Posted on 06/20/2008 8:05:00 PM PDT by Coleus
Brooklyn teen Quashon Burton thought bringing a laxative-laced cake to school would be "funny" - but he's not laughing now. After two teachers were sickened and he was hit with an assault charge, the senior is worried his whole future is collapsing like a half-baked souffle. "I'm pretty scared," Burton told the Daily News Thursday outside his home in Brownsville. "I didn't mean to have this whole thing blow out of proportion. I thought it would be a senior prank that everyone would think is funny."
Burton, 17, and pals Tiara Peoples and Kenny Ramirez got the idea to bake Dulcolax tablets into a cake from a similar gag featured on MTV's "High School Stories." Slices were handed out last Thursday at the Brooklyn School for Global Studies in Cobble Hill, and two teachers wound up in the hospital. The three were suspended, and six days later, prosecutors charged them with felony assault on a teacher, which carries up to seven years in prison. Burton, a self-confessed "class clown" who has done plenty of time in detention, said he realizes his arrest is no joke.
He had planned to enter community college, find a sales job and take a plumbing course. Now he's worried he might end up in jail. "I live with my mom. She's kind of terrified because she doesn't really know what's going to happen," he said. "My mom struggled all her life. Not too many in my family have been to college. I just wanted to create a better life for myself."
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No sympathy. Lock his ass up.
Send the little dirt-bags to prison. Let them rot there.
Seriously.
OR, a paper trail to make sure this kid finally faced some consequences for once....
LAZARUS LONG
If the kid has no prior run ins with the law, give him probation then let him off, no need turning him into a criminal for an act of stupidity.
“Because of a little laxative in a cake? Not sure I buy it.”
Depends on how much laxative was in the cake. Too much, and the results can quite literally kill you in te absence of supportive treatment.
And with the salmonella scare, they might have gone in to make sure it wasn’t that.
Evidently the "Brooklyn School for Global Studies" doesn't do a very good job of teaching career planning.
His first step on to a "better life" didn't work out.....
The good news is he could still take the plumbing course while in prison. The bad news is he might have to take it more than once if he has to stay in prison for seven years.
I hated Boy Scouts, detested Boy Scout Camp, and since I was a chicken-necked, pimple-faced geek at 15, I was always getting ragged on and the other ‘cool’ scouts who loved to steal stuff from the weenies, rip up any comics or magazines we brought, throw any clean laundry hanging from the line into the mud. Of course, any candy, soda or dessert cakes or beef jerkey would be sure to be stolen within the first day or so.
Same with the other weenies. So like I said, We got the idea from the book, we made up some nice ex-lax brownies substituting the chocolate ex-lax for the chocolate.
The results were predictable. Less than two days after we got there, our Troop pulled out of the Jamboree and we all headed back. A couple of the parents even had to drive up to get their poor sick precious darling boys.
The really hilarious part of it in my mind was they new what had happened but they couldn't accuse us because then they would have to admit they had stolen the stuff ... so the trip back to the church was a long series of stops, moans and “accidents”.
A couple weeks later we got the snot beat out of us, but I still think it was worth it.
Side effects of an overdose of 'a little laxative' are chest pain, fainting, rectal bleeding, lack of a bowel movement, severe nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps, etc.
Let’s not forget MTV’s “High School Stories” in all this. Not that the show should be an excuse for the pranksters - although his remorse seems genuine, especially how it has hit his mom. But rather remembered for the message the show gave to its highly manipulative audience. I wonder how that episode ended ... did it contain the lesson that prosecution followed prank? Pro’ly not. Aiding and abetting? It would be nice if the teachers realized MTV was the deep pocket in all this.
Clever nick .. welcome to FR.
I would venture even the teachers who were victims of this crime that began as a stupid prank would prefer the kids not go to jail. Someone upthread suggeted community service cleaning bedpans in a nursing home, and that’s not a bad idea.
You may not understand the environment these kids grew up in. It’s as ‘inner city’ as it gets .. by 17 most have long since dropped out of school. By 17, a lot of that ‘hood’s kids are dead or in jail for violent crimes. Gangs are endemic. Kids who stay in school are taunted. Finishing high school and graduating are a HUGE deal.
Prison for a kid who’s managed so far to survive all those threats is not a good idea. Community service is.
How do we know it was "a little"?
Dungca went right to the emergency room. Mancuso left early, then headed to the hospital when he had breathing problems.
Doctors told him his symptoms were consistent with insecticide poisoning, and there was buzz among students the cake had been sprayed with Raid, he said.
Oh my God. That’s attempted murder.
Who said they ate more than one bite? The taste seems to indicate enough of the laxative was used to make the cake taste terrible; one bite may have been enough to make someone ill.
Only if they took a second bite.
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