A old fashioned food fight broke out and instead of the mops and brooms being broken out it was handcuffs. 25 Chicago students, arrested for food fighting, have discovered that things just aren’t like they used to be. I remember back when I was in school, which wasn’t THAT long ago, a food fight would get you suspended if you got caught, but you weren’t going to get arrested for it.
The students that were arrested were between the ages of 11-15 and went to school at the Perspectives Charter Schools in Calumet, Illinois. Read more about students gone wild, and administrators gone overboard, below.
According to the reports of the food fight it sounded like this food fight started like any other food fight. Something gets thrown, some piece of food gets thrown back, someone stands up and yells “FOOD FIGHT” and then all Hell breaks loose. It’s almost a right of passage to have participated in a food fight while in school. Over two dozen students were arrested and charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct.
Part of the problem is that after these students were arrested they were, according to parents, the students were held at the police station for over five hours before parents were called. There are also reports of staff members getting out of line in dealing with the students involved in the food fight. It is true that three students were claimed to have been injured, but what type of injuries is not known.
Parents are now worried that the charges will affect future job prospects and college applications. Hopefully that is not the case, and where this is a juvenile offense the charges, if they stick (no pun intended) will be expunged when the students turn 18. I do understand wanting to maintain order, and I have no problem with a suspension of the students, or even expulsion from the charter school if warranted, but did they really have to arrest these students?
It just seems to me that the administration took this way too far in responding to the food fight. Why children as young as 11 need to be cuffed and taken to a police station after a food fight is beyond me. At the very least their parents should have been immediately notified. If it is true that the children were held for over five hours before parents were called then I have a real problem with that. Have we really gotten so uptight that a food fight is grounds for arrest?
This video below explains what food fights were like before everyone decided to go completely insane and common sense in schools flew out the window.
I would love to hear what you all think. Should these Chicago Students arrested for food fighting really have been arrested in the first place? I think it’s pretty clear what my opinion of this whole issue is, but I’d love to hear what you have to say. Food fighting should not equal handcuffs and a trip to the station. A trip to the office and a possible suspension, sure, I can get on-board with that, but that’s as far as I’m willing to take that one. Hopefully the administration at Perspectives Charter School in Illinois will show some restraint and ask that criminal charges be dropped. We can hope, but I’m guessing from the initial response that it’s too much to hope for for the school to be reasonable.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:54 am
[...] students were taken into custody at about 12 noon and charged with misdemeanor reckless [...]
November 10th, 2009 at 9:56 am
I think the whole world has gone mad! We are so busy being ‘politically correct’ and ‘not hurting anyone’s feelings’ that we have thrown truth and personal responsibility right out the window. The biggest thing that should have happened to these kids is having to clean up the mess they made and catch up in the classes they missed while doing it. We claim that children are our greatest asset. When will we put our actions where our words are?
November 10th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
I was just wondering, what if these children were so nonparented and unsocialized they didn’t calm down when the staff or police tried to stop them? Today that could happen. So the police are called. These may not be your ymca summer camp kids who have some respect for adults, but kids totally out of control(Chicago ring a bell anyone?) in which case they reaped what they sowed. Regardless the parents should be billed for the clean up and wasted food and the kids put in a after school or saturday dentention cleanup detail for two weeks and made to work. a good lessoon would be to cut off thier cafeteria priveledges for two weeks too, let mom make them sandwiches.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
I went to one school in the midwest where nobody ever even thought of a food fight ever. then I went to one on the east coast where the spoilt inner city brats had several food fights like clockwork and nobody ever cut them off. Guess which one had theft in the dorms?
November 11th, 2009 at 6:01 am
I am currently in the Army, but I have worked at and for a couple of school districts. The school administrator is by law the person or persons legally responsible for the enforcement of discipline at the school. If the situation was sufficient to require police intervention to restore order, and all other attempts had been made to put the situation under control. The police was the proper response. The decision to arrest those students after order had been restored rests solely with the school principal, dean, etc. I would not do it, but it is within the school administrators right to have the students arrested and subsequently prosecuted in the name of the school district as the complainant, or it is possible that the students were unruly even with the police. In that case, the police, at their discretion could take the students for violating state or municipal law – which I have seen before. This is just a much larger scale, and there are probably several more facts to be knows. One thing is for sure, no one likes doing all the paperwork associated with having students suspended, detained, or expelled. Given the situation, the school may just opt to expel those students as well. Maintaining order in the school system is difficult, and especially difficult in schools with large numbers of students.
