Chapter Nine: Busting Children

Chapter 9: Busting Children

While I was in upstate New York over the weekend, I talked with my friend Damon, an assistant principal at a public middle school outside Syracuse. We discussed student misbehavior and sanctions. At Damon’s school, children are not arrested. “Yeah, but what if they are caught with marijuana?” Damon says he would call the student’s parents. Not so in Herald County. An assistant principal lost his job recently when he failed to inform the school Deputy that a student brought a pocketknife to school. I’m thinking about crime and punishment as I negotiate the two-hour drive home from the Tampa airport just before midnight on this dark Sunday night.

The ringing cell phone interrupts my ruminations. Someone with a Lakeboro number is calling me. There is a zero percent chance this will be good news. It’s Shasta, my transportation coordinator. She wants me to know someone broke into our busses, discharged the fire extinguishers, ransacked the first aid kits and slashed the tires. Shasta is not sure if any of the busses can be driven tomorrow morning. Wallowing in self-pity as I drive that lonely stretch of I-75, I wonder how many principals spend their Sunday nights dealing with vandalized busses.




Mondays always get me down

Going to work knowing the busses were attacked is bad enough, but on this Monday I arrive at 6:45 am to find someone also broke into my office and stole five of our walkie-talkies along with some random knickknacks. No computers, money or other valuables were taken. Since our Deputy on Duty won’t be on campus until 9:00, I call 911. A deputy arrives and is dusting for prints when children’s voices crackle across the remaining walkie-talkies. We suspect the thieves live in the neighborhood adjacent to our school and they are waiting for the school bus. We try to hurry the deputy outside to find the thieves, but he doesn’t share our urgency. Lynne the business manager does, and she is soon in her car speeding through the suspected neighborhood in time to observe the culprits boarding their school bus. Sharp-eyed Lynne notes the bus number. I call King Middle School and ask Rex Stewart, the principal (also my friend and mentor) to nab anyone with walkie-talkies riding bus #413. Rex is on the case and finds the guilty parties in short order. By afternoon we retake possession of our stolen goods including not only the walkie-talkies, but also my mini nerf football which one of the young criminals chewed on thinking it was chocolate. The bite mark, my souvenir.

We credit Lynne with the collar. “What” Rusty asks “would you have done if you’d caught the kids before the bus arrived? Lynne shrugs, but I am certain those children would have preferred handcuffs.

While Deputy One dusts for prints and interviews employees, a second Deputy arrives, it is our Deputy of the Day, Deputy Creighton, and with him is a Lakeboro Police Detective. One of our students, Jimmie, stole a bicycle in his neighborhood, which is in the Lakeboro Police Department’s territory. The LPD (Lakeboro Police Department) officer is here to arrest Jimmie. My office now contains more law enforcement agents than educators.

Amidst all this excitement, good old Counselor Ernie saunters in saying he must speak with me. He hasn’t been back since he “resigned” in anger last week when I confronted him about calling Ebencorp. Ernie tells me he called The Boss last night. He doesn’t actually say he is un-resigned and I don’t press the issue. I feel impotent about not dealing more effectively with Ernie but I excuse myself, blaming the distraction of the bus vandalism, my office theft and Jimmie’s bike. I resolve to devise and implement a new plan so next time Ernie resigns it will stick. Looking at Ernie glad-hand Deputies, charm staff and mingle with students, I clench my teeth. When a military commander loses control of his troops and they switch their allegiance to a rival faction, that leader had best watch his back. Or hers.

Ernie always seems to know the Deputies. Maybe this is a function of the good ol’boy network. Every morning Ernie and the Deputy of the Day are back slapping and hand shaking and howzitgoin. Noreen often joins in, flirting with Ernie and the Deputy. Today’s recipient is Deputy Creighton. Deputy Creighton fancies himself Inspector Clouseau. Before we are done unloading the busses, he is launching an investigation regarding a fight that happened on the bus. It seems Nora hit Dirk with a broom. Dirk’s Mom supposedly phoned and told Ernie that she wants to press charges. Ernie has a knack for inspiring that response.

