Mar. 18 2010 - 3:47 pm | 1,544 views | 1 recommendation | 6 comments

Twelve-year-old Girl handcuffed, arrested for doodling on desk

By MATTHEW NEWTON

Alexa Gonzalez, a 12-year-old student at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, Queens, was handcuffed and detained for doodling on her desk with erasable marker. (Photo: Pace for News)

Here’s yet another example of why the NYPD should not be in charge of school security. Last month, Alexa Gonzalez, a 12-year-old student from Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, Queens, was handcuffed and arrested for doodling such controversial phrases as “I love my friends Abby and Faith” and “Lex was here” on her school desk. Gonzalez committed the crime while waiting for her Spanish teacher to pass out homework.

Cases like this can’t help but trigger flashbacks to a time, more than a decade ago, when educators willingly handed over control of school security to the NYPD:

The New York City school board unanimously approved a controversial arrangement last week to put the city’s police force in charge of hiring, firing, and training school security officers. The vote ended three years of often heated negotiations between Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who proposed the plan, and school leaders. (via Education Week, September 23, 1998)

The negotiations may have been heated, but the measure passed. And today, Giuliani’s fingerprints are all over incidents like this. And while the ex-mayor is often showered with praise for the work he did during his tenure, the legacy he left behind is often overlooked.

In the Gonzalez case, city officials later acknowledged that the arrest was a mistake. “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 told the New York Daily News last month.

And the Gonzalez case is not an isolated incident. According to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU in January, the NYPD regularly arrests students for ‘non-crimes.’ It seems like there’s really no good excuse for ‘accidental arrests,’ but I would imagine this has something to do with it:

Under the plan, security officers eventually will be allowed to become city police officers, establishing a promotional ladder that the district argues will attract better employees. (via Education Week, September 23, 1998)

In other words, the NYPD is using/has been using city schools as a training ground for its future officers. This could explain the less-than-stellar judgment of its security officers. Afterall, who better to test wet-behind-the-ears law enforcement officers on than America’s youth?