Teen Arrested After Passing Gas at School

by Sandy Maple (Subscribe to Sandy Maple's posts) Nov 23rd 2008 12:00PM

Categories: Teens & Tweens, Weird But True, Education

If this kid in Stuart, Florida was looking for a little attention at school, he certainly found an offensive way to get it. According to the Martin County Sheriff's Office, the 13-year-old was arrested earlier this month after purposely disrupting his classroom at Spectrum Junior-Senior High School.

No, he wasn't threatening anyone or endangering the lives of his classmates or teacher - he was passing gas. The Sheriff's report alleges that the boy repeatedly and deliberately broke wind in the classroom and shut off a few computer that other students were using.

After confessing to his crimes, he was arrested on charges of 'disruption of a school function' and released to his mother.

You know, if deliberately and repeatedly passing gas is a crime, I know a few people who should be behind bars for life.

Source

Comments (20)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

LS 11-23-2008 @ 8:55PM

What is the MATTER with schools? WHY can't teachers, principals, and administrators discipline kids anymore? Honestly, the police are not babysitters, nor are they parents. This is a school matter, and it should have been handled between teacher, principal and parents. Arrested? Ridiculous.

rick everitt 11-24-2008 @ 12:56PM

I totally agree. The school should have handled this. Police will find excuses not to be there when they are called,if this type of police work is required.

Money123 12-18-2008 @ 10:50PM

Geez!!!! I'm an old lady and fart in public all the time. Sometimes I cough and it slips out along with a terd!!! I guess I betta be more careful cause the fart patrol will be watching me!!!!

Me 12-20-2008 @ 3:18PM

"Sometimes I cough and it slips out along with a terd!!!"

OMG - TMI, seriously!

zann 12-19-2008 @ 1:45AM

Cripes. Isolate the kid in suspension hall or something. He wants attention, let him be alone for a while.

That being said, I dont blame the school for acting. He was deliberately disrupting class for his own amusement. Needs to be taught a lesson, for real.

Bonnie 12-19-2008 @ 8:33AM

Yea but my goodness the school could have took care of this with
out the police, we have to many other real crimes goin on out there
that they need to be working on.

Zann 12-19-2008 @ 1:19PM

Perhaps they couldnt get the kid's parents to come for him.

We weren't there. They did what they thought was necessary. I always give benefit of the doubt to the admin and teachers. There are elements among kids and their parents that are flatly impossible to deal with, and I, for one, resent the time and money and effort that school officials must spend to control and manage the bad apples. That is taxpayers' money going to waste.

Brian 12-19-2008 @ 12:55PM

"And the schools look like prisons and the prisons look like malls"

Readying the next generation to accept and tolerate police state tactics

sally sue lou 12-20-2008 @ 3:44PM

If you're a parent to one of these students who performs minor mischievous acts, please take note. One or two of these kids can careen a classroom out of control. Was an arrest over-the-top? YES, but It truly boils down to the parents who allow their kids to behave in this manner. It's a parent's duty to teach a child an appropriate sense of humor, when and where they can use it, and when they can't.

p curley 12-20-2008 @ 7:39PM

Does anyone remember the recent story about the guy who was arrested and charged with assault on a police officer for cutting a long fart during questioning? He allegedly fanned the smell towards the cop. (The charge was dropped). While cutting a series of farts with the intent of making a scene should be dealt with in the same manner as any other classroom disruption, calling the cops is overkill, no common sense. This is like the boty who cried wolf. Some time something serious will happen, and the cops' reaction will be "Oh shit, ..... school again, who cut a fart this time? Another thing. All the attention seems to be on the farts.It also says he was disruptive by shutting off computers. Shutting off another's computer in the middle of a piece of work, causing a deletion of whatever was there seems much more serious. It still does not warrant the police.

