Posted on 03/06/2003 10:35:56 PM PST by Coleus
Group sues on behalf of child in paper Gun Incident
Irvington case reopens zero tolerance debate
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
BY KEVIN C. DILWORTH AND REGINALD ROBERTS
Star-Ledger Staff
The Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties organization, is taking a second New Jersey school district to court for what it sees as overzealous school officials overstepping their bounds in handling student conduct.
The institute filed a lawsuit against the Irvington Board of Education on behalf of one of two boys arrested nearly two years ago under the district's "zero tolerance" policy for playing with a paper gun.
The suit, filed last month in Superior Court in Newark, charges that Hamadi Alston, who was then 8 years old, was falsely arrested, maliciously prosecuted and had his rights of free speech violated. He and his classmate, Jaquill Shelton, were arrested by police March 15, 2001. Marc Shelton, Jaquill's father, has a pending lawsuit he filed against the school board in March 2002.
The Rutherford Institute filed a suit in 2000 on behalf of four Sayreville kindergartners who were suspended in a similar situation in which they were playing a schoolyard game of cops and robbers by pointing their fingers like guns.
The two Irvington boys, who were both second-graders at the Augusta Street School, threatened their classmates with a piece of notebook paper folded to resemble a gun, school officials said. Alston stood on a desk, pointing the paper gun at his classmates, saying "I'm going to kill you," they said.
The boys were taken to the principal's office, then arrested by police for making terroristic threats. They said they were merely playing a game of cops and robbers.
The arrests reopened a national debate on zero tolerance policies enacted by school boards following the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo., in 1999 in which two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher before committing suicide.
"The Irvington school district's zero tolerance policy was arbitrary and capricious," said Stephen Latimer, a Hackensack attorney hired by the Rutherford Institute to represent Alston. Also named in the suit are the police officers who arrested the boys, Superintendent of Schools Ernest Smith and other school officials involved in the incident, including the substitute teacher and acting school principal, who have since left the school.
School officials could not be reached for comment yesterday. But Ray Hamlin, whose law firm represents the school district, said he was not immediately aware of the lawsuit and that it had not been served to the district.
Latimer said the defendants should be notified of the lawsuit today.
Although Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith said he had not seen the suit, he said he would examine the role police played in the incident. The incident preceded his tenure in office, which began last July.
"I'm always interested in making sure that the police, or any other township employee, follow necessary procedures when it comes to carrying out what the law requires," the mayor said. "We will look at the ramifications of what took place and see if there's a need on our part to change any procedures."
But after the incident, school officials didn't see any need to change their procedures as they stood by their zero tolerance policy as a necessary evil of the times.
The Rutherford Institute, a national conservative, public-interest law firm, believes the policy is unnecessary.
"There was no crime here," said John Whitehead, president of the institute, which gained national attention for handling the Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against President Clinton. "The kids had no clue of what they had done. No one was threatened. What can you do with a piece of paper?"
Latimer said the boys should have been simply told to stop playing with the paper gun. "Maybe they should have been taken to the principal's office, but I doubt even that."
Ron Alston, Hamadi's father, said the incident had put a strain on his family. "We got taken through a whole lot," he said, adding the incident forced him to place his son in private school. "This incident was so crazy. Somebody has to be a watchdog over these children. No way in the world should 8-year-olds have been arrested for playing with a piece of paper."
The Rutherford Institute has taken on numerous cases around the country involving school districts' zero tolerance policies.
Whitehead said many have been settled out of court like the Florida case in which a 15-year-old student was suspended from school for loaning a classmate a nail clipper. The clipper was considered a weapon under the school district's zero tolerance policy.
Last year, however, a federal judge dismissed the Sayreville lawsuit, saying school officials were in their right to suspend the kindergartners.
