Mississippi School Charged With Arresting Kids For Flatulence, Wrong Color Socks, Breaking Pencils
Source: Business Insider
Mississippi School Charged With Arresting Kids For Flatulence, Wrong Color Socks, Breaking Pencils
Abby Rogers
The Justice Department is taking a stand against an educational policy in Mississippi that incarcerates kids for just being kids.
The department says in its lawsuit that officials in the city of Meridian and Lauderdale County "routinely arrest students without determining whether there is probable cause when a school wants to press charges, and the students are routinely jailed," The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Students get in trouble for such minor offenses as wearing the wrong color socks, flatulence in class, and swearing.
But this startling program, dubbed the "school-to-prison pipeline," doesn't seem confined to the deep south.
The American Civil Liberties Union has long been fighting what it calls the "national trend of criminalizing, rather than educating, our nation’s children."
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/school-to-prison-pipeline-lawsuits-2012-10#ixzz2APtr2Cn9
http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/school-prison-pipeline-talking-points
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... I'd have been taken out back and shot on day #1 of elementary school... 
sometimes, in my case, it is biological warfare 
To better understand the difference, you have to understand the various dialects spoken in Pennsylvania. To understand those dialects look at the following map.
http://www.evolpub.com/Americandialects/PennaDialMap.html
If you look at the Map, the Areas that speaks the Delaware Valley dialect is Eastern Pennsylvania, and those areas that speak Lower Susquehanna or Lehigh Valley are in "Central Pennsylvania" (the Upper Susquehanna tends to call itself the Upper Susquehanna area). If you go to Lancaster or Dauphin County (Harrisburg is in Dauphin County) this area calls itself "Central Pennsylvania" they do NOT consider the area where "Central Pennsylvania" Dialect is spoken as Central Pennsylvania. Sometimes it is called the Mountains, sometimes Western Pennsylvania, but NEVER Central Pennsylvania.
Lets me make C;ear how I am defining my terms. Eastern Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, who speak the Delaware River Dialect. This areas is heavy Democratic in Philadelphia but almost as heavy GOP in the other countries in that area. Worse, the Republicans from that areas (and the Suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) tend to be the tea baggers type, people you just can not deal with. Outside of the Urban areas (including the Suburbs) the rural areas in this area are some of the heaviest GOP areas in the nation, and has been since at least the 1830s.
The Republicans from the rest of the State, Northwest, Northeast and the Appalachian Mountains, are Republican you can deal with.
Central Pennsylvania is that area that Speaks "Lower Susquehanna" or "Lehigh Valley" AND "Upper Susquehanna Valley" Dialects. Lancaster to Dauphin Counties, a heavy populated rural and urban mixed area out side of the Upper Susquehanna Valley area which is almost all rural. Thus huge area is heavily GOP with the exceptions of the various old small cities in the area, which are Democratic (i.e. The city of Chester, Pa, the City of Lancaster, the City of Harrisburg etc)
West of Central Pennsylvania, you have the Lower Appalachian Mountains, who speak a variation of the Upper Ohio Dialect of Western Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania is everything West of Allegheny Mountain, which is the Eastern Continental divide (i.e. to the east of that line water flows into the Atlantic, to the West Water flows into the Ohio and then to the Gulf of Mexico).
The Lower Appalachian Mountains is a solid GOP area, but also has a solid Democratic base (i.e. 1/3 of the votes in these areas tend to be for Democrats, a much higher RURAL voting percentage then in Central Pennsylvania).
As to Northeast Pennsylvania, the City of Scranton tends to be Democratic, but the surrounding areas tends to be GOP, but like the Lower Appalachian Mountains with a solid Democratic minority even in rural areas. This is also true of Northwest Pennsylvania, Erie is a Solid Democratic City, but the rest of Northwest Pennsylvania is solid GOP but with about 1/3 of rural areas Democratic.
Yes Philadelphia can get a 90-10 ratio of Democratic Votes to GOP votes, but the 33% of Democratic Votes from Northwest, Northeast and the Appalachian Mountains is often the reason a Democrat wins a state wide office (and lets remember Central County, where Penn State is, is in the area of the Appalachian Mountains where "Central Pennsylvania" Dialect is spoken (i.e NOT in Central Pennsylvania as I defined that term above). Central Count is the second county SOUTH of the line separating Central Pennsylvania DIALECT from Up State New York Dialect, and it went for Obama in 2008.
