Just say no to … dirt
First Grader Punished for Bag of Dirt
Updated 16 February, 2005: Follow-up article from Heartland News includes quotes from police, school leaders. Details at bottom of post.
6-year-old Michaela Boyd, a student at Matthews Elementary School in the Sikeston School District, received two days in-school detention for giving a friend a bag full of dirt.
After finding the bag much like the one disposable utensils come in, Michaela says she decided to make her friend a bag of goodies, “They said what did you make this out of. and what did you tell them. I said out of dirt. And what else. I made it with rocks, clover and dirt.”
Her mom, Michele, says after Michaela put the mixture into the bag, she tied the top with a purple ponytail holder and gave it to her friend saying,”here’s a bag of dirt.”
After recess her friend gave the bag to her teacher. School administration determined that the bag of dirt and rocks was a look-alike drug simulating marijuana. They then sentenced Michaela to in-school detention under their anti-drug policy.
Heartland News spoke with superintendent Stephen Borgsmiller about what happened here on the playground last Tuesday and he says while he can not comment on this particular case given the childs age. He did tell me that after gathering all the information an assessment was made and now they are moving on.
Michaela will be moving on as well, with the drug infraction entered in her student record.
Additional contact information: Principal Marisa Bowen
(Tip credit to Joanne Jacobs)
UPDATE
More Questions & Answers - Detention for a Bag of Dirt
Police and school leaders defend their actions in suspending a 6 year-old for putting dirt in a bag.
Sgt. Porter says, “They are smarter than you think, we don’t give them never as much credit as we need give them because they are really smart individuals.”
…
Sgt. Porter says, “If she had been a 14 year old we would have arrested her taken her to jail and she would have to meet with juvenile authorities. She would have been suspended from school for anywhere between 90 to 180 days. That’s how serious it is.”
Superintendent Borgsmiller agrees with Porter. Porter also cautions parents “to remember that kids are curious and don’t often don’t think about consequences”. I’m curious here - just what consequences should a 6-year old be contemplating about a bag of dirt and grass?
(Tip credit to Karen E)
My favorite comment:
So when do all the groundskeepers get fired for allowing the children to have free access to this contraband?
Do we need to remove all the dirt from playgrouds?
I would not have been surprised if this 6 year old was handcuffed and sent to jail in a paddy wagon under heavy guard.
Mom would also do well to move on and send her kid to a school with people in charge who have a modicum of common sense.
This is so sick. How do these people sleep at night? What kind of morons think a normal 6-year-old would know enough about marijuana to try to “simulate” it? Maybe they should ban salad greens and pull up all leafy plants and weeds near the school.
How about the Mom suing the stupid school district because her daughter was exposed to the dangerous “contraband” on school grounds?
That would stop these flaming idiots for once and for all.
That would be great Bettina!
I love to show this kind of thing to those that don’t understand why we homeschooled. It infuriates me that other people’s children are sujected to this sort of insanity. I do not understand why there is not wholesale rebellion by parents against these schools.
As a general rule I hate lawyers and lawsuits, but those parents MUST sue to get that crap removed from their daughter’s record. The district mustn’t be allowed to get away with this insane cretinism.
Greg:
Parents need these schools to babysit their children for 7 hours a day and if the kids get some sort of an education thrown in, that’s all to the good. It’s “free” after all. However, you would think that savvy parents would scruitinize school disciplinary codes and ask how students are treated as far as discipline is concerned, so they won’t get any nasty surprises when the phone rings. There are some smart parents who homeschool mainly because they know that their children will get into some sort of “trouble” in school, and they aren’t willing to have their futures jeopardized. You can’t trust the public schools to right by your kids anymore.
The next generation might turn their backs on public schools because they see first-hand just how harmful zero tolerance is, just like many of my generation turned their backs on Catholic education for their children because of the abuse.
On-line charter schools are springing up in many states because students are leaving brick and mortar schools for the safety and comfort of their own homes. Public school officials should ask themselves why kids don’t want to go to their schools anymore.
Just read a riveting Heartland News follow-up to this nonsense. In case you think they made a mountain out of a molehill, Sgt. Shirley Porter sets the record straight with comments about how serious this is and how kids are smarter than we think they are. Well, hopefully they’re smarter than Sgt. Porter. I can envision her with a SWAT team moving in on the kindgergarten kingpins, encircling the playground sandbox, searching diaper bags, interviewing suspects with handcuffs ready. A suspicious toddler appears to be drinking water from a baby bottle, but it could be liquid PCP! Quick, seal the perimeter! Radio the helicopters!
