Boy charged with felony for carrying sugar

suntimes ^ | February 11, 2006

[Revel]

Boy charged with felony for carrying sugar

BY JUSTINA WANG A 12-year-old Aurora boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project this week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug, Aurora police have confirmed.

The sixth-grade student at Waldo Middle School was also suspended for two weeks from school after showing the bag of powdered sugar to his friends.

The boy, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile, said he brought the bag to school to ask his science teacher if he could run an experiment using sugar.

Two other boys asked if the bag contained cocaine after he showed it to them in the bathroom Wednesday morning, the boy's mother said.

He joked that it was cocaine, before telling them, "just kidding," she said.

Aurora police arrested the boy after a custodian at the school reported the boy's comments. The youngster was taken to the police station and detained, before being released to his parents that afternoon.

"This is getting ridiculous," said the boy's mother. "They treated my son like a criminal. .. . This is no way to treat a 12-year-old kid."

East Aurora School District officials declined to comment on the case, citing privacy issues.

The district issued a written statement, which said: "The dangers of illegal drugs and controlled substances are clear.

Could get probation "Look-alike drugs and substances can cause that same level of danger because staff and students are not equipped to differentiate between the two."

The school handbook states that students can be suspended or expelled for carrying a look-alike drug.

Penalties for juveniles are decided on a case-by-case basis, but if convicted, the sixth-grader could likely face up to five years' probation, said Jeffery Jefko, deputy director of Kane County juvenile court services.

Juveniles who have prior criminal records could also be placed in a residential treatment program if convicted, he said.

Aurora Beacon-News

[mysterio]

I blame the browshirt brigade of neo-prohibition fanatics. Many holes have been poked in the Constitution to appease these zealots.

[muawiyah]

The reason so many people slam the public schools when things like this happen is that we have experienced or know others who have experienced similar events.

After a while you just kinda' expect school administrators and teachers to be stupid, and they never let us down.

[Know your rights]

they'd had someone (a janitor) overhear him describing it as cocaine.

Wrong. "He joked that it was cocaine, before telling them, 'just kidding'". To summarize that as "him describing it as cocaine" is like summarizing a movie review saying "A staggering waste of time and money" as "Staggering" for the print ads.

[MarkL]

Thank goodness they got this criminal off the street! Next thing you know, he'll start carrying salt crystals and oregano! Charge him with illegal posession of a condiment! Need to enforce those asset forfeiture laws, to take away this kids GI Joes with the Kung Fu Grip! Those are violent! Give this kid the chair! Execution is too good for him!

Mark

[Paul C. Jesup]

The boy should be release and everyone involved in this child arrest and false charges should be imprisoned themselves for the rest of their lives.

No trial, no jury, no charges, they should just be thrown in prison for the rest of their lives and throwaway the key.

[muawiyah]

The "zero tolerance" thing was pushed by folks who were tired of personal injury lawsuits.

[Old Student]

"That's exactly what I said ~ the kid told the janitor, and he told the administrators, and they called the cops.

Now unless the janitor lied about what the kid said, all the administrators knew when they called the cops was that a kid said something.

This is the uncooborated word of a minor, or possibly even no word at all!"

Go back and reread the article. The janitor overheard the kid tell his friends the bag contained cocaine. He reported it, as he is required to do. I bet if you check the law in your state, you will find that you are legally required to report the commission of a felony that you are aware of, too. The statement was not uncorroborated, it was simply reported. The cops even corroborated it for him. Yes, it was sugar. They still arrested the kid, not the administrators. And you're still being foolish in insisting that the administrator should have determined if the stuff was sugar or cocaine before making that call to the local PD. If he had attempted to do so, he would have tainted the evidence. Maybe you should think over why you are so reflexively hostile to school administrators and teachers. You're not doing so well in buffing up your reputation for intelligence, tonight, either.

[MarkL]

Science project. Riiiight.

Actually, IIRC, back in jr high school, we did some experiments in "science" where we were learning about molecules and crystal structures, and we used a number of chemicals, including sugar and salt for the crystals. We also used sugar cubes (crushing them in the dark, and watching the energy released as blue sparks).

Mark

[muawiyah]

You are failing to read what I've posted and are beginning to infer that I've said things other posters have said.

So, here's the question for you ~ do you want to send the kid up the river for 30 years, or turn him loose to peddle sugar on the streets?

[Old Student]

Are you saying he never said it was cocaine, or that his saying he was joking afterwards would change how the school should respond? How about if it was a kid at your kid's school? How many of them who have done this sort of thing really had cocaine, too? I know that the school I work at had a kid suspended for saying he'd brought heroin to school. Guess what? He really did, too. The administrators and teachers do get some live ones, FRiend. They ain't all jokers.

[Know your rights]

The janitor overheard the kid tell his friends the bag contained cocaine.

Wrong. "He joked that it was cocaine, before telling them, 'just kidding'". To summarize that as "tell[ing] his friends the bag contained cocaine" is like summarizing a movie review saying "A staggering waste of time and money" as "Staggering" for the print ads.

[spunkets]

""Look-alike drugs and substances can cause that same level of danger because staff and students are not equipped to differentiate between the two.""

For the churlin.

[Doohickey]

The school cafeteria is the last place I'd go in search of spices.

[SoftballMominVA]

Hey thanks, I'm feeling the love in the room.... I try to limit stupid decisions myself, since teachers are the only ones whose mistakes count.

[Know your rights]

Are you saying he never said it was cocaine, or that his saying he was joking afterwards would change how the school should respond?

I'm saying his entire statement, as opposed to a tendentiously extracted fragment, was not an identification of the sugar as cocaine.

How about if it was a kid at your kid's school?

I hope they wouldn't twist and misrepresent a student's words.

How many of them who have done this sort of thing really had cocaine, too?

Irrelevant ... this one didn't.

[OKIEDOC]

Have the police gone completely insane.

Surely they can not be as stupid as this article indicates.

[SoftballMominVA]

Actually the school said exactly nothing about this case, as it is a private matter. All the jawing came from the mom and some drone at the local courthouse.

[Know your rights]

Actually the school said exactly nothing about this case

"a custodian at the school reported the boy's comments."

[Old Student]

"You are failing to read what I've posted and are beginning to infer that I've said things other posters have said.

So, here's the question for you ~ do you want to send the kid up the river for 30 years, or turn him loose to peddle sugar on the streets?"

I've read what you posted. You've been twisting and turning and saying you have reason to blame administrators for doing stupid stuff. Maybe so, but does that make what happened here really the administrator's fault, or the kid's? The KID is the one who said he had cocaine.

I don't have a need to see him go up for 30 years, but that is also highly unlikely, as you'd also realize, if you'd stop blasting and think for a moment. And quite frankly, if he starts peddling sugar on the streets, he's too stupid to live, and he WILL get what's coming to him.

I shall be interested in seeing if the DA lets the charges go through to court. If so, they've probably got more evidence than either of us know of. If they get downgraded or dropped, someone was just trying to make a point to a kid who is apparently too stupid to know how dumb what he said really was. I've got a class full of 7th graders right now who probably make this kid look brilliant, so it's not like its a limited phenomena, either. Have a good night.

[Know your rights]

Surely they can not be as stupid as this article indicates.

Drug criminalization breeds stupidity.