle for a pittance, against the lawyers E&O policy, of the losses. Found our his law firm and the Miami one were both prominent political firms of the same ilk. He was forced to settle by his own lawyer under the threat of quitting the case if he pushed going to trial. I’m told this is both unethical for an lawyer to do this and illegal.
What people often fail to understand is that government is used as a tool by the oligarchy to get what they want and this is the control of big business and commerce and many things go into how they do this.
Video and audio recording, as we’ve observed with cops are unwelcomed by those who do not like to be exposed.
I think that any crime should be able to be recorded. I think that any conversation I have with anyone else should be legal to be recorded either by me or the other party but not anyone else. A third Party should not be allowed to record others without a court order. I think that any public official or bureaucrat should be able to be recorded while they are operating in their official government capacity.
If you call me or I call you, you should know that I’m recording the call. I think people would be more discerning in their communications if this were the case. How cool would it be to be able to record your insurance agent of contractor lying to you.
What do you all think? Obviously I therefore believe that this kid had the right to record his aggressors.
Glad we don’t have a school super anywhere near as slimy as Principal Milburn….like AT ALL.
Mike Manko: “We have made multiple attempts to contact the officer who wrote the citation and (the) results have been unsuccessful.”
What? The DA’s office can’t find a Lieutenant on the local police force? Is he in hiding or just ignoring messages? Have they heard of subpoenas?
Mark, do you know if there was any further explanation for this?
As far as cameras in the classrooms, teachers are already terrified to have any frank discussions in history classes and any social studies type classes. Cameras would just have a further chilling effect on real teaching.
The bully religion – its not just for teens anymore:
Not everyone has heard of Eric Arthur Blair, who wrote under the pen name George Orwell, but many have heard of his book “1984.”
He evidently coined the phrase “bully worship” which he called a “universal religion.”
(Bully Worship: The Universal Religion).
Here is another example of the bully religion in action
http://www.thefire.org/lawsuit-another-student-ordered-to-stop-handing-out-constitutions-on-campus-files-suit-in-hawaii/
Oy!
Cameras in the classroom? There’s a lot of terrible bullying in the bathrooms. Should there be cameras there?
Too 1984.
I’ve been bullied in high school, military, and business environments.
Strange, all the bullies finally picked on someone that was more than a match.
The song of Cajun Joe….Bully of the Bijou
People still talk about Cajun Joe –Bully of the Bijou: He’d fight anything, a beast or man, in Bijou water or on dry land. He won a battle at his victory. He became the Bully of the Bijou. Every body knew he was the Bully of Bijou. Any man’s pride, he could whoop him, with one hand tied. He was a fightin son-of-gun. All the pretty girls thought he could whoop the world. People still talk about big Mom-Moo. Cajun Joe picked on a little one, at his regret. Cajun Joe swung a mighty blow. He aimed for the head, but he swung to low. Then it was time for Fais Do Do. We dance, we laugh, with the pretty girls, and eat anything that goes.
While reading the reply of davidm2575 I was taken back in time to 1984……….
Much like the recent cases of brave American whistleblowers who risk personal and professional harm for exposing the truth about corrupt and law breaking government and corporate systems. The truth tellers are punished while the criminal is rewarded. Edward Snowden receives death threats and is forced into exile, but James NSA Clapper is given a pat on the back for lying to Congress and the American people. Shoplift a pair of jeans from Walmart and receive hard time, banksters rob the country of trillions of taxpayer dollars and they are rewarded with huge multi-million dollar bonuses and sit-downs with congresscritters.
The education industrial complex (especially administrators and to a lesser degree teachers) is a bloated money addicted beast that is more concerned about funding its next large unnecessary building expansion than expanding the minds of its students. It’s more concerned about zero tolerance than common sense. It is more concerned about achieving tenure and an outsize retirement package than helping student achieve success. It is much more concerned about grabbing more taxpayer dollars than grabbing the attention of a educationally bored student.
This particular case doesn’t surprise me at all. This site has listed numerous pieces on kids being punished for pointing fingers, for wearing harmless t-shirts and for speaking up against a corrupt system. Schools are becoming wastelands of the indoctrinated where pushing the imagination and thought envelopes is discouraged and penalized.
This is very sad that the victim gets the bad end of the jousting. The teacher, principals, school district and the bullying students should be held accountable.
The legislature needs to fix the laws. They need to pass a law to make video recording mandatory in all classrooms. Webcams in every classroom, accessible through the internet for every parent and school staff. They need to make it legal for anyone at any time, student or teacher, to video tape what happens in the public areas of the school, such as classrooms and hallways. And the iPad’s need to be configured to use the cloud to backup photos and videos so deleting them still leaves a copy in the cloud.
Paul S
So much for “both sides of the aisle”. And now for the other side…..? Not that it was particularly germane to the topic.
david – although the idea of cameras in the classroom has merit it the video has been used to get rid of teachers the administration does not like. It rarely is used to discipline students. Many schools have an intercom to the office if you have an emergency and that is handy, but I am against cams in the classroom.
veronica – the bullying goes on from both sides of the aisle. Just look at your bully in chief Barack Obama and his little bullies in the administration. Then we have Harry Reid, who could not tell the truth if his life depended on it, and uses the well of the Senate as a bully pulpit.
The problem here is the school has a lack of control. Not that stupid bullies don’t exist in other school, but if you find out about it, you should get on it. Under zero tolerance, those bullies should have been spending some time was daytime soaps.
What is clear here is that the school is covering its butt. Since the recording caught the teacher on it, the school had liability, hence the recording had to go. He might have gotten some justice if it was just him and the students, but they would have had to been identified on the recording.
There is another issue here, ADA. Since the school knew of the student’s ADA problems, ganging up on him without a parent present is a violation of his ADA rights. There is a solid case here.
oh THIS I want to follow and make sure ALL these little pieces of s### get their just reward – how could a teacher be so cruel and blind. We have all seen what a couple of ignorant, viscious kids can do to another child – this has to be severely punished to make sure it is seen for what it is. Can’t help feeling those tormentors come from the right-wing low-education stupid background !!!
Please keep on top of this story – we need to know they are dealt with –
Christian Stanfield and mother – stay cool – we are on your side !!!