Posted on 07/25/2007 7:01:07 AM PDT by LouAvul
Conductor Tossed Kids For Disorderly Conduct, Amtrak Says
TAOS, N.M. -- Four children, ages 12 to 15, were removed from an Amtrak train in the dark, 600 miles from home, after accusations that one of them stole an iPod.
No charges were filed against any of the children, who spent the night at the Kingman, Ariz., police station after Amtrak put them off the train at 2 a.m. Saturday as they returned home from California. Police let the four stay in the conference room until a parent retrieved them.
Zackary Sharfin, 13, and his 12-year-old brother Christopher had traveled with family friends Carley Maestas, 15, and her 13-year-old brother Anthony to visit the Maestas' children's mother in Fresno.
The brothers' father, Peter Sharfin, said the problem likely started when Christopher lost his cell phone and Zackary began looking for it.
A Kingman police report also said Zackary was accused of stealing a cell phone and of touching a child.
Zackary said he was walking through the train, looking for his brother's phone, and bumped into a girl by accident. He also said he found the iPod in the train's game room and was trying to turn it in.
Peter Sharfin accused Amtrak of overreacting and abusing the children.
............
Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said conductors have the right to remove passengers and that they always call police to pick them up at the next station.
Graham said the conductor removed the kids for disorderly conduct, although she did not have details.
"All I know is that it was disorderly conduct, and that could have been a variety of behaviors," Graham said. "It takes a lot for someone to be removed from a train."
(Excerpt) Read more at kpho.com ...
What were their parents thinking?
Without more (and reliable) information, it seems to me that Amtrak's removing them from the train might not have been the smartest move. Couldn't they all have been placed in seats under supervision until the train reached its destination?
Which they do at a drop of the hat. Like that guy having a diabetic episode the other day. We don't need your kind on OUR train.
What kind of jerks send children on a cross-country train trip without supervision?
Good for Amtrak. I hope to see this trend spread to the airlines. (They can send the police to the impact crater.)
I don't think it should be Atrak's job to babysit. I think they did the right thing by the accounts given above.
Happy to be a FREERIDER ping!
I don’t think there’s enough information to say whether it was the right thing, or even, as I said, the smartest thing.
In hindsight, the smartest thing would have been not letting a group of unaccompanied young adolescents board the train!
Why is it that nobody seems to be able to use some common sense when dealing with these situations?
What was probably a minor incident (kids goofing around and perhaps being smart alecks) turns into a big mess.
In today's society, probably not. They likely have no one to watch them... they would worry about being sued... I really don't think that they believed they had much choice.
I have no doubt that the kids are telling their parents one thing, and what actually went on is another story. [FYI, I’ve raised 4 children of my own.] Children at this age, especially cooped up on a train with no adult, are going to find something to do. That something isn’t always good.
I can’t imagine sending my kids unescorted cross-country.
Literally thousands every day. I would wager that at least 60% of commercial flights have one or more unaccompanied minors on them.
They likely have a bunch of union employees getting a paycheck for watching the scenery go by ... but it's probably against the rules for them to be asked to do something useful.
No matter what, they're likely to be sued, though.
They had a picture of these kids in yesterday’s Abq Journal, they really looked like smug little punks.
Supervision by whom. Amtrak doesn't employ babysitters. In fact, they were places in seats under supervision by the police. Hooray for Amtrak.
Amtrak has a hard enough time conducting train operations, never mind supervising brats.
(They can send the police to the impact crater.)
Unaccompanied minors on a 1 or 2 hour plane flight are one thing. Unaccompanied minors on a 1, 2 or 3 day train ride are entirely different.
Oh yeah, sure (rolls eyes).
That line does peg the ol’ BS meter, no?
Like others on this thread have said, there's not enough information to render a solid opinion about this event at this point in time. Obviously, the best case scenario doesn't include 12-16 year olds traveling without adult supervision. I'd like to point out I traveled by Amtrak in the 1980's as a 12 year old, with a friend, sans a parent. I did not get thrown off the train, but I wasn't running around the cars, if I recall.
Instead, her lawyer will be wanting to talk to them very shortly...
Isn’t it a bit odd that the childrens’ names are mentioned..?
