Junior High Student Arrested For Doodling

A New York City middle school student has been arrested for doodling on her desk with a marker. Twelve-year-old Alexa Gonzalez scribbled "Lex was here 2/1/10" on her desk Monday. She also wrote "I love my friends Abby and Faith." The girl says the doodles could have been erased, according to the Daily News.

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What do you guys think of this?

From what I understand, there is "zero tolerance" when it comes to destruction of school property in NY.

*With all due respect though coppers, do you have to handcuff this poor kid and humiliate her like that? Power tripping scum.

This isn't the first time this has happened.

A couple of years ago, a 12-yr old was handcuffed and taken out of school for writing "okay" on her desk.

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This isn't hard-core graffiti... these are harmless doodles.

Don't the police/school security have anything better to do in NYC?

Gonzalez has been assigned eight hours of community service, a book report and an essay on what she's learned from the experience.

Really harsh for the crime... If you want to call it that... I would think that making her clean it off would more than suffice...

What a world we live in.

A good use of our resources.

I agree that a punishment of having her clean it off herself would have been more fitting.

And we wonder why our budgets are busted.

I'd like to see what they do to the kids who get caught selling drugs and bullying, if this kid was cuffed for doodling.

They probably get knocked around a bit...

Originally posted by GioTheGreek
I'd like to see what they do to the kids who get caught selling drugs and bullying, if this kid was cuffed for doodling.

They probably get knocked around a bit...

Officer Doody fired 200 times in a clearcut case of self defense against what authorities are calling a dangerous menace to our kids.

Originally posted by GioTheGreek

"I love my friends Abby and Faith."

And to add insult to injury -
THIS is what she was writing -
I love....
She's a kid.
And one that loves.
This is more of - police state gone mental.

[edit on 5-2-2010 by spinkyboo]

reply to post by spinkyboo


I agree, they have to tone this sh** down.

I used to pick my nose and wipe it under my desk all the time. I got caught, and scolded a bit... but I couldn't imagine my local police force coming in and cuffing me for it. I'd be in shambles. lol

I can't see them doing this again, but what do I know.

They may have tried to get the message across to students everywhere, but this just makes them look like aggressive idiots.

They do this type of stuff to set examples and to appear that they do something else than munch on doughnuts. (No offence to any possible law officers reading)
No matter how unfair and downright mean their actions were against this little girl, this will continue to happen. With more available possibilities to arrest people = The more "effective" the cops look, without actually being any more effective.
If we could get rid of the "crimes" that..well, don't hurt anyone(Physically, mentally or financially to make clear what I mean here), cops would have more time to arrest murderers and other much much worse people than this little girl.
Besides, let's think about the number of absurd arrests that we do NOT know about. I'm pretty sure this is just the cherry on the top of the cake, however, I can't prove anything so, it remains just as my "gut feeling" and nobody has to believe that

reply to post by GioTheGreek


true story, i got suspended from HS for 2 days for drawing a happy face on a desk ( not permanent ) back in the day, their stance hasnt changed.

its classified as vandalism in these parts.


best thing to do is buy a sketchbook.

I get the zero-tolerance policy. I also get that there is no such thing as "harmless" graffitti or doodling.

What I don't get is police involvement? I work for the State of Florida. It is against public law and all policy and procedure for me to "destroy" public property or property of the state. If I write on my desk, I don't think anybody would consider calling the police. They would appropriately tell me that it better not be permanent, and it better not be there when they come back around. If it were still there the next day, maybe I would get reprimanded, even fired, but not arrested?

First of all, a school house desk is $150 brand new, and depreciated over about 8 years it is worthless. Therefore, it probably had no tangible value and no "crime" was committed. If it had any value, it was something less than $150, so it was barely a misdeamoner, and did not require the police to even show up, let alone put cuffs and take someone away?

They should have never called the police.

The police should never have responded.

Since they did respond, they should have written a citation and moved on.

