Desk grafitti yields arrest and handcuffs
She wrote the word “Okay” on her desk. She is thirteen years old and was removed from the school in handcuffs by police officers. WCBS-TV has more details.
Graffiti applied to school property is not okay. Tackling problems like graffiti have a good track record in lowering overall crime levels. New York City, where this incident took place, knows that better than most places in that sending police after graffiti vandals and fare-beaters in the subway system had a very positive effect in bringing down other crime. In essence, showing that even low-end crime will not be tolerated appears to convince those that would commit more serious crimes to think twice or at least take it somewhere else.
The key, though, is consistency and appropriate response. For example, putting this girl on publicly visible clean-up duty and handling it that way every time would be much more effective than an unusual and overblown response just this one time. This response just makes the administration seem crazy rather than holding a reasoned respect for rule of law coupled with a desire to educate.
Wow… That is just really stupid. I can’t believe that they actually blew it out of proportion. My friend wrote on a desk to her friend once. She carved it in, and nobody really cared at all. :/