Girl draws on desk, ends up in handcuffs

**buttmunch** · February 5th, 2010, 06:57 AM

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 Tamacho, 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-old Dennis 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."

Read more: Queens girl Alexa Gonzalez hauled out of school in handcuffs after getting caught doodling on desk

Yeah, another brilliant decision by educators. Talk about overkill.

**McJag** · February 5th, 2010, 07:16 AM

Man,some of us should have landed in prison then. This is totally screwed up.

**Wiseguy** · February 5th, 2010, 07:54 AM

This is so absurd you have to wonder if it really happened.

**Grimmlok** · February 5th, 2010, 09:29 AM

If i was a kid i would have LOST MY SHIT. I would have refused to be fucking cuffed for that, I would have fought like hell too. Fucking absurd!

**Charmed Hour** · February 5th, 2010, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

If i was a kid i would have LOST MY SHIT. I would have refused to be fucking cuffed for that, I would have fought like hell too. Fucking absurd!

And then been charged with resisting to go along with vandalism.

**Grimmlok** · February 5th, 2010, 09:43 AM

Yeah, but then i'd have an awesome lawsuit to file

**Charmed Hour** · February 5th, 2010, 09:47 AM

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

Yeah, but then i'd have an awesome lawsuit to file

Make sure you have it held in the Bronx. We pay out the biggest settlements.

I think it's harsh to have cuffed her, but you know what, she even said...she's learned her lesson. The public schools are overrun with ill behaved kids, teachers with their hands tied and parents who, surprise! look to sue over every little thing their precious angel may or may not have done/received, etc. Perhaps if more kids were held accountable for their actions, the schools would be less violent, and learning would become the priority again and not safety.

**sputnik** · February 5th, 2010, 10:01 AM

Originally Posted by Charmed Hour

I think it's harsh to have cuffed her, but you know what, she even said...she's learned her lesson. The public schools are overrun with ill behaved kids, teachers with their hands tied and parents who, surprise! look to sue over every little thing their precious angel may or may not have done/received, etc. Perhaps if more kids were held accountable for their actions, the schools would be less violent, and learning would become the priority again and not safety.

are you fucking kidding? doodling on a desk isn't violent. didn't you ever doodle on a desk? i think most kids have and do you really think arresting them is 'a little harsh' but justifiable because it means they'll learn their lesson?
you know what? i bet if they'd burned her with cigarettes and whipped her, she would have learned her lesson too. but does that make it alright? no. in this case, the means does not justify the end and i hope she sues the school and the police department and wins big.

**buttmunch** · February 5th, 2010, 10:05 AM

Originally Posted by Charmed Hour

Make sure you have it held in the Bronx. We pay out the biggest settlements.

I think it's harsh to have cuffed her, but you know what, she even said...she's learned her lesson. The public schools are overrun with ill behaved kids, teachers with their hands tied and parents who, surprise! look to sue over every little thing their precious angel may or may not have done/received, etc. Perhaps if more kids were held accountable for their actions, the schools would be less violent, and learning would become the priority again and not safety.

Give me a break. Make her scrub the desks in the classroom, give her detention, but cuff her? I can't believe anyone would even begin to defend it.

**Charmed Hour** · February 5th, 2010, 10:13 AM

Originally Posted by sputnik

are you fucking kidding? doodling on a desk isn't violent. didn't you ever doodle on a desk? i think most kids have and do you really think arresting them is 'a little harsh' but justifiable because it means they'll learn their lesson?
you know what? i bet if they'd burned her with cigarettes and whipped her, she would have learned her lesson too. but does that make it alright? no. in this case, the means does not justify the end and i hope she sues the school and the police department and wins big.

Nope, never doodled on a desk. I went to Catholic schools and there was no way you'd do something like that. Zero tolerance for those types of things. No graffitti on the walls either or messing in the bathrooms.

Come to a NYC public school and you just might change your opinion on what's appropriate disciplinary action. I student taught during college an 8th grade class and those kids were out of fucking control and there wasn't a damn thing the teachers and the school could do about it.

Equating being arrested with physical abuse and torture is a bit of stretch for me. Had that girl been busted writing graffitti on a public building, they'd have arrested her too. She gets a pass cause it's in a school?

**McJag** · February 5th, 2010, 10:18 AM

Charmed-really! No one is saying she should have gotten a medal for this. Scrubbing down the school room would surffice. Arresting her was a bit of a stretch,IMO.

**sputnik** · February 5th, 2010, 10:18 AM

i went to catholic schools for 3 years too. that's where i did some of my best desktop 'artwork'.
i'm sure there are discipline problems in public schools but that still doesn't justify arresting a kid and hauling her off in handcuffs. seriously, the fact that you're even trying to defend this is pretty mind-boggling...

**frazzled** · February 5th, 2010, 10:19 AM

Oh, man, I'd be serving a life sentence if it were up to these yahoos. I'd have entire conversations with the person who used my desk in the next period. It sure kept me amused; I hated that class.

**Charmed Hour** · February 5th, 2010, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by sputnik

i went to catholic schools for 3 years too. that's where i did some of my best desktop 'artwork'.
i'm sure there are discipline problems in public schools but that still doesn't justify arresting a kid and hauling her off in handcuffs. seriously, the fact that you're even trying to defend this is pretty mind-boggling...

Let me ask this... if she defaced your property would you let her walk away? Let's say she scribbled on your fence or side of your home. IMO, there's no difference in her doing it in school or doing it out in the street.

I don't agree with her being cuffed, as I said before. I do agree with disciplinary action being taken against her. Perhaps scrubbing desks would have been sufficient along with detention. I don't know. I don't have children of mine own and I choose not to teach based on my experiences during my student teaching internship.

What I do know is there is no sense of accountability or self responsiblity today. Kids basically run amuck and everyone's hands are tied. It is NOT ok to deface property. She wants to scribble doodles, she should have done it in her notebook.

**sputnik** · February 5th, 2010, 10:37 AM

who said anything about letting her get away with it? why is the fascist biddy brigade convinced that the alternative to excessive use of force is always to do nothing? so now the alternatives to child discipline are either 'do nothing' or 'have them arrested and hauled off by the cops'? that's ridiculous.
so which is it, do you agree with the cuffing or not? you seemed fine with it a couple of posts ago since she 'learned her lesson' but now you think some discipline would be enough?