High school student arrested for coming late to graduation

What kind of jerks are these people? I am glad that I went to a small school.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-grad04.html

and so are the cops who went along with this.

Slow day for all of the force? For the DA?

Incarcerate and give a high achieving student a record for life for being tardy?

She could have sold crack for four years for all the good her hard work did her....

Where we arrest first and ask questions later!

Our Police Overlords are quite busy tarnishing records and destroying lives these days, aren't they? All the better to create broken, docile, obedient slaves to the State!

I hope they put that student in a dingy cell in the basement. No, BELOW the basement.

Tardiness will not be tolerated again, ever. EVER.

Go get 'em, girlfriend. :evilgrin:

:wtf:

I am a teacher, and I would *never* in a million years do something so low. If she had come to my door, she would have been allowed in. Life happens, people! I certainly hope that nothing happens to the principal or staff in the future that would require any understanding or compassion. I would find relatively little to give out. x(

I think there is enough wrong to go around in this incident.

Yes, if this graduation ceremony was important enough for the student, especially if she had a participating role, she could not made the extra effort to be there on time or even early?

For example there was no way she could not contact the school or a trusted friend if she knew she was running late? And in the age of "instant communication" that is, cell phones, e-mail, text messaging, etc -- there was no humanly possible way she could not have gotten there earlier or made alternate arrangements?

It may have been a traffic issue? Perhaps she had no cellphone.
This whole thing stinks! What fucking harm would it have done to just let her in?
Have you ever been late for some reason beyond your control? Couldnt reach anyone by phone because their phone is turned off for the ceremony?
Gimme a break!
A. They should have let her in.
B. No fucking way they should have arrested her.

I hope that the family sues and people get fired for this!
Disgusting!

No I am not a saint and have been late on occasion.

However, if I had an important role in an event, which is often (and I live in an area with notoriously horrific traffic). I schedule my plans and make every possible attempt to arrive at the event early, else notify someone about my predicament. That is the way the business world operates.

Had I been her, I would have just gone ahead and accepted the consequences, that is, go to the overflow room until it was time to receive the diploma. If she was crying and screaming to be let into the ceremony, I think she displayed her immaturity.

I agree the principal should have had consequences for tardiness, but the reaction (to have the graduate arrested) was draconian and unacceptable.

I will agree with you on that, things can happen. The young lady's defense attorney and her parents better have a bulletproof reason to justify the tardiness. But if it's something that could have been prevented, then they won't have much of a case.

she stopped to give head to 11 guys and two goats in a crack house. Being arrested for being late is absolutely without grounds.

That's arrested, you understand. Mugged and fingerprinted. Criminal record.

And she doesn't live in the "business world." She's a teenager.

I didn't say she should have been arrested, but I think she should have accepted the consequences of being late. Sorry, I am not going to cut her any slack because she is a teenager.

This reminds me of the one time I had an exam in a 8AM class in college. I had to take the bus from my house to campus, left early as I usually do - it was typically a 30 minute bus ride.

But that one day the buses going toward campus were crowded, passed the bus stop. By the time I could board a bus to campus, it was 9 AM, the exam was over. The prof would not let me take the exam, not even a makeup. I was pissed because I was one of the few that attended the course every day without fail, and that was the first time I was ever late for class. Prof didn't care what happened that day.

I got 0 on the exam. Did I yell and scream and throw a fit? No. Did I drag my family into it? No. I just accepted missing the exam as the consequences of not controlling my environment, that is getting to the class on time. I wasn't much older than that teenager when that happened.

For the following exams, you can bet I made alternate arrangements, like sleeping in some classroom on campus, or sleeping in a friend's dorm room the night before the exam.

I pointed out, for emphasis, that she was indeed arrested for being late.

You base your argument on your contention that she shouldn't have been late — that she should've made contingency plans, etc. This is all well and good, though you're comparing yourself and your situation(s) to someone else's without sufficient evidence.

But the bottom line is, no one is arrested for the reason they did something, but for the act itself. And that puts us back at square one — being arrested for being late is beyond ridiculous.

Therefore, I suspect there was more to this story that is not appearing in the news articles, so I'll wait and see what actually comes out.

I just disagree with parts of it.

one missing exam? yeah, fucking sucks, but thats one exam for one of many classes you will take.

But your GRADUATION??

Would you support forbidding people to go to their wedding if they're late? Or to see their child born?

For some people, graduation is just as big of a deal as the above situations. Being locked out of a ceremony that is for honoring you is hardly equivalent to missing an exam.

Give me a break. If you really think that being arrested for being late is justifiable then you are one seriously deranged individual.

And I always get a kick out of the holier than thou attitude some people have regarding another person's minor offense. Get off your high horse and try being a human being instead of a priggish busy body.

