Schools Are Bullying Youth

A high school in Lower Merion County, Pennsylvania is now under investigation by the FBI due to the fact that one of its policies was an outright violation of students' civil rights. The school used webcams built into school-issued laptops to spy on students. One student, Blake Robbins, was arrested and falsely accused of using and intending to sell pills.

According to Robbins' attorney, Mark Haltzman, "She [the school's vice principal] called him into the office and told him, basically, 'I've been watching what was on the Web cam and saw what was in your hands. I've been reading what you've been typing, and I'm afraid you are involved in drugs and trying to sell pills.'"

In reality, the vice principal was telling lies and Robbins didn't have pills, only Mike and Ike candies. Robbins' parents have sued over this issue.

This is far from being an isolated incident. This blatant oppression of youth has been happening almost every day for some time now. For example, last year the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Savana Redding. Redding, now an adult, was strip searched at school (basically molested) when she was only thirteen years old. She had been searched because school officials feared that she was in possession of prescription ibuprofen (oh horrors!).

Last month 12-year-old Alexa Gonzalez was arrested and hauled off to a New York (Queens) jail for writing on her desk. All she wrote was, "I love my friends Abby and Faith," and "Lex was here. 2/1/10."

"I started crying, like, a lot," Alexa told the Daily News. "I made two little doodles. It could be easily erased. To put handcuffs on me is unnecessary."

Alexa was assigned 8 hours of community service, a book report, and an essay on what she had learned. All over simply writing on a desk. Her suspension was lifted, but she missed three days of school. She spent those days in agony, vomiting!

In Montgomery Country, Maryland, a 13-year-old student at Roberto Clemente Middle School was taken out of his class room by police officers because he refused to recite the pledge of allegiance. He acted like a mature person by simply sitting in silence for two days in a row when the pledge to the flag was roboticly repeated by the other students. This was a clear violation of his civil rights, and the ACLU has taken up his case.

The shit-headed scumbags who run Roberto Clemente Middle School ignorantly refused to admit they violated the students' Constitutional rights. Instead, they say the student owes an apology to his obviously fascist teacher for "defiance."

Although a spokesperson for the school did have this to say.

"The policy is very, very clearly stated," the spokesperson said. "Our teachers are expected to know the students' rights and responsibilities....A mistake has been made, and it will be rectified."

The spokesperson admitted that the rights of the student, as stated by Maryland law, were violated.

13-year-old Chelsea Fraser was arrested for writing "okay" on her desk at a middle school in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.

"Here we have rapists, murderers, and you're taking a 13-year-old kid? Wasting valuable manpower to arrest a child who wrote on a desk?" said Fraser's mother.

Let us not forget the ongoing reports of police using tasers on unarmed minors.

"We are arresting them at younger and younger ages [in cases] that used to be covered with a trip to the principal's office, not sending children to jail," said Emma Jordan-Simpson, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund.

According to a report by the NYCLU:

"At the same time that the number of police personnel in the schools has increased to a whopping 5,200 agents, the ability of educators to oversee school safety and student discipline has decreased. Principals complain that they are unable to control the conduct of School Safety Agents and are limited in their ability to strike the right balance between school security and a supportive educational environment."

Manuel Criollo, a Los Angeles-based organizer with the Strategy Center "No to Pre-Prison" Campaign told AlterNet.

"Reliance on law enforcement opens the door to criminalize student behavior," he said. "Therefore, issues such as fighting, truancy, and tardiness become crimes -- and of course students of color are more vulnerable to targeting and profiling."

Of course, the right-wingers oppose the expansion of government. They fear big government. They even bring up police states as a reason to distrust the government, yet they turn a blind eye to policies that turn schools into mini-police/prison states. This just shows their hypocrisy and bigotry towards minors. The liberals are just as bad, but they are more sneaky about their oppression of youth. From these facts, it is clear that the only way to go is radical. If youth rights groups could become just a little stronger, and if students would take-over (occupy) a few schools around the country, maybe then the oppressive teachers, police, and government bureaucrats would realize that youth are people too.

Mao Zedong once said that the young aren't our inferiors. His followers in the Red Guards even did much work in liberating children from oppressive schools. For example, they called for students to criticize their teachers. So, I feel that for school kids, as the old Maoist motto goes...

IT IS RIGHT TO REBEL!