Posted on 09/22/2008 8:08:52 PM PDT by Entrepreneur
FLOWER MOUND, Texas -- Two high school students are facing charges after they ran across the football field during a game Friday night at Flower Mound High School.
The two were dressed in costumes -- one was a banana and the other a gorilla.
If YouTube is any indication, it's a common prank at schools and colleges and the video often ends up on the Internet.
In this case, the kids in the costumes ended up in jail.
Sean Kight, 18, and Curtis Patton, 17, both Flower Mound High School students, are charged with trespassing on school grounds, a misdemeanor.
The video shows the two running across the field while both teams are on the field. Police chase them and take the pair into custody after the teens jump a fence.
Lt. Wess Griffin, Flower Mound police spokesman, said officers didn't want to arrest the students and that they would rather have had the school reprimand the teens. However, he said, the school district was adamant that both teens be arrested.
"We tried to dissuade them," said Lt. Griffin. "We were hoping to resolve it using district sanctions."
Both teens spent Friday night in jail and were released at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Police said that's how long it takes for the arraignment process.
A few weeks ago, "someone" (i.e., the principal) decided to crack down on kids crossing the street to get to school. It's a residential area, with a poorly designed traffic flow. Parents routinely dropped kids off in the neighborhood and the kids crossed the street. The alternative was to wait in a line lasting up to 30 minutes that navigates through a parking lot with kids parking and walking through the lot (I've personally seen an exceptional number of fender benders and am amazed no one's been run over yet).
"Someone's" solution was to herd all kids trying to get to school on time together and give them $150 tickets for jaywalking. Well over 100 students were ticketed.
The school devotes security guards to keep parents from turning into the two most convenient parking lots to drop off their kids. Why not devote one to help cross at the most convenient crossing place? Why not write warnings, rather than big fines? BTW, do you know anyone who has ever gotten a jaywalking ticket? In a suburban community?
Now he's throwing kids in jail for a common prank? These kids spent 16 hours in jail on homecoming. They aren't bad kids. One of them is a varsity letterman.
Flower Mound is in the Lewisville Independent School District, which spans a number of towns and appears to be more powerful than any of the towns (at least, that's what a former Flower Mound mayor told me). As a parent, I can testify that the district does not care what the parents think. This is why we pulled our kids from the district for elementary school years and put them in a charter school, returning them in middle school, which the charter school didn't cover well.
Anyway, maybe the district will respond to ridicule and back off. If you've got a few minutes to spare, FReep the district and the local papers. Let them know how stupid FMHS looks because of its Gestapo like tactics.
Flower Mound News Connection Executive Editor email.
Flower Mound Messenger Executive Editor email.
Flower Mound Leader Managing Editor email.
Think how you would feel if this was one of your kids? Remember, all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
If you do email, be very polite. Don't reference any particular site. Don't give them an excuse to disregard your email. Just note that they've been exposed on the Internet and it doesn't look good for the school.
For my part, I've got to be careful because I've got a kid in school and we've experienced retaliation from this school district without the ability to seek recourse before.
If you ask why we haven't moved, you've got an excellent point. We should have. However, it's difficult to uproot kids in high school just because we hate the school. As soon as the last kids graduates, we're planning on moving outside of the district so that we do not contribute any taxes.
It's too late for my kids, but I'm willing to bet this type of behavior would not occur if we had school choice.
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How does a student get arrested for trespassing at his own school during an extra-curricular event?
Make these kids a regular half-time feature. Pretty funny stuff.
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The Banana of course ... because of ‘a peel’.
I suppose you were never young and never took part in a high school prank.
Yup, lock 'em up for running across the football field when it wouldn't affect anyone. Maybe they should arrest the jaywalkers too. A good 16 hours in jail will teach 'em!
Are they sure that’s not funny???
Geeze` I mean they at least thought it out and went to the trouble to find the costumes...come on!
More and more the wrong type of people are getting into positions of authority. Power drunk losers with no sense of proportion.
Imagine if the had a crayon drawing of a gun pinned to their back, they would still be in jail.
And so do these kids git a record now? Unreal...
Actually, I think it's better to fine them. The same people whining about that would be the first bitching about lack of safety control if a kid got run over.
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Another cop out by the cops . The school can be adamant all they want . The cop chose to arrest rather than issue a citation , promise to appear , summons or what ever they call it in that jurisdiction .
The Banana’s statement to the police; “Ok. I slipped up, but I ain’t takin’ the fall for this prank”.
I agree, the cops should have just refused. Maybe someone with a lick of sense will drop the charges and issue an apology, but I doubt it.
The problem is this is part of a pattern of over reaction and poor decision making. The town has another high school that's far more reasonable about matters like this. The school is just as good academically and athletically, has a more diverse student body socioeconomically, and has few problems.
The teachers were not allowed to talk about the issue (or other issues), losing good learning opportunities. Some did anyway, at the risk of losing their jobs.
The only job that should be in trouble is the principal's (and this principal is no one's "pal"). He sent two kids to jail over nothing. He needs to be fired NOW!
I was a police officer from 1971 until 1994, and by the time I got out I was getting disgusted about how much discretion was being taken away from the street-cop. I don’t think I would want to do the job today.
I once went out and danced with the cheerleaders in a gorilla costume during halftime at the homecoming game at my old school University of Southern Mississippi. My friend wore a chicken outfit. Everyone though we were part of the show.
Got finally run off by security. No one ever knew who we were since we were in costume.
What's wrong with kids these days?
Too much money?
Back 'in the day' the kids of my generation ran across the field naked.
Humanity is doomed.
The probably mistook you for a linebacker and your friend for the placekicker.
BTW, I was both. I either looked like a mean chicken or a chicken gorilla.
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