I'm losing my tolerance for zero tolerance policies

[Jackpine Radical]

1. I'll see your arrest and raise you a suicide.

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)

Boy, 15, Kills Self After Facing Expulsion and Sex Offender Status for Streaking


By Jodie Gummow [2]


October 11, 2013

A popular, 15-year-old schoolboy from Hunstville, Alabama committed suicide a week after he was arrested for running naked across the Sparkman High football field during a game in September 27, NY Daily News reported. Faced with expulsion and the possibility of being placed on a sex offender’s registry for indecent exposure, Christian Adamek hanged himself and died two days later from his injuries.

A clip of Adamek streaking across the field was posted to youtube and went viral before it was removed following the news of his death.

…

… Sparkman High Principal Michael Campbell had condemned the boy’s actions as requiring “serious treatment” a day before his suicide in an interview with WHNT [5] – who subsequently removed the report from the website: 'There's the legal complications...public lewdness and court consequences outside of school with the legal system, as well as the school consequences that the school system has set up,” he said.

As Gawker reported [6], the WHNT interview which has since been uploaded to Youtube [7] was humiliating enough, particularly with the principal publicizing the situation and extreme penalty, leaving some in the community wondering whether the media’s local coverage of the incident is to blame: “The news story is scary enough for an adult facing punishment, so it's not hard to imagine how a frightened, embarrassed teenager might feel when seeing it,” it reported.