Posted on 05/14/2017 6:52:05 AM PDT by jiggyboy
One of Neil Gorsuch’s sharpest dissents as an appeals court judge came just six months before he was nominated for the Supreme Court.
That’s when he sided with a New Mexico seventh-grader who was handcuffed and arrested after his teacher said the student had disrupted gym class with fake burps.
Nearly a year later, Gorsuch sits on the nation’s highest court and the boy’s mother is asking the justices to take up her appeal. She’s using Gorsuch’s words to argue that she has a right to sue the officer who arrested her son.
The court could act as early as Monday, either to deny the case or take more time to decide.
Justices typically withdraw from cases they heard before joining the Supreme Court, which means Gorsuch probably would not have any role in considering this one. But that hasn’t stopped lawyers for the mother from featuring his stinging dissent prominently in legal papers. Gorsuch said arresting a “class clown” for burping was going “a step too far.”
The New Mexico incident began in 2011 when the student, known only as F.M. in court papers, kept interrupting his physical education class with fake burps. The teacher sent him into the hallway, where he continued burping and laughing as he leaned into the classroom entrance.
(Excerpt) Read more at pressdemocrat.com ...
If you truly believe that you have not ever encountered a person in authority who abuses his discretion just because he knows it usually will not be challenged.
Thank you for seeing what this is about.
So, my question is, how and why the hell did this case make it to the docket?
In my day it would have been a warning and then the paddle. Warnings would have worked for most students and probably still would today if the students knew a warning would be followed by punishment from a teacher and/or principal.
Had he been farting instead of burping they’d have given him the death penalty.
“Schools have no way of handling that behavior without involving a law enforcement officer? “
Teachers aren’t allowed to “handle” students any more. Past a certain point the Police have to be called, and their response is to handcuff and arrest.
“..By definition, escalation is a decision made by the authority in a given situation. I find it quite telling when conservatives side with despotic liberals in such situations...”
this 1,000%
As for paddling, I think too many weird situations could result in today’s degenerate public education system.
The verb "handle" has several meanings that do not involve handling physically.
Quite likely, the headline of the article is the answer. If you were wanting to appeal a ruling to SCOTUS wouldn’t you like to be able to cite, in furtherance of your appeal, the fact that there is a sitting member of SCOTUS who agreed with your argument as a lower-court judge?In the absurd hypothetical case where all sitting justices were on record as dissenting from a lower-court ruling on a case, I don’t think anyone would be questioning why it was accepted on appeal.
It doesn’t hurt that Gorsuch is expected to frequently be in the majority.
Three swats with the board of education would have stopped the behavior. And another three on mama for her lack of parenting skills.
“”The verb “handle” has several meanings that do not involve handling physically.”
Yes, I very much understand that. But things can devolve quickly into a litigious situation. The teachers’ instructions might be to drop back and punt before it gets to that point.
The parents want to blame the teachers for their (parent’s) failure to teach their children proper behavior.
Sometimes, troubled kids need the !@#$ scared out of them. Does is work every time? No. But coddling kids doesn't work either and if one kid convinces the others that there is no authority, then anarchy rules.
BTW, back in my day, the parents usually sided with the teachers and staff. Because it was clearly understood that parents can very easily undermine the schools authority and that hurts the child. Ya, know the unified front. BTW, this works with parents too — if the mother and father cannot agree, then the kid wins. Another cliché — divide and conquer... and kids figure this out at an early age.
Thirdly, societies standards have dropped considerably. Back in the day, adult peer pressure and public scorn helped keep people in line. Thus the reason why the case needs to be publicized. Now, it is pretty much anything goes and it is far from conservative... anything goes is usually a Liberal mantra.
Lastly, for a kid to be taken in handcuffs, he must have done something really bad and that usually means a threat of violence or actual physical violence towards a teacher or the office staff.
I was agreeing until you got to the “Lastly, for a kid to be taken in handcuffs, he must have done something really bad...”
You are assuming a basic level of competence and honesty in the principal or police that is patently absent in our society. This is a huge blind spot in traditional conservatism—you expect government agents to act within reason and law.
In our case, that hasn’t been the rule for 40+ years, and the trend is not your friend. Totalitarianism always starts with a call for law and order—and ends with death and destruction.
The Supremes themselves have no say in which cases they hear. With a possible few exceptions.
Apparently Gorsuch has decided to review all cases personally.
If you truly believe that you have not ever encountered a person in authority who abuses his discretion just because he knows it usually will not be challenged.
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This isn’t some sexual harassment case that took place in a broom closet. There is no way to conceal this from public knowledge. The odds of going to handcuffing from merely burping is so remote as to warrant extreme skepticism. What are we not being told about the child’s behavior? I teach at an alternative school, so I know that -with virtually no exceptions - the school system bends over backwards to coddle the most outrageous behaviors.
As for paddling, I think too many weird situations could result in today’s degenerate public education system.
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Then require a witness. When I was in elementary, middle, and high school there was always other teachers, administrators, and/or students present.
You are right about public education being “degenerate” overall, but the single biggest problem is not sexual harassment, leftist indoctrination, or even the hiring of reprobate scum as teachers...it’s school/societal discipline (especially in inner city schools). The things that students say (and do) as a matter of common discourse are often beyond the decorum that you and I were used when we were in school.
I’ve been teaching at this school for 15 years. We get the troubled kids from all the other high/middle schools. Our county is actually one of the wealthiest counties in Georgia, so we have it relatively good compared to most others. Atlanta Public Schools on the other hand face chaos on a scale that is hard for me to even imagine.
I disagree. I am certain the court papers lay out exactly what happened. Neither Gorusch or the other judges disputed the facts of the case (which is not their place) but dealt with the law cited to justify the arrest which was based on the child causing a disruption by burping in the class. AFAIK no other behavioral issues were mentioned.
Vs anarchy?
I am not an absolute anarchist like some. We must have a structure which means laws and such and this understanding starts at an early age.
And yes, especially these days, kids are unruly and even violent at a very young age. Unlike before. It has gotten worse over the past 10 years.
The modern belief is that we must try to understand the root of a child’s problem which is actually a good idea I guess. However, we push it to the point where it does harm by offering excuses to a child for his or her behavior and we tell them that is okay to act out on their emotions to help them “work through it.” This a recipe for disaster since eventually they will have to conform to something — a job, a marriage, the city laws and regulations.
And another thing...
Does anyone thing Gorsuch is so stupid that he’d have “missed” all the other stuff the article “wasn’t saying”?
Nope! I think Judge Gorsuch heard EVERYTHING before totally ruling against the school/police.
Some people here don’t thing much—or enough.
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