Only in America: Cops giving tickets to 6-year-olds.

[Johnboy60]

The story: As police have increased their presence in Texas schools, more and more students — including elementary-school kids — are being slapped with court dates instead of detention, a recent study discovered. According to Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit group, more than 1,000 Class C misdemeanor tickets were given out in Texas's 10 biggest school districts over a six-year-period for minor offenses such as leaving class early or using profanity in school. (Watch a dramatization of the controversy.) The organization's report, titled "Texas' School-to-Prison Pipeline," also noted that such tickets can cost families up to $500, that black and Hispanics are ticketed more often than whites, and that "where a child attends school — not the severity of the allegation — was the best indicator of whether the child would be ticketed instead of sent to the principal's office," according to the Associated Press. Texas Appleseed recommends that the state ban the practice of ticketing students younger than 14.

http://theweek.com/article/index/211140/only-in-america-cops-giving-tickets-to-6-year-olds

 

[JCFantasy23]

I'm not surprised, state will do whatever it can to make money, and the courts system is one of the most common ways to do so.

 

[marshlewis]

This is bizaar on many levels. How did the decision process come about that decided this was a practical idea.

 

[Protocol11]

Typical scumbag cops working in conjunction with a corrupt non-legal system to make money for the government. I just pray someone sues these districts and wins so much from the cops it'll cut their budget in half where it should be anyway.

 

[Jerry Horse]

Is anyone really suprised, as this is coming from TEXAS!!

 

[I <3 Abraham]

This is a load of horse-hockey.

HORSE HOCKEY!

Edit to add: can you picture horses trying to play hockey? It would be so cute! With their hooves all tied into four ice-skates and a stick held between their little horsey teeth...

 

[mpok1519]

lol Texas, of course.

And its not like the kids can actually pay those kinds of fines. It just places a burden on the parent. And if the parent can't pay the fines, who gets the warrant to throw them in jail? the kid or the parent?

 

[Billnew]

lol Texas, of course.

And its not like the kids can actually pay those kinds of fines. It just places a burden on the parent. And if the parent can't pay the fines, who gets the warrant to throw them in jail? the kid or the parent?

Juvy. Expose 6yr olds to juvy, get them use to it early, great philosophy.

I do not support giving rule breakers vacation(suspension), but I also don't think they should be fined money they don't earn, have no idea the value they cost their parents, and learn nothing from.

Arrest in school should be for legitamate crimes. Do they cite people walking down the streets for profanity? Assault, battery, illegal drug posession, illegal drug selling, vandilism, real crimes. Not saying a four letter word to close to a cop.
*&^% in the hallway of my highschool there was curse word after curse word, from the time you left one room, until you got to the next.

While I don't agree with Protocol11's view, that is how the cops are being directed to act and can see the reasoning behind his thought.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

yes, you can get cited in public for profanity.

although I believe when the offender is a kid, the parent should be cited since they're obviously failing somewhere.

 

[Elife3]

What a waste! All it would do is take some of the parent's money, but it would expose such young children to court. Well, here's a question: Do you think exposing such a young child to court is necessary? It just seems like another way to make $$$ at the childrens' expense.

 

[marshlewis]

yes, you can get cited in public for profanity.

although I believe when the offender is a kid, the parent should be cited since they're obviously failing somewhere.

Fining parents if there children use schoolyard language would certainly raise some serious money.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

What a waste! All it would do is take some of the parent's money, but it would expose such young children to court. Well, here's a question: Do you think exposing such a young child to court is necessary? It just seems like another way to make $$$ at the childrens' expense.

It's not the court that's the problem, it's where some of these kids end up if they don't get scared straight.

and it's not at the expense of the children, let's get that striaght. It's a cost the parents have to bear.

It would be better if they were writing tickets and then the kids had to do some type of community service. Even 6 year olds understand that concept.

Fining parents if there children use schoolyard language would certainly raise some serious money.

True, except I'm not sure the term "schoolyard language" is correct. We're talking obscenities. I don't consider learning cuss words to be a normal part of a kid's education.

 

[b&wpac7]

yes, you can get cited in public for profanity.

Always a tricky law, however. It has to be viewed as obscenity in order to be a Constitutional law, otherwise it infringes upon free speech.

 

[Belk]

It's not the court that's the problem, it's where some of these kids end up if they don't get scared straight.

and it's not at the expense of the children, let's get that striaght. It's a cost the parents have to bear.

It would be better if they were writing tickets and then the kids had to do some type of community service. Even 6 year olds understand that concept.



True, except I'm not sure the term "schoolyard language" is correct. We're talking obscenities. I don't consider learning cuss words to be a normal part of a kid's education.

We need to scare kindergartners straight so they wont wind up in jail?

 

[armyman_83]

 

[PreachersWife2004]

We need to scare kindergartners straight so they wont wind up in jail?

I said 6 year olds understand the concept of community service.

If a 6 year old is getting in trouble with the law already, there's issues there. But what I was talking about was the fact that courts aren't scary places. Or they shouldn't be. If people are making their kids afraid of courts, there's also an issue there.

 

[marshlewis]

I said 6 year olds understand the concept of community service.

If a 6 year old is getting in trouble with the law already, there's issues there. But what I was talking about was the fact that courts aren't scary places. Or they shouldn't be. If people are making their kids afraid of courts, there's also an issue there.

If 6 year olds are getting into trouble with the law over normal six year old behaviour then maybe the issue is the law.

 

[JCFantasy23]

I said 6 year olds understand the concept of community service.

If a 6 year old is getting in trouble with the law already, there's issues there. But what I was talking about was the fact that courts aren't scary places. Or they shouldn't be. If people are making their kids afraid of courts, there's also an issue there.

Children aren't getting in trouble with the law in normal ways here, that's the point of why the article is so ridiculous. Whatever happened with just detention?

 

[Belk]

I said 6 year olds understand the concept of community service.

If a 6 year old is getting in trouble with the law already, there's issues there. But what I was talking about was the fact that courts aren't scary places. Or they shouldn't be. If people are making their kids afraid of courts, there's also an issue there.

Ah, I see. Not sure I agree that courts should not be scary places. I know if I was to go to court for breaking the law I would find it scary.

The issue for me in this is the notion that we should be using the law to police school children. In terms of corrective action this strikes me as a "swatting a fly with a sledge hammer" type scenario.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

If 6 year olds are getting into trouble with the law over normal six year old behaviour then maybe the issue is the law.

explain "normal 6 year old behavior".