Police Call?

[Patrickt]

I really wonder why the police were called on this.

"A third grader had made a comment about the brownies being served to the class. After another student exclaimed that the remark was "racist," the school called the Collingswood Police Department, according to the mother of the boy who made the comment. The police officer spoke to the student, who is 9, said the boy's mother, Stacy dos Santos, and local authorities.

Why police were called to a South Jersey third-grade class party

A 9-year old boy says something--it's a secret--about a brownie and another 9-year old boy says his comment was racist. The parents aren't involved, the school can't handle it, so the police are called. Is this really what we've come to?

And the newspaper article doesn't give us a clue as to what the boy said. Is this what we've come to, too?

Me? I think it's ridiculous.

 

[jet57]

I really wonder why the police were called on this.

"A third grader had made a comment about the brownies being served to the class. After another student exclaimed that the remark was "racist," the school called the Collingswood Police Department, according to the mother of the boy who made the comment. The police officer spoke to the student, who is 9, said the boy's mother, Stacy dos Santos, and local authorities.

Why police were called to a South Jersey third-grade class party

A 9-year old boy says something--it's a secret--about a brownie and another 9-year old boy says his comment was racist. The parents aren't involved, the school can't handle it, so the police are called. Is this really what we've come to?

And the newspaper article doesn't give us a clue as to what the boy said. Is this what we've come to, too?

Me? I think it's ridiculous.

It is ridiculous, but what's running schools these days is - liability.

 

[Mason66]

It is ridiculous, but what's running schools these days is - liability.

How could a comment cause liability?

Is speech illegal now?

 

[jet57]

How could a comment cause liability?

Is speech illegal now?

Easy: a kid's parents can and have sued because little johnny was disrespected or discriminated against. Public education is in the toilet because it's not public education anymore, its "cover your ass" babysitting.

 

[Thoreau72]

I really wonder why the police were called on this.

"A third grader had made a comment about the brownies being served to the class. After another student exclaimed that the remark was "racist," the school called the Collingswood Police Department, according to the mother of the boy who made the comment. The police officer spoke to the student, who is 9, said the boy's mother, Stacy dos Santos, and local authorities.

Why police were called to a South Jersey third-grade class party

A 9-year old boy says something--it's a secret--about a brownie and another 9-year old boy says his comment was racist. The parents aren't involved, the school can't handle it, so the police are called. Is this really what we've come to?

And the newspaper article doesn't give us a clue as to what the boy said. Is this what we've come to, too?

Me? I think it's ridiculous.

Yes, this is what we've come to, about 20 years ago.

 

[Patrickt]

Yes, this is what we've come to, about 20 years ago.

I was a police officer for thirty years and retired in 1996. I would estimate that 70% of our calls for service my last year would never have come in when I was in my first year. For example, "My neighbor's two-year old son plays in their wading pool naked." Oh, horrible. Or, "A limb from one of my shrubs was sticking into my neighbors driveway and he cut it off without my permission." And, yes, at the end we were getting called to grammar schools for kids who misbehaved.

 

[RetiredUSN]

I really wonder why the police were called on this.

"A third grader had made a comment about the brownies being served to the class. After another student exclaimed that the remark was "racist," the school called the Collingswood Police Department, according to the mother of the boy who made the comment. The police officer spoke to the student, who is 9, said the boy's mother, Stacy dos Santos, and local authorities.

Why police were called to a South Jersey third-grade class party

A 9-year old boy says something--it's a secret--about a brownie and another 9-year old boy says his comment was racist. The parents aren't involved, the school can't handle it, so the police are called. Is this really what we've come to?

And the newspaper article doesn't give us a clue as to what the boy said. Is this what we've come to, too?

Me? I think it's ridiculous.

We voted ourselves into living through scenarios like this.

 

[Thoreau72]

I was a police officer for thirty years and retired in 1996. I would estimate that 70% of our calls for service my last year would never have come in when I was in my first year. For example, "My neighbor's two-year old son plays in their wading pool naked." Oh, horrible. Or, "A limb from one of my shrubs was sticking into my neighbors driveway and he cut it off without my permission." And, yes, at the end we were getting called to grammar schools for kids who misbehaved.

I hear you.

I've been listening to police scanners for 30 years or more, and it never ceases to amaze me some of the trivial calls they get from irate citizens, irate about nothing at all.

 

[Patrickt]

We voted ourselves into living through scenarios like this.

I'm not sure we did. I've heard the leftist slogan of "Vote your own self interest" but there are still a lot of Americans left. But, we've seen elections with significant numbers of dead people voting. At least one election where foreign nationals were given counterfeit voter registration cards by the Democrats. And every election has teams of thugs going into nursing homes to coerce the elderly, especially those with senile dementia, to sign already completed absentee ballots. We've seen laws passed to facilitate election fraud and lawsuits filed to stop states from fighting back.

No, I can't accept the blame for the mess and having been raised Catholic and Irish I'm big on shame.

 

[RetiredUSN]

I'm not sure we did. I've heard the leftist slogan of "Vote your own self interest" but there are still a lot of Americans left. But, we've seen elections with significant numbers of dead people voting. At least one election where foreign nationals were given counterfeit voter registration cards by the Democrats. And every election has teams of thugs going into nursing homes to coerce the elderly, especially those with senile dementia, to sign already completed absentee ballots. We've seen laws passed to facilitate election fraud and lawsuits filed to stop states from fighting back.

No, I can't accept the blame for the mess and having been raised Catholic and Irish I'm big on shame.

I was raised in a Irish Catholic environment. Although I separated from the church and it's way of thinking years ago, I still find myself looking to my internal moral compass that was planted by the good people I was around during my early years. Modesty and shame where always a part of my guide posts as I grew older when considering what was right, and what was wrong..

 

[HonestJoe]

I really wonder why the police were called on this.

If you’d read the article you linked, you wouldn’t be wondering any more. There’s clearly a messed up situation in the area that this incident is just one element of but the general whys and wherefores seem fairly clear.

 

[radcen]

I was a police officer for thirty years and retired in 1996. I would estimate that 70% of our calls for service my last year would never have come in when I was in my first year. For example, "My neighbor's two-year old son plays in their wading pool naked." Oh, horrible. Or, "A limb from one of my shrubs was sticking into my neighbors driveway and he cut it off without my permission." And, yes, at the end we were getting called to grammar schools for kids who misbehaved.

I read another article about this incident (that I no longer can find, unfortunately), and it said something about the school having a policy of calling the police for pretty much everything. Basically, it was an attempt to cut liability for the school if a wrong decision was made. Let somebody else, in this case the police, take the blame. This wasn't the first absurd incident, either, but it was the first to get wide press.

Supposedly, since it gained wide press, that policy has been rescinded. (The light of day is often the best weapon)

 

[Patrickt]

If you’d read the article you linked, you wouldn’t be wondering any more. There’s clearly a messed up situation in the area that this incident is just one element of but the general whys and wherefores seem fairly clear.

I read the article, Joe. It never even mentioned what the kid said that was deemed racist by the other kid. Great reporting. Great school administrators. The call was not something the police should have been involved with.