An example of why I think that the school district owes no one an apology – I had the wrestling team break out into a fight on me aboard a charter bus. The only person there was myself and the driver. I attempted to have the students return to their seats, but was totally ignored. I banged on the roof, raised my voice, and gave plenty of warnings. The only thing that broke that fight up was the prospect of being arrested, since permission there too was given for the police to get involved. The threat of arrest was the only thing that stopped that fight from continuing. I heard students plead to me suddenly that they were on probation and could not be arrested again.
So, what kind of other violations have I seen in the school system – vandalism, aggravated assault, assault, battery, aggravated battery, petty theft, and I am not even sure how to classify dissecting a live cat … and more. Faculty at school districts are constantly in fear of abuse charges. The reason that the police becomes more convenient is to protect the staff, and avoid civil suits against specific faculty members. They may win the legal action, but in the meantime the district is stuck with faculty on suspension or administrative leave while said events are worked out in court. The matter of personal liability is also a reason to have police reports filed, and arrest records created. Why should a teacher, that taught for 20 years, has a family of their own, now suddenly have to be traumatized and financially devastated when a student is clearly in the wrong? Final example, a student busts out a window, and is then told to go to the deans office, and instead stays seated refusing to move for anyone. The dean is summoned, grabs the student with the help of school security, and then suspends him immediately. The students father is a lawyer, sues the district, wins the suit, with a financial settlement, an expunged record, and the district and faculty members involved are forced to make an apology or quit – and one of them did quit.
There is a lot more to this than meets the eye. The litigious society we live in, and even what is being said here – being held for 5 hours before parents were contacted. Doubt it personally, I bet what really happened was the parents were unavailable, and the police just had to wait until someone responsible could come and pick up their kid at the station.
November 11th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
If these students are so “unruly” as some have speculated, then it is clear the school did not provide enough staff to ensure a quite and peaceful lunch. What exactly is misdemeanor reckless conduct? Heck, the Disney channel had a food fight in a Disney Channel Movie and no one got arrested. They had to clean up the mess, write apologies, got detention and were grounded by their parents.
By arresting the kids and not notifying the parents, the school immediately turns the parent to the kids defense — rather than the parent applying the appropriate punishment and support for the school.
Any kid that was arrested and interviewed by the police had their rights violated. Cops are not allowed by law to talk to a kid after an arrest without their parent there.
Very bad judgment by the school!!
November 11th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I work in a school system and yes, students can become very disruptive—better to have them spend a few hours with the police now than to have them possibly spending some time later. Pehaps this experience gave them an opportunity to think seriously about what they did. Food is made to eat not to throw at each other. There people who are starving and have nothing to eat. It is a good thing the food fight was stopped before someone started throwing utensils—no one knows all the details,therefore why make negative assumptions directed toward the administraion of the school. Quick thinking prevented what could have been a more serious situation.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Give me a break!!! How about a time out in the principal’s office and a parent conference? If was a food fight… And oh my, it was very lucky no one got hit with a PLASTIC SPOON!! Whew! The cops got there just in time.
The school and the staff have quite a bit of responsibility here. It was a food fight.. I guess you believe all kids are basically bad (which is a negative assumption) and the school administrators are perfect. Boy, I am sure glad my kid doesn’t go to your school!
My experience with school staff is similar to your way of thinking… pass the blame.
November 13th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
It’s too damn bad the death penalty was abolished for juvenile offenders. Waterboard the little gutter snipes. I’ll bet they won’t even want to eat food–let alone fling it. Reckless conduct. What were they throwing, hot potatoes, watermelons, actual broccoli spears?
November 14th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Katherine, I think your thinking it was a suburban school where the parents were all white collar and the worst the kids did was have a wrestling fight once in a while. This was likely a much saltier crowd. I blame the parents frankly. As a kid there was one teacher assigned to our lunch hall for 100o kids staggered over three half hours and two cashier ladies. I remember only a few times the teacher having to tell the kids to cool it. there were no food or knife fights ever. we were just different kids than what passes for today’s group. and we all knew our parents would support the school for any bad behavior we did. we did not feel entitled to be bad. we had that youthful energy and talked and laughed and ate fast. it just never occured to us to go on rebellion to the “system”, and frankly the food was very good so it was a treat. This was back at a time when you couldn’t buy much in the way of sugar snacks and junk food that would pass for a meal. It was pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravey, green beans, cherry cobbler and milk. no soda.