Busting Nora’s Family

Nora Ruze’s family is very poor, white and well known to Prospect. Nora’s older sister attended Prospect a couple years ago and later dropped out to have her baby. Both Nora and her brother Noah attend Prospect. Noah has been arrested enough times to make him eligible for “a program” (boot camp) and is now just waiting for an open bed. Rumor is he’ll be assigned to a program on the outskirts of Jacksonville. Since Noah knows his fate is sealed, he concludes he has no reason to behave. We have a few students in this position. The courts tell the children they are going to a program but no firm date is given. Living on borrowed time, these students are highly disruptive. Nora, Noah, their older sister, her baby, plus their parents live in a dilapidated van in The Forest. No one has a job.

About 6 months ago, before I’d even heard of Lakeboro, a significant event occurred in the Ruze household. Mr. Ruze was intoxicated and physically attacking his wife. Nora phoned the police. When they arrived to arrest her father, he resisted and the police used force. Noah ran to the defense of his father and began to punch and kick the arresting officers. The officers handcuffed both father and son and prepared to take them to jail. Nora began to scream and flail and demand their release. Perhaps she felt guilty thinking she caused the arrests; she just wanted her father to stop hurting her mother. Nora was so out of control the police Baker Acted her. On that day Nora, Noah and their father all left in Deputy patrol cars. Anger is strong in this family.

Dirk escapes getting busted. . .

Deputy Creighton’s altercation investigation involves Nora and Dirk. Dirk is a skinny white fourteen-year-old boy with long stringy blond hair. I’ve spoken a few times with the principal who sent us Dirk. Before he was Dirk’s principal, he was Dirk’s third grade teacher. Even then Dirk was a problem. Dirk’s parents were in denial and they still are. Dirk is currently our only student not eligible for a free or reduced price lunch. The two problems with Dirk are his career choice (he wants to be a porn star) and his incredible laziness (he can’t be bothered to do any schoolwork or exert any effort). When Dirk is standing he wants to sit, when he is sitting he wants to lie down. When he lies down, he sleeps. It is easy to pick out Dirk in the parking lot during bus arrival - he is the student sprawled prone on the concrete.

In the case of Dirk vs. Nora, Inspector Deputy Creighton decides to interview all the witnesses. This is rather disruptive with students in and out of class for interrogation most of the morning. After talking to nearly every student on the Nora/Dirk bus, Inspector Deputy finds both children were rough housing and Nora didn’t mean to hurt Dirk. This time no children are arrested, but in the course of his investigation Deputy Creighton uncovers a more serious crime involving Nicholas.

. . . Nicholas doesn’t escape getting busted

Nicholas’s family is feuding with a former Prospect family. I don’t know all the details; it began before I arrived. I do know it involves racial slurs and CD’s. Nicholas is one of the few students in our school whose presenting problem is truancy (many of our students have truancy issues, but most have more pressing problems involving violence or drugs). Nicholas is a polite, quiet child who seems happy to be at school, when he does attend. Every morning when he comes to school, he runs from the bus over to me to say “Good Morning Ms. Smee.” He then greets each of his teachers. He is a light skinned black twelve year old who lives with his white mother and a stepfather. He has younger half-siblings and I suspect he is often kept at home to help care for them. He is very protective of his mother and makes up many excuses as to why he is needed more at home than at school. “She had a headache again, a bad one.”

Nicholas is a follower and often latches onto the class clown, of which we have many. Nicholas is the first child to achieve “level one” in our behavior management system and we have a formal ceremony scheduled for this afternoon. We told him first thing this morning and he is thrilled. We tell him he might be our first student on level two if he keeps up the good work, but there is an attendance requirement for level two: no unexcused absences. Nicholas says he thinks he can meet that challenge.

When Deputy Creighton calls Nicholas in to ask about Dirk, Nora and the broom, Nicholas is anxious to talk. He doesn’t want either student arrested and he knows they were just playing. But one look at Nicholas and Deputy Creighton is off on a different track.

“Nicholas, don’t you recognize me?” Creighton queries. Nicholas shakes his head.
“I arrested you for stealing your friend’s CD’s.”
Nicholas remembers but shows no concern believing this was a distant event resolved long ago. Then the Deputy drops the clincher.

“There is an outstanding warrant for your arrest.”

