Posted on 08/31/2010 11:18:40 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
Marcel Williams is plopped down on a couch in his family's duplex apartment. The stillness is unusual for the 14-year-old, who a few years ago roamed football fields as a star running back for the national champion Flagler Junior Pee Wee Bulldogs.
Since then, Marcel said he had been earning A's and B's at Buddy Taylor Middle School, where he also expected to continue playing football this year.
Instead, school just started and Marcel finds himself slouched on the couch, expelled from the classroom and the football field until next year because of something called "tea-bagging" -- a crude taunt Marcel practiced while keeping his pants on.
Marcel said the boys were horsing around in the back of a school bus on their way home. Several other kids were suspended over the incident but Marcel said he was the only one expelled.
"We were just playing. I didn't know they would take it that far," Marcel said of the reaction of school officials.
The punishment does not fit the misdeed, said Marcel's father, Darial Williams, 43.
"I'm not condoning this, but why make this as severe as it is?" Williams said. He said he has not had disciplinary issues with his son before.
"I've never had any problems with Marcel, no bullying," Williams said. "He's not stubborn."
Neither Buddy Taylor Middle School Principal Winnie Oden nor the School District's director of student services, Katrina Townsend, would discuss Marcel's case, citing student confidentiality -- that of Marcel's and the other student.
But "tea-bagging," as students call it, can be a gesture subtle enough that teachers may not even know it happened, or it can be flagrant -- a student, still wearing clothes, rubbing his crotch in another's face, Townsend said.
It's generally handled as a "school discipline issue," with a detention or a call to parents or some other action, Townsend said.
But criminal charges propel it to another level, she said.
That's what happened in Marcel's case; the taunted boy's father pressed criminal charges, Marcel and his family said.
And what Marcel called "tea-bagging," law enforcement officials called lewd and lascivious exhibition -- a felony.
The taunted student's father later changed his mind and declined to press charges against Marcel. But it was too late to stop the School District's disciplinary process. The incident went to the Discipline Review Committee, which recommends consequences to the superintendent, who makes the final decision.
"Generally speaking, for all students that have felony charges or incidents where there is a student victim on their campus, it's considered very serious," Townsend said.
Nine students were expelled from Flagler County schools during the 2009-2010 school year; all involved felony charges.
A school bus security camera recorded the incident involving Marcel but district officials declined to release it, citing student confidentiality and protecting the victim's identity.
Marcel's father said school administrators stated they had never seen such a severe, long-lasting "tea-bagging" as in Marcel's case.
Darial Williams wonders if district officials had seen other cases of "tea-bagging," why didn't they address the problem earlier, making it clear to students and parents that such behavior was happening and unacceptable?
"If you are driving down (Interstate) 95, and you see a small brush fire, are you just going to pull over and watch that small brush fire become a big wildfire?" Darial Williams said. "Any sensible person would call 9-1-1."
Marcel's family provided a copy of a police report that described the incident as lasting for "quite some time" before Marcel was "pulled off" the boy by other students.
But Marcel said no one had to pull him off. The horseplay just ran its course and ended. He said several other students were doing it, too.
"Everybody was playing around and stuff and tea-bagging each other," Marcel said. "I was messing with him and stuff and then I tea-bagged him."
Marcel said the other boy was in on the joke. Marcel said the kid he taunted was laughing and covering his face and making mock sounds of disgust.
Marcel's family also showed a reporter a note from one of Marcel's friends who wrote that the boy was laughing as Marcel tea-bagged him.
Marcel thought the whole thing was over when he walked off the bus. Until he returned to school the next day and he and the other boys were summoned to the principal's office. They were suspended. Ten days later, when Marcel tried to return to Buddy Taylor, he said he was told he was trespassing.
Darial Williams said he has talked to the other boy's father, who has agreed to help Marcel get back in school. But the father declined to be interviewed.
On May 26, district officials expelled Marcel until Jan. 11. At that time, he will be allowed to attend the eighth grade at Pathways Academy, the district's alternative school. Once teachers at Pathways are satisfied with Marcel's behavior, he will be allowed to attend Indian Trails Middle School. Marcel will not be able to return to Buddy Taylor Middle School.
Meanwhile, he is attending "virtual school" via a computer at home.