Whitehead, who said the Rutherford Institute has been a pioneer in filing these type of suits, said the Sayreville case has been appealed to the 3rd District Court of Appeals. "It may be headed to the Supreme Court."
http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1046848356199460.xml?starledger
http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/press_release.asp?article_id=296
02/25/2003
Contact Info: Nisha N. Mohammed Ph: (434) 978-3888, ext. 604; Pager: 800-946-4646, Pin #: 1478257 Email: Nisha N. Mohammed
Rutherford Institute Attorneys File Complaint on Behalf of Third-Grader Arrested, Suspended Under School’s Zero Tolerance Policies
Attorneys Sue School and Police Department for False Arrest and Constitutional Violations
HACKENSACK, N.J. — Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed suit in the Superior Court of New Jersey in Essex County on behalf of Hamadi Alston, a third-grader at Augusta Street School in Irvington, N.J., who was arrested for using an L-shaped piece of paper as a gun in a pretend game of “Cops and Robbers.” The complaint was filed against the Irvington Board of Education, its superintendent, the presiding principal of Augusta Street School at the time of the incident, Hamadi’s teacher, the school’s resource officer and the Irvington police officers who arrested Hamadi. The complaint makes charges of false arrest, malicious prosecution, violations of Hamadi’s free speech rights and the unconstitutional application of baseless zero tolerance policies.
On March 15, 2001, 8-year-old Hamadi and his classmates were directed to take advantage of the school’s “free time” period, during which students are permitted to speak among themselves, read books and play board games that are available in the classroom. When Hamadi and a fellow student selected a book to read, they found an L-shaped piece of paper contained within it. Using the L-shaped item as a paper gun and exclaiming “Pow, pow!” the boys began playing pretend games of “Cops and Robbers” and “Cowboys and Indians.” At no time did the boys threaten to harm each other or anyone else. At the conclusion of their “free time” period, the boys proceeded to their next class, at which point the school’s resource officer for interrogation removed the boys from the classroom and took them to the school office for questioning. At no time did school officials contact Hamadi’s parents. Upset by the interrogation, Hamadi began crying. When Hamadi’s father arrived to pick him up at the end of the day, he found his son crying in the office. When Irvington police officers arrived and asked Mr. Alston to transport his son to the police station, Alston refused. Police officers then arrested Hamadi and charged him with threatening to kill other students. Hamadi was held for 4½ hours before being released into his father’s custody; he was suspended from school for one day. After two court appearances, the criminal charges were dismissed by the prosecutor. Hamadi has since been treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The lawsuit contends that Hamadi suffered substantial emotional and mental injuries from being incarcerated and prosecuted without probable cause.
“One can only imagine the horror that Hamadi experienced when he was detained and arrested for playing a harmless childhood game,” stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “This lawsuit is intended to hold the defendants accountable for the considerable harm they inflicted upon this child and to validate the fact that even young children have a constitutional right not to be arrested and mistreated for engaging in harmless activity.”
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
We had all kinds of toy guns: cap guns, machine guns, water guns, toy pistols, etc. It was great, had a great time fooling around and playing army with our friends.
Why did the Irvington, NJ, police have to handcuff and arrest these boys for playing with "paper"!!!
Irvington, NJ, is a toilet, it borders Newark, NJ, to the north where the police have plenty to do to fight crime: murders, rapes, car thefts, stabbings, gang activity, etc., rather than arresting 8-yr.-old boys playing with paper on their school playground.
Just pick the Star ledger, search "last 14 days" and plug in Irvington http://www.nj.com/search/
It is not just the idiot school bureaucrats. What the heck were the cops thinking? Don't they have a clue? Arresting 2nd graders?
Kill you how? With a paper cut?
This hardly sounds like a credible threat from a second grader.
Nothing the educrats do nowadays surprises me, but I expect a little more judgment from the police.
ANY COP that has to handcuff an 8 year old, should not be carrying a gun.
With this stain on their records, they might not be able to get a real gun in the future. That's the plan...make "criminals" out of everyone.
"There's no way to rule innocent men..."
I thought the same thing. It said they were arrested for making "terroristic threats". However, an 8-year old child with a piece of paper is incappable of making a "terroristic threat". It would be no different than the kids, or any child for that matter, saying to the teacher, "I'll give you ten million dollars if you give me an 'A'". You can't arrest a kid for bribary, because they have no means of paying a teacher ten million dollars.
Everyone involved should lose their jobs and be tarred and feathered.
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