The Deputy explains to me about an arrangement between Nicholas’s mother and the feuding mother in which Nicholas’s mother would pay restitution for the CD’s Nicholas took from his friend. It turns out Nicholas’s mother only paid part and then stopped paying so the other Mother put out a warrant for Nicholas’s arrest. This was months ago; it is unclear how actively the police were looking for Nicholas, but Inspector Deputy has found him now. I take the Deputy aside, isn’t there some way we can work this out without arresting Nicholas? No, not with an outstanding warrant. Nicholas bites his lip but doesn’t cry as he is led away from my office in handcuffs and loaded into the back seat of a squad car.



Tina/Natasha is almost busted

After lunch Tina/Natasha calls her teacher, Noreen, a bitch. Counselor Rusty is summoned to Noreen’s room to escort Tina/Natasha to his office. Tina/Natasha screeches at him “If you put a hand on me I’ll kill you.” Noreen is on the walkie-talkie to Deputy Creighton (she wants to make a withdrawal from the charm account she opened with him this morning). When the Deputy hears that Tina/Natasha “threatened” Noreen and Rusty, he launches an investigation. Rusty understands that Tina/Natasha has a history of abuse; Rusty is not intimidated by her threats but the Deputy is adamant, insisting he needs to interview Noreen in his office. With no one to cover her class, Noreen and her “dream teammates” decide their whole team (Noreen’s class, Neeley’s class and Tammie’s class ) will have an unscheduled recess with the students running about playing many sports at one time, using the bathroom, water fountain and being disruptive. When Deputy Creighton completes his fact-finding mission with Noreen, he looks at the chaos on my campus and tells me this is the worst school he has ever seen and how can anyone learn in this environment. Rusty and I convince the Deputy not to arrest Tina/Natasha. We suspend her instead.

I do not like Deputy Creighton.

In 2001 the state of Florida detained, incarcerated or placed in residential facilities some 6,776 juveniles out of 3,882,271 children under age 18 residing in the state. Illinois, a state with a similar population of children (3,254, 523) managed to only detain, incarcerate or place in residential facilities, some 3,560 children. Even New York, with nearly a million more children than Florida (4,613,251), only detained, incarcerated etc. 4,593 juveniles. Clearly the state of Florida believes that arresting and incarcerating juveniles is a good solution to a difficult problem.

Driving back to my apartment I ponder this reality: why, in the face of studies and evidence showing that arresting children doesn’t help them, does the state of Florida continue to arrest, detain and lock up so many children? Surely the odd anecdote, probably more urban myth than truth, about the bad boy who gets arrested, is sent to a “program” sees the light, goes “straight” and becomes a successful (fill in the blank – probably construction foreman) isn’t powerful enough to maintain a failing policy? No, I think there are other, stronger forces at play here.

Change is always hard. No doubt the state of Florida has been arresting and incarcerating children for years now. It isn’t easy to fight the: “We’ve always done it this way” gang. Moreover here in the Bible belt there is a strong urge to punish sinners and that includes “bad” children. There’s no sparing the rod here.

Further, the alternatives to arresting and incarceration are not obvious, easy or cheap. Maintaining school discipline and safety is hard. It is much easier to remove the violent and disruptive children than to treat them on campus or in the community. The alternatives to incarceration are often more expensive. In a land where the population objects to spending money on education, there is little support for allocating additional funds for troubled youths, for “throwing money” at the bad kids.

In Florida, as in most of America, electoral politics rules. The children sent to detention centers and boot camps (and alternative schools) come from poor families riddled with drug and anger problems, and in which the parents are unlikely to vote. Elected officials can safely ignore them: they don’t vote for me, they don’t look like me, they don’t live near me, who cares? The voters, especially those with school age children, are comforted to hear talk of protecting their good children by removing the bad apples. In addition, the individuals and corporations who run the programs (boot camps, alternative schools) don’t want to lose their jobs and funding; and since they do vote and they have connections with the local people and groups who control the purse strings, their voices count.

It’s still Monday. Back in my apartment, I call my son who is turning 21 today. This is the first time we aren’t all together for his birthday. He is in New York preparing to start his senior year at Columbia. My husband is in Providence, RI for work and I am in Lakeboro trying to keep children in class and out of jail.