Notice I have NOT mentioned Western Pennsylvania. To understand Western Pennsylvania you have to compare the above Dialect map with the a map of where Coal is in Pennsylvania.
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/econresource/coal/index.htm
A quick review will show that the area where Bituminous Coal exists (or had existed since a lot of it has been mined out) almost duplicates the Upper Ohio Valley Dialect. The reason for this is simple, coal mining and Steel making were related and it was not uncommon for people to have relatives in one AND the other and switch from one to the other. Thus the people of Western Pennsylvania tend to speak the same dialect. It is one of the largest local dialect areas in the US. In many maps it is mapped out even on dialect maps that are drawn to shown regional dialects instead of local dialects.
Just as in the other areas of the State, where people who tend to speak the same dialect tend to think one way or another (The rural GOP in Northwest, Northeast and the Appalachian Mountains tend to work well with Democrats and vica versa, unlike the GOP in Central Pennsylvania or the suburbs of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and this may reflect in why the dialects are where there are).
Western Pennsylvania has a solid Democratic Center in Pittsburgh, but unlike Philadelphia the surrounding rural area was solidly Democratic long before the Great Depression. When Pittsburgh turned Democratic in the 1930s, it was NOT just because the Republicans were moving out and the African Americans were moving in, but the working class whiles abandoned the GOP AND any influx from the surrounding rural area was Democratic not Republican. Thus the GOP strongholds in Western Pennsylvania tend to be the Suburbs only. These tend to be teabaggers types, almost impossible to deal with.
On the other hand, as you leave Pittsburgh and go north and east, the number of Rural Republicans increase (Except in Westemoreland, which has a strong tea bagger suburbanite tea bagger element) but these are Republicans you can deal with (I have had occasion to talk to Bob Gleason, and he is a good man to deal with, through I have to say most of my practice has been with his Brother Andy Gleason).
Also with Western Pennsylvania, with the collapse of the Steel industry in the 1980s, you saw a population decline, and that tended to leave a lot of GOP types around. Also with the success of the Unions starting in the 1930s, the Steel and Coal Workers were able to get earn a decent living and now you have the grandsons and great-grandsons of those that fought for unions, being taught in Collages that Unions are bad, turning GOP. They parents and Grandparents are telling them that is a mistake (and many a Great grand parent turning over in their graves). Both events have turned down the Democratic turn out in Western Pennsylvania. For example, Greene County, the County in the extreme southwest corner of the state, has been a solid Democratic County for Decades. In 2008 , McCain beat Obama out in Greene County by 86 votes. barely voted for McCain and that was not only due to some racism but that McCain was a former POW and Greene County was more comfortable with him then with Obama. Even then, Obama almost pulled out the county. It was something like 49-49%.
If you want to see any or all of the Counties in the US and how they voted see, including the margin of victory, in much of rural Pennsylvania the Democrats did well in Rural Counties:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/election/uscounties.html
Now Coal was and is a big factor in Western Pennsylvania, I had to make a trip from Johnstown to Kittening last night on US 422 which cuts through the rural areas of Western Pennsylvania and you did NOT see to many Romney signs, but you did see a lot of "Stop the war on Coal" signs. That sign is aimed at rural coal miners who see any comment on Climate Change as an attack on they standard of Living. Greene County is a big coal county and will vote for Coal every time and as in 2008 the GOP is saying Obama is anti-coal so they can get some of the Democratic Voters in Western Pennsylvania to vote for Coal by voting for the GOP. The GOP know better to use any other argument, but economics is economics and people will vote they lunch buckets almost every time.
Thus a comment, that Pennsylvania is more complex than "Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Pennsyltucky in the middle." Neither Pittsburgh nor Philadelphia (or both together) can win Pennsylvania, you need support from the rest of the State and Democrats have always been able to get it.
Almost satirical. But it isn't. 
when I hear students swearing I say, "Please, no bathroom talk." That is enough to quiet down most high school students who swear, at least in my presence. As for socks? Hell, I wear whatever socks sort of match - that's enough to put me in jail I guess. 
Farting? Definitely not a criminal act.