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Girl, 12, Taken Away in Handcuffs for Doodling on Her Desk; Dept. of Ed. Admits To Excessive Punishment
Filed under: In The News
Alexa Gonzalez was handcuffed and detained for doodling on her desk with erasable marker. Credit: Bryan Pace, New York Daily News
A 12-year-old girl in New York City was not only suspended Monday, but taken in handcuffs to the police precinct across the street, for doodling on her desk with an erasable marker.
Now, the New York City Department of Education has figured out that the punishment didn't fit the crime.
"The principal made a mistake and the suspension has been lifted," Margie Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the New York City Department of Education, tells ParentDish in an official statement on Friday
Feinberg adds the girl is back in her classroom and Principal Marilyn Grant is working to make amends with Gonzalez's family.
Gonzalez was doodling her name on her desk at JHS 190 with an erasable marker when adults at the school caught her, slapped handcuffs on her and marched her to the police precinct directly across the street.
Matthew Mittenthal, another spokesman for the Department of Education, confirmed the strange tale was true.
The New York Daily News reported that police didn't know quite how to respond to the request to take the rogue scribbler into custody.
"Even when we're asked to make an arrest, common sense should prevail, and discretion used in deciding whether an arrest or handcuffs are really necessary," police spokesman Paul Browne tells the Daily News.
The trip to the police precinct and suspension were all for doodling "I love my friends Abby and Faith" and "Lex was here. 2/1/10" with a smiley face on her desk.
Gonzalez tells the Daily News she spent several hours at the precinct.
"I started crying, like, a lot," she tells the paper. "I made two little doodles. It could be easily erased. To put handcuffs on me is unnecessary."
Her mother, Moraima Camacho, tells the Daily News her daughter's near-perfect attendance record has been marred by the suspension.
"She's been throwing up," Camacho tells the paper. "The whole situation has been a nightmare."
Gonzalez says she never thought doodling with a lime green marker would get her in so much trouble.
"I just thought I'd get a detention," she adds. "I thought maybe I would have to clean [the desk]."
Even though education officials are investigating, Department of Education spokesman David Cantor tells the Daily News the school's actions were clearly questionable.
"Based on what we've seen so far, this shouldn't have happened," he says.
Other New York students also have been handcuffed for minor infractions, according to the Daily News.
Three years ago, a 13-year-old was arrested for writing "okay" on her desk at Intermediate School 201 in Brooklyn. Two years ago, the Daily News reports, a 5-year-old in Queens was cuffed and sent to a psychiatric ward after throwing a fit in his kindergarten class. Then, last year, a 12-year-old girl was arrested for doodling on her desk at the Hunts Point School in the Bronx.
A class action lawsuit was filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union just weeks ago against New York City for using "excessive force" in middle and high schools.
"This should be a wake-up call to the mayor, the city council and the Department of Education," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU, says on the organization's Web site.
"There is a crisis in our schools because they put the police in charge of routine discipline that ought to be handled by educators," she adds. "We all want safe schools, but that means that our children must be kept safe by those assigned to protect them."
Even though she is no longer suspended, Gonzalez still went to family court Tuesday where she was assigned eight hours of community service and a book report. She also has to write an essay about she she learned through all this.
"I definitely learned not to ever draw on a desk," she tells the Daily News.
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ReaderComments (Page 7 of 8)
2-06-2010 @ 2:01AM
atqmra13 said...hey pink, wtf? get a life. little full of yourself?
Reply
2-06-2010 @ 2:36AM
scbell1 said...I agree that the school did over-react...a LOT. But I do disagree with the many who are saying "it's just a desk." Yes many of us marked on our desks and Im sure most of us, like I did, received detention or cleaning duty for it. After I got cleaning duty I brought my sketch book to school with me everyday. Yes it's just a desk but would you be saying the same thing if it was "just your neighbors car?" or it was "just your own garage door" that just got tagged? What if it was done with erasible markers....
Reply
2-06-2010 @ 2:40AM
Mo said...All you people who are saying that it was erasable marker so she wasn't defacing any property should ask themselves if they'd feel the same way if she were writing erasable marker on YOUR desk, walls, or other furniture at your home... Regardless of what type of marker was used, she was defacing property. Why couldn't she just use a piece of paper? Yes, she's only 12 years old. But I think most of us would teach our children at a much younger age NOT to do that. Calling the police and handcuffs, yes, quite excessive and rather silly. Giving her a sponge and a bucket of soapy water to clean all the desks? Let the punishment fit the crime.
