6th-Grader Arrested After Dispute Over Pledge

[Nithavela]

6th-Grader Arrested After Dispute Over Pledge

An 11-year-old boy in Florida who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance ended up in a juvenile detention center after the situation escalated, authorities say. Polk County Public Schools spokesman Kyle Kennedy says the sixth-grader at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, who disobeyed a substitute teacher's order to stand for the pledge, was arrested after "becoming disruptive and refusing to follow repeated instructions by school staff and law enforcement," the Ledger reports.

The monster, I hope they throw the book at him.

 

[St_Worm2]

Hi @Nithavela, I remember the first day my class was taken up to our elementary school's library like it just happened yesterday, because about 5 minutes into our time there, two uniformed police officers came into the library, put one of my 4 grade classmates in handcuffs and took him away. His crime? He took an old wooden case filled with 6.5 oz glass Coke bottles, turned them all into Molotov cocktails, set them on his neighbors porch, and burned her house to the ground. His neighbor (who he liked and he admitted was kind to him), a widowed grandmother, escaped unharmed, but she lost everything she had in the house.

The article you posited says that,

"Polk County Public Schools spokesman Kyle Kennedy .. said the boy was arrested on Feb. 4 because of disruptive behavior, not just to refusal to stand. "Students are not required to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance," he says.
​

It seems to me that there is a lot more to this story than the article reported, due in part I'm sure to the fact that the crime, whatever it actually was, was perpetrated by a child. School "discipline" problems are handled by parents, teachers and principals, the police are summoned when actual crimes are involved .. especially in the case of elementary school children.

--David

 

[Kentonio]

Hi @Nithavela, I remember the first day my class was taken up to our elementary school's library like it just happened yesterday, because about 5 minutes into our time there, two uniformed police officers came into the library, put one of my 4 grade classmates in handcuffs and took him away. His crime? He took an old wooden case filled with 6.5 oz glass Coke bottles, turned them all into Molotov cocktails, set them on his neighbors porch, and burned her house to the ground. His neighbor (who he liked and he admitted was kind to him), a widowed grandmother, escaped unharmed, but she lost everything she had in the house.

The article you posited says that,

"Polk County Public Schools spokesman Kyle Kennedy .. said the boy was arrested on Feb. 4 because of disruptive behavior, not just to refusal to stand. "Students are not required to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance," he says.
​

It seems to me that there is a lot more to this story than the article reported, due in part I'm sure to the fact that the crime, whatever it actually was, was perpetrated by a child. School "discipline" problems are handled by parents, teachers and principals, the police are summoned when actual crimes are involved .. especially in the case of elementary school children.

--David

They handcuffed a 9 year old? America is deeply disturbing.

 

[Nithavela]

Hi @Nithavela, I remember the first day my class was taken up to our elementary school's library like it just happened yesterday, because about 5 minutes into our time there, two uniformed police officers came into the library, put one of my 4 grade classmates in handcuffs and took him away. His crime? He took an old wooden case filled with 6.5 oz glass Coke bottles, turned them all into Molotov cocktails, set them on his neighbors porch, and burned her house to the ground. His neighbor (who he liked and he admitted was kind to him), a widowed grandmother, escaped unharmed, but she lost everything she had in the house.

The article you posited says that,

"Polk County Public Schools spokesman Kyle Kennedy .. said the boy was arrested on Feb. 4 because of disruptive behavior, not just to refusal to stand. "Students are not required to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance," he says.
​

It seems to me that there is a lot more to this story than the article reported, due in part I'm sure to the fact that the crime, whatever it actually was, was perpetrated by a child. School "discipline" problems are handled by parents, teachers and principals, the police are summoned when actual crimes are involved .. especially in the case of elementary school children.

--David

Not sure what you are suggesting here? That the child in the OP story must have done something heinous because he was arrested? What kind of backwards logic is that?

You might be bit out of touch with the current situation. I don't know when you went to school, but today the police is called on misbehaving children (or even children who are in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong skin color) all the time, sometimes by their own parents.

 

[camille70]

Hi @Nithavela, I remember the first day my class was taken up to our elementary school's library like it just happened yesterday, because about 5 minutes into our time there, two uniformed police officers came into the library, put one of my 4 grade classmates in handcuffs and took him away. His crime? He took an old wooden case filled with 6.5 oz glass Coke bottles, turned them all into Molotov cocktails, set them on his neighbors porch, and burned her house to the ground. His neighbor (who he liked and he admitted was kind to him), a widowed grandmother, escaped unharmed, but she lost everything she had in the house.

The article you posited says that,

"Polk County Public Schools spokesman Kyle Kennedy .. said the boy was arrested on Feb. 4 because of disruptive behavior, not just to refusal to stand. "Students are not required to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance," he says.
​

It seems to me that there is a lot more to this story than the article reported, due in part I'm sure to the fact that the crime, whatever it actually was, was perpetrated by a child. School "discipline" problems are handled by parents, teachers and principals, the police are summoned when actual crimes are involved .. especially in the case of elementary school children.