If this were my child, I would spend $100,000 if necessary to defend them against a $10 fine! I would punish them at home, but I would defend the h*ll out of them in public!!

Could be seen as a little extreme way of handling the situation, but they are so strict like that because of the gang problems in major cities. I'd imagine New York has a fair share of little gang members in school that would tag everything if they could, they make arrests to set an example for future would-be gangsters that are thinking of writing something.

And yes, it's quite obvious she only wrote "Lex was here 2/1/10" and "I love my friends Abby & Faith", but you'd have to consider any sort of gang-slang/code which that could be translated into.

Tl;dr -> They arrested them to set an example and send a message to gangs

Thats what we get for letting the gov take over our school system. It has become a penial system that stifiles learning spirt and mind.

Welcome to the police state

reply to post by getreadyalready


Well said.

Time to start suing!

Yesterday, I had a student tell me her friend got an assault charge for hitting a teacher with a snow ball. Maybe if it had a rock in it or was a wicked face strike. I can tell you that this generation will almost not stop doing anything you ask them too; writing on desks or books, sitting on tables, putting their feet up into your face, listening to music, not sitting where they are assigned and simply refusing to work. As there are no consequences, and media tells them they rule the world teachers have no real authority, but are the blame for the failure to educate the children. Some one should really look at the new math data to find the most probable cause and effect of education decline in this country.

So someone flipped over a small thing no surprise, every thing is confused in this old world right now, and the small things pile up quickly.

[edit on 5-2-2010 by DChenO]

Originally posted by Grayelf2009
Thats what we get for letting the gov take over our school system. It has become a penial system that stifiles learning spirt and mind.

Welcome to the police state

Didn't the good ole gov invent the school system and make the first students in Mass. go at gun point? to prepare the people to work in the factories?

reply to post by DChenO


The teacher charged the kid for tossing snowball? Did it break his nose?

What an arse.

My cousin teaches here in this city of 100 K... and he's had a class full of kids, that have been a handful all year. Last week a student told him to "go F__K himself". He was suspended, but no charges laid. lol

Our country gets dumber everyday. Surely they had more important things to worry about.

reply to post by DChenO

I can tell you that this generation will almost not stop doing anything you ask them too; writing on desks or books, sitting on tables, putting their feet up into your face, listening to music, not sitting where they are assigned and simply refusing to work. As there are no consequences, and media tells them they rule the world teachers have no real authority, but are the blame for the failure to educate the children.

The parents are scared of their neighbors. The schools are scared of the parents and their lawsuits. The politicians are afraid of reelection, and the police are scared of the press.

So.....the students benefit and suffer from zero adult supervision! They never get to learn about discipline and natural consequences. "Bullies" were not all bad. They taught a lot of valuable lessons. They taught us to be mindful of our surroundings, be careful with what we have, and fight when it was absolutely necessary. A lot of the school bullies turned out to be decent adults, but now they go into the system and become decent criminals?!?!?

The bullyees grew up to be decent adults as well. Now they learn that the "system" will protect them, and that all they have to do is cry wolf and someone will come running with sirens and a lawsuit!?!?!

I was spanked. Even slapped a couple of times. I had the wheels taken off my car. I had my dad track me down at some girl's mom's beauty salon in the middle of the night. And guess what? I learned to behave! I learned about consequences!

It isn't the teacher, or the parents, or the school, or the police, or the politicians, or the attorneys. It is every individual that chooses to take the path of least resistance instead of choosing to do what they believe is right despite the possible PC fall out!

Originally posted by GioTheGreek

I agree, they have to tone this sh** down.

I used to pick my nose and wipe it under my desk all the time. I got caught, and scolded a bit... but I couldn't imagine my local police force coming in and cuffing me for it. I'd be in shambles. lol

HA! I'm glad I didn't have to sit at your desk.
Of course I do remember more than just a few in my class
who also had what I refer to as a "desk kleenex" issue.
Hope you got over that particular habit.

Yeah, that habit is long gone.



If my girlfriend caught me doing that, she'd have me arrested!