Buccaneer
04-05-2005, 06:17 PM
From a column in today's Denver Post
$1 candy theft a misdemeanor?http://www.denverpost.com/cda/images/article/spacer.gif
By Cindy Rodríguez
Denver Post Columnist ([email protected])http://www.denverpost.com/cda/images/article/spacer.gif
This is how absurd zero-tolerance school policies have become: Police charged an 11-year-old Highlands Ranch boy with theft last year for taking a lollipop from a classroom jar. In the 14 months that this case has wound its way through the juvenile court system in Douglas County, thousands of dollars have been spent paying for hours of work by the Sheriff's Department, the district attorney's office, county social workers, and clerks filing the paperwork.
All to teach a boy a lesson.
David Michael Boeke, the kid who was charged, told me he didn't know the lollipops were being sold for $1 to raise money. He thought it was a teacher's way of being nice. Now he has a police record.
If only this were an isolated case.
Last week, The Post ran a front-page article about 15 Adams City High students suspended for a full year for watching a fight.
<!-- cdaFreeFormDetailByName.strSQL = FreeForm_GetTextBySectionIDPaperID @Name = 'ArticleAd', @PaperID = '36', @SectionID = '28388', @ArticleID = '2798118', @Filter = 'Article', @LiveFilter = '1', @DateTimeContext = '4/5/2005 5:18:50 PM' --><!-- ArticleAd not found -->The suspension came several days before the nonprofit organization Padres Unidos released a study showing a huge increase in the number of Denver Public School students being issued police tickets for minor disobedience problems.
And Thursday I learned why the Denver County Court calls one of its programs "Juvenile Diversion:" It's diverting kids from school.
On a day they should have been in school, a dozen kids were spirited by two county vans from juvenile court to clean city parks in an effort to set them straight.
Can't they perform community service on the weekends so they don't miss school?
Schools have a duty to make sure kids are respectful, but when the system keeps kids out of school or charges 11-year-olds with theft for taking candy, it's time to re-evaluate these draconian policies.
I tried talking to the adults responsible for having David charged with theft in the Great Lollipop Heist, but I couldn't get any to talk to me.
The teacher who pressed charges, Diane Hamulak, last week said she couldn't talk to me without her principal's permission.
The principal of Cresthill Middle School, Sally Stanley, did not return my call. When I talked to Hamulak a day later, she said Stanley was aware that I wanted to speak with the two of them.
Sunday, I finally reached Stanley at home. Her only words to me: "We don't have any comment." Then she hung up.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Byron Jones told me, "Sometimes it is appropriate to charge someone with theft when they've taken something worth $1." But after going through the merits of the case, Jones conceded this much: "Maybe a choice could've been made to do something different."
On Wednesday, after 14 months of wrangling with the juvenile-justice system, paying $500 in court and attorney fees and hours of counseling, David was put on one-year probation. If he's good, the misdemeanor charge will drop from his record.
"The court made us go through family counseling," said David's father, David T. Boeke, a 49-year-old president of a direct-marketing company. "The social worker interviewed us about our family medical history. ... I had to sit there and talk to her about my father's colon cancer."
He said the experience has been surreal. "This is something that should be on the set of 'Saturday Night Live,"' he said.
It would be comical if it weren't true. Isn't justice about having a punishment fit the crime?
Wouldn't it be more fitting to have David wash the teacher's chalkboard for a month, or write an essay about stealing?
Schools throughout the country are abdicating responsibility, handing minor problems to the already overburdened justice system, to send a message to students.
That message: We don't know what justice means.
Cindy Rodríguez's column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact her at [email protected] ([email protected]) or 303-820-1211.
$1 candy theft a misdemeanor?http://www.denverpost.com/cda/images/article/spacer.gif
By Cindy Rodríguez
Denver Post Columnist ([email protected])http://www.denverpost.com/cda/images/article/spacer.gif
This is how absurd zero-tolerance school policies have become: Police charged an 11-year-old Highlands Ranch boy with theft last year for taking a lollipop from a classroom jar. In the 14 months that this case has wound its way through the juvenile court system in Douglas County, thousands of dollars have been spent paying for hours of work by the Sheriff's Department, the district attorney's office, county social workers, and clerks filing the paperwork.
All to teach a boy a lesson.
David Michael Boeke, the kid who was charged, told me he didn't know the lollipops were being sold for $1 to raise money. He thought it was a teacher's way of being nice. Now he has a police record.
If only this were an isolated case.
Last week, The Post ran a front-page article about 15 Adams City High students suspended for a full year for watching a fight.
<!-- cdaFreeFormDetailByName.strSQL = FreeForm_GetTextBySectionIDPaperID @Name = 'ArticleAd', @PaperID = '36', @SectionID = '28388', @ArticleID = '2798118', @Filter = 'Article', @LiveFilter = '1', @DateTimeContext = '4/5/2005 5:18:50 PM' --><!-- ArticleAd not found -->The suspension came several days before the nonprofit organization Padres Unidos released a study showing a huge increase in the number of Denver Public School students being issued police tickets for minor disobedience problems.
And Thursday I learned why the Denver County Court calls one of its programs "Juvenile Diversion:" It's diverting kids from school.
On a day they should have been in school, a dozen kids were spirited by two county vans from juvenile court to clean city parks in an effort to set them straight.
Can't they perform community service on the weekends so they don't miss school?
Schools have a duty to make sure kids are respectful, but when the system keeps kids out of school or charges 11-year-olds with theft for taking candy, it's time to re-evaluate these draconian policies.
I tried talking to the adults responsible for having David charged with theft in the Great Lollipop Heist, but I couldn't get any to talk to me.
The teacher who pressed charges, Diane Hamulak, last week said she couldn't talk to me without her principal's permission.
The principal of Cresthill Middle School, Sally Stanley, did not return my call. When I talked to Hamulak a day later, she said Stanley was aware that I wanted to speak with the two of them.
Sunday, I finally reached Stanley at home. Her only words to me: "We don't have any comment." Then she hung up.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Byron Jones told me, "Sometimes it is appropriate to charge someone with theft when they've taken something worth $1." But after going through the merits of the case, Jones conceded this much: "Maybe a choice could've been made to do something different."
On Wednesday, after 14 months of wrangling with the juvenile-justice system, paying $500 in court and attorney fees and hours of counseling, David was put on one-year probation. If he's good, the misdemeanor charge will drop from his record.
"The court made us go through family counseling," said David's father, David T. Boeke, a 49-year-old president of a direct-marketing company. "The social worker interviewed us about our family medical history. ... I had to sit there and talk to her about my father's colon cancer."
He said the experience has been surreal. "This is something that should be on the set of 'Saturday Night Live,"' he said.
It would be comical if it weren't true. Isn't justice about having a punishment fit the crime?
Wouldn't it be more fitting to have David wash the teacher's chalkboard for a month, or write an essay about stealing?
Schools throughout the country are abdicating responsibility, handing minor problems to the already overburdened justice system, to send a message to students.
That message: We don't know what justice means.
Cindy Rodríguez's column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact her at [email protected] ([email protected]) or 303-820-1211.