--David

The substitute teacher basically escalated the situation because she did not know the student had the right to sit out the pledge. Had she not forced the issue, he would not have become disruptive. They have said they will make sure that all teachers are properly educated on the issue and stated that she no longer substitutes for the district. He was arrested because she didn't respect his right to say no, and he stood his ground.

 

[Sabertooth]

His crime? He took an old wooden case filled with 6.5 oz glass Coke bottles, turned them all into Molotov cocktails, set them on his neighbors porch, and burned her house to the ground.

Was he being malicious, or just reckless?

 

[SummerMadness]

It's good to see law enforcement is being put to good use and preventing this monster from roaming the halls of school.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

This kid has learned a very valuable lesson about individuality in the land of the free.

 

[grasping the after wind]

They handcuffed a 9 year old? America is deeply disturbing.

A sixth grader? 9 years old. Must have been quite precocious.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

There are religious organizations forbid the recitation of any pledge that is not to God.

 

[abysmul]

A Florida 6th-grader called the Pledge of Allegiance ‘racist.’ Then he got arrested.

Police say the student was arrested after he “was asked over 20 times to leave the classroom by the Dean of Students,” and made threatening comments, according to WFLA.

The teacher said she “had to call the office because I did not want to continue dealing with (the student),” according to BayNews9.

He was charged with “disruption of a school facility and resisting an officer without violence,” The Washington Post reported. He also was given a three-day suspension, according to WTSP.

“To be clear, students are not required to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance,” Kyle Kennedy, from Polk County Public Schools, told the Patch. “Unfortunately, a substitute teacher was not aware of this.”

“The student was NOT arrested for refusing to participate in the pledge,” Lakeland police spokesman Gary B. Gross said, according to WFLA.

School officials say Alvarez will no longer be a substitute teacher in Polk County schools, the Patch reported.

 

[paul1149]

It seems to me that there is a lot more to this story than the article reported

That is my first impression as well. We ought to have learned by now not to take things as the headline writers present them, uncritically. But evidently we have not. We're too quick to judge and jump on a bandwagon. We ought to let the details come out first.

 

[essentialsaltes]

A few more details from WaPo:

Officials said the situation escalated. The student yelled at the dean and a school resource officer who came to the classroom, accused them of being racist and repeatedly refused to leave the room.

“Suspend me! I don’t care. This school is racist,” the student, who is black, told the dean as he walked out of the room with his backpack, according to the affidavit.

The student was later charged with disruption of a school facility and resisting an officer without violence.

The Lakeland Police Department said in a news release that the student was not arrested for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

“This arrest was based on the student’s choice to disrupt the classroom, make threats and resisting the officer’s efforts to leave the classroom,” the release said.

I still think if this had been handled by a competent substitute, things would not have gotten out of control. I mean, the sub has been dismissed and won't be back. The school knows at least she was in the wrong. The kid may have reacted poorly, but let's hope everyone decides to call a mulligan and nothing comes of these charges.

 

[bèlla]

A few more details from WaPo:

I still think if this had been handled by a competent substitute, things would not have gotten out of control. I mean, the sub has been dismissed and won't be back. The school knows at least she was in the wrong. The kid may have reacted poorly, but let's hope everyone decides to call a mulligan and nothing comes of these charges.

Life doesn't always provide us with perfect situations. Parents are supposed to prepare their children to deal with them. Self-control is important. Unruliness has a price.

 

[Kentonio]

A sixth grader? 9 years old. Must have been quite precocious.

How old is a sixth grader then? Google said 9-10.

 

[essentialsaltes]

How old is a sixth grader then? Google said 9-10.

Story quoted in the op begins "An 11-year-old boy in Florida"

 

[Nithavela]

Story quoted in the op begins "An 11-year-old boy in Florida"

He was talking about the completely unrelated anecdote related in post #2

 

[Nithavela]

Life doesn't always provide us with perfect situations. Parents are supposed to prepare their children to deal with them. Self-control is important. Unruliness has a price.

Sometimes the price of quiet acquiescence is higher than that of unruliness.

 

[bèlla]

Sometimes the price of quiet acquiescence is higher than that of unruliness.

We're addressing a child in this scenario. If the parents are in agreement with his stance it would be wise to instruct him how to handle himself and provide feedback on the possible situations his position might incite.

 

[DaisyDay]

How old is a sixth grader then? Google said 9-10.

Usually, 11-12.

“This arrest was based on the student’s choice to disrupt the classroom, make threats and resisting the officer’s efforts to leave the classroom,” the release said.

But it all comes back to why the student was asked to leave the classroom - it was because he refused to stand for the pledge. The teacher decided to argue with him and told him to "go back to where [he came] from" which 1) is offensive to anyone and 2) weird to someone who was born here.

This wasn't the first time the teacher had picked on the kid for not standing. The mistake was for the kid's parents not to complain of this on-going harassment when it started.