High school students arrested for throwing water balloons at school

[dixiegrrrrl]

North Carolina....

Six of the teens were charged with disorderly conduct. The seventh was charged with assault and battery for hitting a school security officer with a balloon.
The parent of another student has filed a complaint with the Raleigh Police Department. The student, who was not arrested, was allegedly slammed into a concrete sidewalk by the officers.
“How he was taken down was the most disturbing because they took him down by his neck and slammed him,” Hines told WRAL.com.

Someone caught this on video, at link
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/19/high-school-students-arrested-for-throwing-water-balloons-at-school/

[Initech]

1. Why hasn't anyone questioned the constitutionality of these dumbass zero tolerance laws?

I'm so glad I graduated in the 90's when I did, I'd be throwing water balloons at my school too. America - where it's easier to get a prison sentence than a good job.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. I am very concerned about the increased racism in this country

which is blatantly supported by the Reich Wingers of the Gop....
The students are black, the cops white, from what I could see in the video.

Plus the harsh, belligerent over reaction by police which is being reported every day now.
And rarely are there any consequences for police brutatlity.

too much happening for it to be co-incidence.

[marshall]

7. Hire more black cops for these troubled schools

When I taught in an inner city school that was 90% African American we had two black officers assigned to the campus full time. They could do their jobs without the air of racism dogging their every move. It was certainly a wise decision.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

12. I disagree. All cops can be irrational and deliver unnecessary violence. Black cops can be as well

In fact, Black cops who are accepted as LEOs may want to deliver more unnecessary brutality (or be tolerant of it) as a way to show their solidarity with the department which hired them.

Eric Holder is Black. Brutal civil-rights violations are being committed - and even recorded on cell phones - and yet he doesn't do a thing about it.

His Blackness doesn't have anything to do with his action or inaction.

The kids were just having fun. Rational people can see that. Cops, whether Black or not, are mean-spirited, dangerous, irrational people.

[Initech]

11. The republicans don't want to take us back to the 1950s, they want to take us back to the 1850s!

[davidn3600]

2. All hail the police state!

Throw a water balloon and get pinned down on the pavement by the cops and thrown in prison!

Land of the free, my ass!

[LuvNewcastle]

4. That's typical cop behavior nowadays.

They overreact to any perceived challenge to their authority, no matter how slight, and they rarely have to answer for their actions. They're treating the general public the way they treat prisoners in lock-up. I guess we're all potential prisoners in their eyes.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. Obviously, terrorists who were planning to escalate to spitwads or rubber bands.

Thank God for the heroic police to saved from the horrors of water balloons and other WMD.

[Aerows]

28. To be fair,

they were afraid of the escalation of paper air-drones.

If the students raced paper canoes, well, that's formation of a Navy.

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. We got in trouble for this when I was in high school, and we were severely punished...

by having to spend lunch hours scraping gum off the underside of desks and tables.

What the hell has happened in this country?

[madinmaryland]

10. They called that detention.

[dsc]

8. they absolutely deserved to be arrested

the balloons had urine and bleach in them. I know this from speaking to a student at the school who I tutored that day.

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. If that's so...it's another matter. However, we had an accidental scissor stabbing at our school

the other day, and my son (a student) came home with the story that a student had brought a knife to school and slashed somebody's throat.

I guess we'll have to wait and see, but if it was just water... no way.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

14. Since they were not arrested for that, and since the published story indicates the exact contrary,

that doesn't seem to be supported by the facts:

"Seven teenage students in North Carolina were arrested on Thursday and charged with a misdemeanor for throwing water balloons during a school prank. A parent was also arrested during the incident.

"The seven boys, all between the ages of 16 and 17, threw balloons filled with tap water as an end-of-year prank at Enloe High School in Raleigh. The balloons were rumored to be filled with “other substances,” but Wake County Public School System spokeswoman Renee McCoy said “all indications” were that only water was used.

"Six of the teens were charged with disorderly conduct. The seventh was charged with assault and battery for hitting a school security officer with a balloon.