Sounds to me like these educators have been smoking too much of the real thing!
I’m more concerned about the emotional damage that’s occuring for this child than I am the ‘real’ thing.
Evildoers beware! We can all rest easy with school personnel and crimefighters like this on the job. That kid with the bulky diaper could be concealing a weapon - better call for backup, he’s big for his age! With teachers, administrators and officers like this, who needs dirtbags?
Now that you mention it, baby ka-ka bears a strong superficial resemblance to uncut heroin. Obviously the police need to take a closer look at these Kindergarten wanna-be drug pushers.
Okay, hmm hang them all. My little girl loves to play with dirt and rocks and grass and plants and on and on. She grinds them up and makes Potions like they do in Harry Potter or something. She has recipes for love potions and happily ever after potions turn you into a frog potion, turn you back into a person frog.
I am going to have her start working on a get a Freakin clue potion.
My goodness, did you check out the link to the school?? the whole front of it is covered in simulated weed!!!!! Why haven’t they come in a paved it over??? If anything, they’re baiting these kids into bagging grass and dirt.
School officials taking every precaution with unknown vegetable matter in a dime-bag-like wrapper is no laughing matter. Just because you don’t know any six year-old drug dealers in your yuppy suburban neighborhoods, it’s time you wake up. For that matter, she could have whacked her friend over the head, gotten the dirt and pebbles in her eyes, and also have a serious weapons infraction… or even worse… she could have been sod-o-mized! Then there’s the clover. What if a bee had gotten in there? Bettina, maybe anaphylactic shock is OK in home schools… this is some serious #$%^ here.
I really think that we all should take some dirt and clover from our front yards, put it in a bag, and mail it to the administration of this school. Anonymously, of course, or they might get the feds involved and say that we were sending controlled substances via the mail, but it sure would send a message!
Tori, I’m shocked. Imagine the quivering administrator who can’t tell drugs from dirt being subjected to a barrage of unknown material. They’ll need to have labs analyze it, perhaps it would be considered a terrorist act. Maybe we could just each order a dumptruck of dirt, so they understand it’s just dirt.
“As a general rule I hate lawyers and lawsuits” from Steve LaBonne. Mr. Labonne - you sound like someone who writes and administers zero tolerance policies. Remember the words you wrote when you need legal assistance sometime down the road - maybe you house gets robbed or someone breaches a contact and runs off with your money or g_d forbid, your child is involved in a zero tolerance issue. You should be ashamed of yourself - hate is a heavy burden, I sure do hope you are strong enough to carry it around!
I’m from the community in question, and I’m sickened by the lack of common sense on the part of the school, the school board, and the police. This is a town that is largely conservative. Many citizens tune into Rush, Hannity, etc. I’m not insinuating that means they’re idiots or anything. On the contrary…however, many of them like hearing RUsh and Hannity point out other state’s school districts who suspend kids for having g.i. joe action figure rifles, etc. They get a huge kick out of those crazy “big city” schools when they make decisions just as equally stupid. Guess they won’t be able to laugh anymore. On a secondary note, this is a community that still holds drug-using doctors, lawyers, and judges in high regard. Never daring to speak aloud their wrong doings. And, this school system displayed a degree of favoritism to a young man who once possessed pipe bomb parts in the 1990’s. Of course, it’s helpful when your father is a bank president. Enough of my ramblings… I’m sickened that my child will eventually be student in this idiotic system.
One quick correction on the previous post, the 1990’s pipe bomb pre-teen didn’t have bomb parts at school…two late night explosions occured in one of Sikeston’s north end neighborhoods. My bad. Still yet, it pays to have a bank president for a father. If only this girl had some societal clout, she might have faired better. I’m truly ashamed for my community.
I am the mother of the little girl in the story. The whole story was not even told. The school had called the police and had them question Michaela without ever contacting me and/or receiving my permission to question her or have me present. I did not find out about the whole incident until 24 hours after the incident occurred. Several of the workers at this school have written letters to the principal of her school about her teacher’s attitude and conduct but nothing is being done because they’re all buddy-buddy. Sikeston is still a very prejudicial area. If this incident had occurred between two little white children nothing would have been said. I want to thank all of you for your support of my little girl.