I don’t have children, so maybe my opinion doesn’t mean much, but I don’t think 13-14-15 is too young for “children” to ride a train. At that age I was getting on bus-subway or bus-trolley-Hudson tube to go rummaging for electronics junk in NYC on Canal Street right under the WTC site. And yes, those were different times and I had demonstrated semi mature behavior. Maybe the kidcluster dials up the random behavior.
Poor little innocent babies /sarcasm
I've noticed that as well. Apparently, the great majority of Freepers were very nearly perfect as children.
I have been noting lately how many Freepers hate Freepers who "hate children." Interesting phenomenon.
You really saw hate in that post? I didn’t for instance suggest he take a 20,000 foot leap of an airplane.
Boy, that's a shocker.
/not
The really stupid statement is that of the father who says he felt putting the brats OFF the train was child endangerment. What does he think putting them ON the train in the first place was, if not child endangerment?
According to Zack (on the video here), that is what the conductor said, too. LOL
I bet you a year’s salary none of those kids have ever been spanked.
“under supervision”
Think “false imprisonment”, “assualt”, “touching a child”, etc. if the “union employees getting a paycheck for watching the scenery go by” attempted to restrict the children to their seats. They have duties to attend to while the train is in motion, union or not, and they don’t include babysitting out of control children for longer than it takes to turn them over the an agent at the next stop.
I don’t claim it is anywhere near a majority. Stories like this really bring them out. Shoot the little bastards.
I don’t think Freepers Hate children, just glad to be rid of ‘em.
Children should neither be seen or heard from - ever again.
W. C. Fields
Dad Sharfin is full of fertilizer, in more ways than one. IMO.
‘Smug little punks.’ You bet your last dollar. It was a fairly strong CONSEQUENCE to something these kids did. I would never have let my son travel alone at that age/ parents should be sued.
I don’t hate children as long as they are properly laminated.
I hate Freepers who hate Freepers who hate children. But then again I hate everybody.
Hmmm...it's a trick question; he didn't think at all!
Well said. I hate you.
Good G-d, I want to slap them through my monitor!
One of those kids is less than a year away from a driver’s license. I’d have had no issue with my 15 year old son (now 25) doing a trip like the one described with my daughter (3 years younger than him).
It was no cross-country trip either, it was from Fresno to Taos, NM.
If a parent has progressively, and knowingly, provided opportunities for kids to demonstrate responsibility, 15 years old is plenty old enough to travel without their mommies. My observation (and it is only that, I’m making no grand pronouncement) is that parents wait too long to provide those kinds of chances, and our window is pretty short as it is. JMO.
Or inform the parents "Children are subject to being dropped of in the middle of nowhere for any or no reason at our discretion". That'll solve the problem too.
I've been noting lately how many Freepers don't believe that children should be properly supervised and disciplined.
LOL!!! Now there's a ping list I'd like to join!
I'm tired of trying to defend our childlessness to the parental elite and am happy at the thought of spending my old age with my DH and a big pile of money.
Good for Amtrak - keep those brats out of my way.
In Taos even the adults are smug little punks.
Are you sure they don’t have that information out there already?
I can see that...
I have a part time job at a video store (I guess I ought to update my info page) and we have a lot of problems with parents comming in and just letting them go. From toddlers (I kid you not!) on up, some run rampant.
I heard a trio one day discussing playing hide and seek and chase through the store (it’s a fairly large store) while Mom was busy looking for her movies. I called over that it wasn’t a good idea. The middle child, a girl about 9 or 10, SNEERED at me and said, “Well, were JUST children!” She repeated it three times, same phrase, continuing to sneer. My immediate thought was ‘well, yeah, but if you’re just childfen, you better go stand with Mom,’ but I realized that Mom was probably responsible for the ‘just children’ saying every time they got into trouble.
So I just stared at her. For a long, long time. No threat, just stared. Wouldn’t you know it, little smart alec got spooked, disapointed I didn’t say or do something she could throw a fit about, or just realized she wasn’t going to be able to do anything without me seeing and went to stand with Mom.
So guess what? The two boys started chasing each other through the store, screaching and hooting. I went to them and told them to stop, as we had other customers in the store and someone would get hurt. Shockingly, they listned, but the looks on their faces... You could see they have very seldom been told (at least close up) not to do something.
I expected the oldest (11 or 12)to give the ‘just children’ mantra, but he didn’t and we had no more trouble the rest of their visit. I was sure glad to see them go, and do not look forward to the next visit.
I got a million similar stories, but the SNEER on that child’s face...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.