Is that a burrito in your pocket or are you happy to see me?
Extra-credit burrito leads to school scare
I wasn’t going to post on this because I thought it was more of a gaff than an error in policy. However, a record number of readers have forwarded the story to me and if I’m outnumbered that heavily I’m probably the one who’s wrong. Here’s the story:
A concerned citizen spotted a male juvenile carrying a suspiciously concealed item into Marshall Junior High School early Thursday morning.
Police were called. The school was locked down. Adjacent streets were closed and law officers were perched on roofs with weapons.
The excitement lasted for two hours until the student identified himself and the dangerous item he had carried into the school. It was a large (30 inch) burrito that he had prepared for an extra credit assignment.
“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,†school Principal Diana Russell said after the mystery was solved.
…
Russell said the student’s burrito was discovered after she brought the school together in the auditorium to explain what she knew about the series of events.“The kid was sitting there as I’m describing this (citizen report of a student with a suspicious package) and he’s thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, they’re talking about my burrito.’â€Â
Fortunately it wasn’t a tamale or there could have been serious repercussions.
(Tip credit to Paul Gross, Diana Day, J.Locke, Robert Ladden, Philip Massey and Sharon)
Imagine this keen insight and skill applied to every decision schools make.
No! The Burrito was, in fact, dangerous! It was a precursor to a chemical weapon!
I suppose I’m missing the problem here.
This scene could have easily been played out (and has, if I recall) on the steps of the capitol, any airport, any any other public building. If someone has a suspicous package and another concernced citizen calls it in, authorities take action.
I don’t know that the school has done anything worth critizing at all.
What I would criticize here is these are not strangers in a large airport and they are kids. I don’t think it’s healthy to teach kids to be paraniod. Even in large airports it’s been pretty ineffective… so I guess the whole idea is just bad. I wonder if they had this much security in WWII?
I agree that a “suspicious package” probably needs to be checked into. However, since it took two hours before the person carrying it to even know that he was carrying such a package, you gotta wonder what they were thinking. Don’t you think one of the first things to do is identify who is carrying it, and stop them?
Suppose it were a bomb. Isn’t gathering everyone, including the “suspicious package”, into the auditorium a rather foolish move? (And isn’t locking down the school and placing snipers on surrounding rooftops a bit overkill?)
In Minnesota, they were kids in a high school, too. That didn’t seem to stop a small massacre.
If someone does walk into a school (or airport, or state capitol, or courthouse, or the UN) with a suspicious package, the authorities are going to lock the place down and police are going to place snipers wherever they please.
If that package was a pipe bomb instead of a burrito and the authorities chose not to take action, folks would be singing a very different tune, would they not?
I can’t critize them for being prudent. No one was singled out here and the kid who had the burrito didn’t get suspended or expelled or even so much as a detention.
I love Jim dearly and I like his website, but don’t get overly critical… not everyone is out doing bad all the time. This is one of those times.
This was a funny mistake… thankfully it had a comic ending.
I didn’t submit it, but I did post it elsewhere when I read it on Yahoo news a yesterday. I thought it was hilarious! I’m waiting for Morrissey to appear on Leno.
I believe that the reason for the “lock down” is that past school shooters have positioned themselves to kill people as the school was being evacuated. If you “lock down” the school, then anyone who isn’t where they belong becomes easier to identify. I suspect they were also on the look out for the “suspicious package” as students were filing into the auditorium.
(Every boy wants a 30″ burrito.)
Garret, while I don’t think authority was out of line. But is is a good illustration of why authority should not be quick to react to a report. We do want the public, including kids, to keep authorities aware. Wild reactions discourage kids from coming foward. The more removed authority the more likely something has been lost in translation.
It wouldn’t have helped the kids in Red Lake ; even now know one knows what would. In the case of Red Lake a kid who had been hospitalized and was not allowed at school took a lot of innocent people with him on a suicidal bing. Now his friends are facing criminal charges for not preventing it. Maybe those kids should have done more, but especially in that case the better approach to avoiding that tragedy would have been family intervention at a younger age. Nothing is better than quality work. In this case people did their job, but it’s exactly why we should be emphasizing to kids why credible information is so important and thoughtful resolution does not need to be draconian.
“No! The Burrito was, in fact, dangerous! It was a precursor to a chemical weapon! ;)” - Thief
C’mon, it wasn’t even a bean burrito.
Swp,
I don’t disagree with you, but the point I’m making is that lots of folks here are quick to jump all over the education system. There is a culture of prejudice that is created and fed on this site and it hasn’t always been so. Case in point — this is clearly a critique on emergency response, nothing more. The school’s administration acted in a way that is consistent with other government agencies and did what is expected.
My point is this — I’ve seen a culture develop here that enables some folks to jump on schools without engaging in the critical thought process that is really necessary before passing judgement. This editorial is a good example. Nothing is wrong with the school or the educational process in this case. Perhaps security protocols could stand revisiting, but that’s not really a school issue.
Some (not all) need to re-think positions and stories critically before automatically passing judgement.
That’s all.
So, Garret, someone walks in with a package, and we throw the entire school into panic mode, and this is a proper response? Hardly, and emergency response is a part of the overall institutional culture of the public schools, so yes, it’s an appropriate point of criticism.
The critical culture you speak of results from the nature of the public education system, which has become far too powerful and unaccountable.
I do appreciate the balanced judgment that comes from peer review. But what about the schools attack on parents or ‘rambunctious’ boys? Do you think that has done any social damage? I wonder if this mindset has really help area that do suffer from terrorsim, like England. I’m sure the path to a fair balance will be as long the the one that took us here. I do wish I had a way to leave no room for doubt in anyone’s mind that politics of blame, suspicion and indifference are harming children.