Reply
4-16-2010 @ 12:18AM
fredom1ride2 said...some of you people are not getting the point. and that is, even though it was initially about the doodling on the desktop but the real issue is how the NYPD and school officials handle the incident . you just don't go around slapping handcuffs on 12 year old children and for such a minor infraction. I remember when I was in my earlier twenties and had just came home from Vietnam ,two policemen handcuffed me thinking I was someone else. I remember how angry and confuse it made me feel not to mention the physical pain the handcuffs caused. so those of you that think it was OK to traumatize a 12 year old child by slapping handcuffs on her, only thing I can say is God help you. but in the interim of things I bet if this was your child you wouldn't be so supportive of the way this incident was handled
2-06-2010 @ 2:46AM
Mo said...you are sick. You're the one who needs the cops called on them. Is there anyone else that sees something wrong with this post?
Reply
2-06-2010 @ 3:02AM
Dawn said...I think it's a great idea that she write a report about what she has learned from the situation. And I hope that the report includes that she has learned the biggest idiots in the school system are not sitting behind student desks, they are standing up in front of the blackboards!
Reply
2-07-2010 @ 11:05PM
Yroarrah said...I hope the parents sue the crap out of the school. I'm sick to death with teachers and schools acting as if they are some kind of supreme power answerable to no one, and abusing their authority. My son was jumped by 2 kids, kicked in the head front and back at the same time (while the kids were all sitting in their PE uniforms waiting for the PE teacher.) He was suspended for attempting to put his arms about his head to protect the shunt in his head, then collapsed in a seizure. He was given additional suspension because the coach did not recognize the seizure activity and stated my son refused to hold still. I'm sick of these teachers and the stupid zero tolerance crap ideas, their inability to use common sense, and now apparently all schools will become places where instead of going to the principles office, our kids will be hauled off in handcuffs for any infractions and given criminal records. My kids are grown up now, or I would homeschool them. The majority of "educators" i know (and I know quite a lot) laugh about how it makes them feel good to "get" these little rich or goodie two shoes kids, let em know how powerful the teachers are, and think it's just a real scream when concerned parents come in "and there's not a thing they can do because I'm a teacher and protected by the union, so when I don't like their little brats it's just really fun to torture the kids and the family when I don't like them!) All too many of these teachers are losers who can't do any other kind of job and hate what they do. My own son got even- he got a job at city hall two years later, made the right friends, and got that teacher/coach fired.
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2-06-2010 @ 5:33AM
jessica said...I had something similar happen to me as well as to a friend. My friend had a seizure in the hallway right before class and was sent to the office after being yelled at because she wouldn't do her class work (she was having trouble holding the pencil). This was in high school. Also in high school, I had to fend off a guy that cornered me in a sound-proof choir room. I busted his lip because he advanced on me but when the time came, I was the one that got suspended because he hadn't touched me yet. I'm sitting there thinking "Like hell I'll let this guy touch me first." They said I should of screamed for help so they don't think this was self-defense. I don't think the morons ever got that the choir room was SOUND PROOF. My first reaction wasn't to start screaming because I was taking martial arts at the time. My first reaction was to hit first, get away, figure out what the hell happened later. There were also several expensive cellos and violas around my feet so I couldn't run without destroying property that I couldn't afford to replace. The principle kept trying to turn it on me "Well, if you had a problem..." my mother stopped her right there and said "Look. SHE doesn't have the problem. HE does." The zero-tolerance stuff is bull. What am I supposed to do, get beaten or worse and not defend myself? Apparently that's the policy.
2-06-2010 @ 3:48AM
David S. said...I agree arresting this child was way over the top, but now look for her family to make a huge issue of it. Can you say lawsuit anyone? Sounds like the little darling is also liking all the attention she is getting too.
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2-27-2010 @ 11:14AM
Alan said...she said she thought she "would get detention." So she KNEW she was doing something WRONG and she went ahead and did it anyway!! She IS a DELINQUENT!! She deserves a LOT of detention and be made to clean a lot of desks.
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2-06-2010 @ 4:28AM
Riff said...Lies. All lies. Its time the authorities got theirs.
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2-06-2010 @ 4:57AM
Momof4 said...So, she is a 'snotty, little brat' because she, like MILLIONS of other kids in schools across our country, wrote on her desk and she cried because she was scared? Do you people honestly think that this 'tough love' or tough disicipline as it were, was reallly necessary? If you do, I truly believe that you should be handcuffed and taken to jail for jaywalking, not stopping completely at a stop sign, taking a grape from the grocery store without paying, etc., etc..