Steve 12-24-2008 @ 9:28PM

Completely, utterly and completely stupid. And we wonder why our schools suck? INCOMPETENT administrations and school boards. Teachers cannot teach(why challenge them, school board doesn't like it), cannot fail a child (might give him a complex). We can however pay a principal $90,000 a year and school boards $100K a year to worry about the menu, and soda machines. Oh don't forget the millions spent to come up with joke competency tests that are useless! (Arizona AIMS) Aren't there already competency tests (ASVAB which is 8th grade!) ACT and SAT? Oh wait what was I thinking. We want kids to be on Ritalin (so they don't make noise) And be very computer literate. (Be good at video games

Steven Durette 12-24-2008 @ 9:35PM

God forbid we put a kid in Detention! Oh crap I used the G word. Don't get me started on the National Anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance! FIRE these knuckleheads, and bill them for the police officer's time, the courts time, and wear and tear on the cruiser that had to respond! I truly hope someday it becomes legal to hunt idiots! I will be first in line to buy the license. Sorry for the rant, had to vent!

EO1(SCW/SW) Steven K Durette, US Navy

anna 1-10-2009 @ 3:24PM

couldn't havesaid it better myself

Sonny 12-24-2008 @ 10:38PM

Where did judgement and common sense go. The school system is so afraid of a lawsuit that they dump on the police. The problem began when we took god out of our schools and placed the police in them.

Ray 1-12-2009 @ 10:35PM

To Sony: If you're right about the schools being afraid fo lawsuits,
the school administration fails to realize that such would breed civil actions for wrongful detention against them along with the police, the individuals involved, and the local governent. If that was my kid, I would be suing all those involved!!

dave 12-25-2008 @ 1:20AM

The whole situation STINKS !

Eleanor 12-25-2008 @ 4:23PM

This is nothing new "only teachers used to beat kids"! I went to a grade school the teacher repeatly beat a child with a belt because he was an orphaned and no one cared. I told my parents and I was moved to another school! Think things have changed, I don't!!

Larry Cox 1-07-2009 @ 4:18AM

I used to cut the cheese when I was in class all the time but no one called the cops. The education system is worthless with this "no child left behind" stuff. When I was in high school from '73-76, everything ran like clockwork. You had your electives, your required courses, woodshop, metal shop, autoshop, lots of music courses, acting and drama. I graduated early in January of 1076 and joined the Navy. Now they have ISAT tests, restricions on when you can be sick, how many times u can miss a class,etc. No more shop classes, only choir and band and it really sucks. The kids in elemetery school have wheels on their backpacks because they have so much homework to do. I NEVER hade homework in elemetery school except for a book report. Now the schools don't have enough books for all the students, they have to check them out of the library.

Jennifer 1-16-2009 @ 9:42PM

WHAT!? They arrest a kid for PASSING GAS, yet students AND teachers got away with the scarring bullying they inflicted on me? Oh, give me a break!

Harry 1-25-2009 @ 7:39AM

What no one is asking is the really necessary question. Is "disruption of a school function" actually against any particular law in that location?

That's the charge quoted in the article, according to the narrative of the juvinile arrest affadavit. Apparently he WAS actually arrested by Officer Warren F. Pattway of the Martin County, Fl. Sheriff's Office who was on duty as part of the "School Resource" Division. That means he was assigned to be the visible law enforcement presence at the school.

Was proper protocol followed to ensure that this minor child was afforded an attorney or a parent to be present to ensure that he UNDERSTOOD his rights and to ensure his interests were not subjugated to those of the system. Once law enforcement becomes involved, it is no longer a simple matter of a disruptive child, it's a matter of forever being in the system with an arrest record for being the perpetrator of a crime.

A school official, in my opinion wouldn't suffice since they are the ones who had him arrested and therefore are interested only in ensuring that he is punished, not in protecting his rights or ensuring that he didn't end up with a criminal record for minor malicious mischief that may or may not be against any particular law.

As for the parents; parents are hog-tied by the laws in this country when it comes to disipline of children. Especially when vitrually every school in the country indoctrinates children at an earliest ages to turn their parents in to the "appropriate athourities" if they are ever disiplined. Nowadays, whether a child grows to be a productive member of society or a menace is mostly out of a parents control due to all the other influences the child encounters on a daily basis. That includes the education system.

Parents are left to wonder if their children will turn out ok or not ok, because of their efforts or in spite of their efforts.

The entire culture in this country including the education and legal systems are designed to produce the next generation of self-centered, undisiplined youth in order to perpetuate those very same systems.

Nearly every school in the country now has at least one Law Enforcement Officer on duty at all times as well as a psychotherapist, psycologist, or "nurse" ready to intimidate parents into drugging their children out of their minds to keep them quiet. (And most importantly, to recieve the government funds for an "at risk" child.)