12 Year Old Girl Arrested for Doodling

12 yr old Forest Hills girl arrested for doodling on her desk

This is not an isolated incident.
Russell Sage Junior High School (JHS 190) is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. The principal, Marilyn Grant, Dean Elizabeth Heinze, Assistant Principal Elizabeth Lawrence, and other administrators are being investigated for child harrassment, verbal abuse, and discrimination. A “Zero Tolerance” policy has run amok at Russell Sage. Children are being suspended and arrested without cause. Due process rights are being violated. Local police are being drawn in to arrest children for minor “offenses” like doodling or assertions from the school of guilt by association.
Stop the madness. Sign the online petition calling for further investigation of the school’s administration and a stop to the abuse of power:

http://www.petitiononline.com/jhs190/petition.html

Queens girl Alexa Gonzalez hauled out of school in handcuffs after getting caught doodling on desk
BY Rachel Monahan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, February 4th 2010, 11:57 PM
A 12-year-old Queens girl was hauled out of school in handcuffs for an artless offense – doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker, the Daily News has learned.
Alexa Gonzalez was scribbling a few words on her desk Monday while waiting for her Spanish teacher to pass out homework at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, she said.
“I love my friends Abby and Faith,” the girl wrote, adding the phrases “Lex was here. 2/1/10” and a smiley face.
But instead of simply cleaning off the doodles after class, Alexa landed in some adult-sized trouble for using her lime-green magic marker.
She was led out of school in cuffs and walked to the precinct across the street, where she was detained for several hours, she and her mother said.
“I started crying, like, a lot,” said Alexa. “I made two little doodles. … It could be easily erased. To put handcuffs on me is unnecessary.” Alexa, who had a stellar attendance record, hasn’t been back to school since, adding, “I just thought I’d get a detention. I thought maybe I would have to clean [the desk].”
“She’s been throwing up,” said her mom, Moraima Camacho, 49, an accountant, who lives with her daughter in Kew Gardens. “The whole situation has been a nightmare.”
City officials acknowledged Alexa’s arrest was a mistake.
“We’re looking at the facts,” said City Education Department spokesman David Cantor. “Based on what we’ve seen so far, this shouldn’t have happened.”
“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,” said police spokesman Paul Browne.
Alexa is the latest in a string of city students who have been cuffed for minor infractions. In 2007, 13-year-old Chelsea Fraser was placed under arrest for writing “okay” on her desk at Intermediate School 201. And in 2008, 5-year-oldDennis Rivera was cuffed and sent to a psych ward after throwing a fit in his kindergarten.
A class action lawsuit was filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union last month against the city for using “excessive force” in middle school and high schools. A 12-year-old sixth-grader, identified in the lawsuit as M.M., was arrested in March 2009 for doodling on her desk at the Hunts Point School.
Alexa is still suspended from her school, her mother said. She and her mom went to family court on Tuesday, where Alexa was assigned eight hours of community service, a book report and an essay on what she learned from the experience.
“I definitely learned not to ever draw on a desk,” said Alexa. “They told me with a pencil this could still happen.”
rmonahan@nydailynews.com
With Wil Cruz

Sign the online petition calling for further  investigation of the school’s administration and  a stop to the abuse of power:
http://www.petitiononline.com/jhs190/petition.html

arrested for doodling on her desk

Sign the online petition calling for further investigation of the school’s administration and a stop to the abuse of power:
http://www.petitiononline.com/jhs190/petition.html

Video News on Alexa Gonzalez Arrest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPoVe3hYRWI&NR=1

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New York Civil Liberties Union – School To Prison Pipeline

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