You say, based on "speaking to a student," that "the balloons had urine and bleach in them."

Bleach is an alkali. Throwing bleach, even in a container such as a baloon, is a felony under North Carolina law.

§ 14-30.1. Malicious throwing of corrosive acid or alkali.
If any person shall, of malice aforethought, knowingly and willfully throw or cause to be thrown upon another person any corrosive acid or alkali with intent to murder, maim or disfigure and inflicts serious injury not resulting in death, he shall be punished as a Class E felon. (1963, c. 354; 1979, c. 760, s. 5; 1979, 2nd Sess., c. 1316, s. 47; 1981, c. 63, s. 1, c. 179, s. 14; 1993, c. 539, s. 1136; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c).)

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/ByChapter/Chapter_14.pdf

They weren't charged with that felony because they didn't do that.

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. Good follow up...thank you.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

20. Anytime.

[dsc]

19. I worked for that school system

and to be blunt, it has a huge history of downplaying incidents such as this. I have literally seen it with my very own eyes. I wouldn't believe a statement from them about an incident like this if their tongue came noterized.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

22. Well, the police brutality of slamming that kid's head into the ground was captured by video and

cannot be legitimately downplayed.

I know that kids can be annoying, but there is no excuse for that type of brutality.

[dsc]

23. I agree no one should be slammed

but I also have no doubt that the balloons weren't just water balloons and that the school system is being dishonest.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

24. Bleach is a substance that can be smelled. The cops don't appear to be friendly to the

balloon-throwing students. If bleach was thrown, the cops should have been able to detect it.

Since one cop was willing to publicly slam one student's head on the ground while the others did nothing, it seems unlikely that they would not have pushed for a felony charge if bleach had been detected in the area.

If you were a teacher, shouldn't you be a little more skeptical about what students will tell you? Shouldn't you wonder about whether one of them is make the story to be bigger than what it is?

[dsc]

25. I am more skepitcal sadly of the school system

again, from sad experience. The cops proffer the charges that get pressed by the school system. Maybe the school system is correct here but I know that literally every time, without exception, that an incident happened at my school which required statement to the media, the school system downplayed what actually happened. Given that record, it is damn hard, to trust the same people now.

[Yo_Mama]

15. Oh, that means they were weapons

If you got urine and bleach in your eyes, you could have serious injury.

Who THINKS of filling water balloons with urine and bleach? What on earth?

[Logical]

17. Link please. If not just pure BS from some rumors from a high school kid. n-t

[Quantess]

13. Where were these cops when I was a teen and had an egg thrown at me from a car?

I was a teenager in the late 1980s. Throwing eggs at people and toilet-papering houses was commonplace. Not that I support any of that, in fact I never participated. But oh my, how things have changed.

But why are there still teenage rape cultures in places like Steubenville, Ohio?

[NightWatcher]

18. You want cops in schools? Here's cops in schools

I personally don't want my kid to have any reason to see or deal with a cop for any reason short of she's in trouble and needs help.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

26. More cops in schools will, of course, mean more brutal confrontations like this.

And there will be mission creep.

When more cops are put in schools, they will continue to expand their roles and look for, or create, more trouble.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

21. Sounds like something that would happen at my school....

Our principal is a real power hungry, manipulative women who has managed to pretty much piss off everyone.....and to make matters worse, she's a Republican.

[Daninmo]

27. I see

we all see on TV how cops are portrayed, if you watch TV. They always slam the suspect on the car or slam the badguy on the ground. Man handle slam them into a chair, wall, whatever is available. DO any of these TV cops get in trouble for "Turning up" the perps? Almost never...

America in general accepts it, so it becomes normal procedure.

But on the other side, If I still wore a uniform, that I paid to have dry cleaned, and some punk threw a balloon filled with an unknown liquid on me, getting me soaked for the remainder of the day, and perhaps getting my firearm soaked where it may rust, my wallet, whatever, I would be more than a little upset too.