It's not the act that is the issue, it's what the school did because of the act-it was completely out of line! She is 12-TWELVE years old, and she wrote on the desk. She is being punished (some of you need to go back and read the whole thing). Maybe cleaning all of the desk would be an appropriate punishment, but to 'ass-u-me' that she is a snotty little brat because she was scared and crying while being held at a police station, well, you people deserve to be in jail for abuse! Now, wouldn't that just be STUPID?
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2-06-2010 @ 4:59AM
elgj said...Sounds like what happened to my little brother. He was convicted with a felony for writing "Catch me if you can" on a bathroom mirror with a erasable marker also. They erased what he wrote before my mom could even get there to see what he did and still went ahead and charged him.
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2-06-2010 @ 5:46AM
josvel282 said...She's a snotty lil kid cuz she did what all of us including everyone here has done as a kid.. .. what she did was what many normal kids do.. And don't gimme that crap.. " Oh i never did that" or " mY kid wouldn't do that".. please wake up from this fantasy dream of such a perfect world.
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2-06-2010 @ 5:48AM
josvel282 said...This is what happens when you let the PC people get their way.. This world is getting so ridicules.. money is spent on pointless things & idea, the education dept. & schools are run by morons who are either too stupid or too lazy to know how to handle the simplest situations in schools,... people have gotten soooo sensitive that they find everything offensive & then make a ridicules big deal that to my surprise are taken so serious.... Come onnn!!!! A kid almost suspended over a lego toy gun & this story.. this world has truely lost all of it's senses.. what a pathetic downfall we are facing... it's worst than the financial one
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2-06-2010 @ 6:16AM
emily29388 said...Handcuff Class is now in session. Handcuffs, when properly applied, will not cause pain and discomfort unless the person fights the cuffs, ie, straining to get loose, etc.
Handcuffs are not punishment. They are aids to prevent escape.
Handcuff restraints are pretty much required for use by Police Officers making an arrest and transporting arrestees.
MOST IMPORTANTLY handcuffs are an important aid to control the person. In this case a 12 year old girl. Consider that an uncuffed person is free to cause a lot of havoc and injuring themselves or others. A handcuffed person, even a 12 year old, is much more restricted and much easier to control if they decide to break bad. ANYTIME police are arresting/handcuffing an individual the person should be restrained by cuffs.
In this case police didn't apply the cuffs. Apparently civilians did and they will most likely get sued.
But consider, if you will, that this precious 12 year old vandal had not been cuffed and had decided to fight back. Would you rather have seen her head bloodied and an arm broke when these school officials tried to restrain her?
And I imagine cuffs were in the school and available for use to aid in preventing a bad situation from getting worse.
Cuffs are a great aid for anyone charged with restraining any individual for their safety and that of others.
I am not questioning whether this was an overreaction from school officials. Let the court decide that. I am saying that once they decided to move her across the street to the police station the use of cuffs was a wise decision.
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2-06-2010 @ 6:17AM
bluehawk99 said...For Realmancan
Perhaps you should read the article again...she is not "currently suspended"!
"Even though she is no longer suspended,..." is what it says!
And what platoon would that have been you are spouting about??
I was a police officer for a number of years and you do NOT put handcuffs on a minor for actions such as these.
The whole incident was handled poorly!!!!!
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2-06-2010 @ 10:19AM
Vienna said...Lord, save us from ourselves. This nation has gone beyond out of control. At this point, we'll never get a handle on what's reasonable, appropriate and and just plain common sense anymore.
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2-06-2010 @ 10:24AM
Delilah said...Emily, your fixation about handcuffs is pretty, um, well.....I think we all got the picture. LOL
I hardly doubt any physical restraint was necessary. Doesn't sound like she was violent or cursing or throwing a fit, tossing tables, threatening to run, struggling, etc.
If I found out my child was handcuffed, my FIRST question would be why the hell were there handcuffs even at that school.
That is a tool for police officers and other law enforcement agencies who are properly trained in assessing use and applying use. Not for educators.
But then again, like I said, your fixation with handcuffs......one can only imagine the obvious....unfortunately.
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2-06-2010 @ 4:36PM
josvel282 said...Thank you emily29388 for that thorough & very educational crash course on hand cuffs... though I might add you forgot about the "other " uses for hand cuffs but I know this is the "Family" section but I'll be on the look out for your report in th e"Adult" Chapter....lmao
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