Marcel is stunned. He said when he was at Buddy Taylor there was a "national butt-slapping day" and a day to "pop girls' bra straps," which were relayed via cell phones. So the suspension for tea-bagging knocked the wind out of the running back like a well-placed hit from a linebacker.
Townsend said school personnel review the code of conduct with students at the beginning of every year districtwide.
Marcel's father said he feels his son's future, academically and athletically, is being jeopardized due to an overreaction.
"If it goes the way it's going now, it may effect his admission into a college, hopefully not, but these things tend to follow you," Williams said.
“Wow, check out the fine socialization your homeschooled children are missing! “
I am proud to say that not one of my kids knows what “tea bagging” is.
They do know what sexual assault it, though, and they know that this sort of assault is not to be tolerated. Or performed.
“Were you never a 14 year old?”
Perhaps after a gang surrounds you, and one of them f’s your face through his pants, you’ll see things differently.
Marcel looks like Barry. Maybe he was practicing for when he could take the training wheels off this teabagging effort like Anderson Cooper.
What kind of idiot does not know that such behavior is not acceptable anywhere?
________________________________________
Maybe most 14 year old middle school boys?
________________________________________
At least those whose parents think so little
of them that they send them to public school
and those who believe it is up to the public
school to train the kids’ social behaviour.
“He said when he was at Buddy Taylor there was a “national butt-slapping day” and a day to “pop girls’ bra straps,” which were relayed via cell phones. “
And we have compulsory education. If you don’t send your kids to this “school,” you are breaking the law.
This country has lost its mind.
Look Perverso. I don’t know what kind of mind fart you are going through to come up with a nasty reply like that.
But I suggest you read the article. And then come back with an apology.
I was and only seen this particular maneuver happen one time back then. The guy who initiated the maneuver was beaten so severely by the recipient he didn't attend school for several days.
“
Look Perverso. I don’t know what kind of mind fart you are going through to come up with a nasty reply like that.
But I suggest you read the article. And then come back with an apology.
“
I read the article.
I think you find behavior acceptable towards a teen that you would find indescribably horrible if it were done to you.
There is a line of thought that any bullying towards kids is ok, it’s normal, it just toughens them up.
Suppose it were done in the workplace? Would you tolerate it for one minute?
If not, why should children have to tolerate it?
“Marcel’s father said school administrators stated they had never seen such a severe, long-lasting “tea-bagging” as in Marcel’s case.”
I see your quote and raise you one.
“Marcel’s family also showed a reporter a note from one of Marcel’s friends who wrote that the boy was laughing as Marcel tea-bagged him. “
““Marcel’s family also showed a reporter a note from one of Marcel’s friends who wrote that the boy was laughing as Marcel tea-bagged him. “”
When I was assaulted on a bus, I kept my head down and my mouth shut. It was an instinctive reaction to try to avoid things getting escalated.
Laughing and acting like everything is “cool” is a similar response. If the “note” from “Marcel’s friend” is even to be believed.
Humping someone’s face through your pants is sexual assault and cannot be tolerated. We can’t say it’s “ok” if the victim is quiet, or laughs, or starts doing it to someone else, or whatever defense mechanism he uses.
You would not tolerate it being done to you.
I thnk 10 strokes with a cane would solve the whole problem.
The kid could return to school and football and he would think twice before earning another caning.
seriously???
“Tea Bagging is laying your testicles on a face, like tea bags sort of lay against a cup.”
Err...I think it’s actually placing them in the cup.
It sounds like they may be from the Diversity Crowd. Sexual mores tend be be a wee bit lower for them which of course shows in the clothing styles, music, the 70% out-of-wedlock birth rate, and the disproportionate HIV infection rate.
This sounds really gay. Don’t leave this kid alone with young boys.
Any 14 year old that stuck his crotch in my face would have balls as blue as the deep sea - after being punched heartily in the general vicinity.
If you think 14 year olds sit around and play Monopoly and Clue, you don’t have a clue about 14 year olds. Horsing around in this manner is gross, lewd and unacceptable - but after the charges have been dropped, and cooler heads prevail - securing this kid a good lesson in thuggery is not the answer. The forms of punishment are endless, this was extreme.
I agree, the kid needs to to take the lumps - but the result should not be an alternative school and road to serfdom.
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