I said in my post, I agree the principal should have had consequences for tardiness, but the reaction (to have the graduate arrested) was draconian and unacceptable.

I think you were too busy taking my dissenting view down to a personal level by suggesting I could be deranged and a priggish busy body to actually read what I had to say. Shall I put you on my ignore list?

if you want to be that childish. This girl worked her butt off for four years to get through high school, made VP, and then suffers through this complete and total outrage, and all you can do is lecture get all prissy about "consequences" and all the typical garbage people that have no empathy usually do.

By all means, put me on your ignore list. You won't be missed.

and I do not instant message. If I were late and the fact that I didnt text my principal about it doesnt constitute grounds to haul me off, even if I was going to scream about it in the gym. Hell, the jocks would only get 3 days expulsion for giving me black eyes when I was in school.

who gets arrested.

who's got the principals email address?

http://www.tfd215.org/North/

I surfed the website to get a clue of the school environment.

see below.

I wonder which one of us was first?

That's fucking bullshit...

And what people are checking their e-mail on their Blackberry at a high school graduation? Very few, I warrant.

And I don't have text messaging, and nobody else I know does either. Call me a luddite, but it strikes me as a tool for teenagers or the adolescently-minded.

The age of "instant communication" has deluded many of us into thinking that communcation can happen instantly. Not so.

she got fuckin' screwed, and didn't do anything wrong: against the rules, yes, but they were stupid fucking rules to begin with.

That principal, assuming things are as they seem, should spend the rest of his life fired and unable to get work.

be against the fire code? :think:

So long as the doors open from the inside, it's fine to lock em up.

They should have allowed her in to graduate, but punished her tardiness by giving the honor of leading the pledge to another student. Seeing as they were five minutes away from starting, I'm sure they already tapped another student to recite the pledge anyhow.

Promptness counts in life. And the school had an opportunity to teach this student a valuable lesson. Something they could have done had they not overreacted in their punishment. If I was locked out of graduation, I'd raise holy hell, too.

on the inside of the doors. I teach chemistry labs to college students inside locked labs (you wouldnt believe how quickly odd students just show up looking for chems to synthesize meth from), and in wasghington, all you need are crashbars.

She should have been let in.

:shrug:

aA

Everything about this stinks. Somebody had it in for this girl. I don't care if she was the snootiest brat on the planet, she should have been allowed in; and she shouldn't have been arrested for being upset about her treatment.

That's just inexcusable. I don't understand people like that, I really don't. What was he trying to prove? Trying to assert his power and authority at that point?

Sounds like a sad, pathetic little man, if you ask me.

Poor kid.

Sheesh.

Heh...wouldn't it be nice if the judge let the principal have it for taking up his time with something that could have been entirely avoided by just a teeeeeny little bit of reasonable behavior? I know, I know...wishful thinking but hey....it Could happen....

:rofl:

:rofl:

http://www.tfd215.org/North/Principal/index.htm

and he can't write a coherent, grammatical or well punctuated sentence to save his life.

This was on page 39, toward bottom of page...I think (and emphasis on the think) this is the rule that might have nailed the student...


"In accordance with state law, any form of threat or assault, implied or real, against the person, property or family of any staff member or student is prohibited. The school has the right to file criminal charges against an abusive or threatening student with the local police department."

They should have let her in to begin with. Since he's decided to press charges, I'm hoping she can afford to sue the bastard.

"The school superintendent in Calumet City is recommending that charges be dropped in the case of a high school senior who arrived late and missed most of her graduation last week...

Thornton Fractional High School District 125 Superintendent Robert Wilhite tells WBBM he'll talk to the school board Tuesday night about dropping the charges against Cosey...

He defends the school's action in barring her from the graduation, saying she arrived at 6:10 p.m. when students had been told to be there no later than 5 p.m. The doors to the gym were closed at 5:55 p.m. and the ceremony began at 6 p.m...

Still, Dr. Wilhite would like to see the whole matter dropped because in his words,"This poor little thing has suffered enough."

http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/43023.php

When Alan Keyes moved to Illinois he moved to Cal City. The town is renowed to be full of idiots. Gary Dotson, for example.

People who can't get everywhere on time all the time deserve to be publicly decapitated.

advocate drawing and quartering

that's one thing they wouldn't be late for. As an example, the executions should go off at EXACTLY the second they are scheduled for. damn tardies.

This was the reason the student was late for the ceremony....

"Alterations on a new blouse combined with strict rules kept the vice president of Thornton Fractional North High School's class of 2006 from taking part in Saturday's graduation.

...On their way to the school Saturday, she and Maquisha rushed to the seamstress' house to retrieve the new blouse. It wasn't done because the seamstress fell ill. She tacked it in place, and Maquisha and her mother rushed to school."

http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2006/06/05/news/illiana/9860db169c50ffe78625718400129070.txt