12 year old Special Ed student charged (legally) for wetting her pants

[Susan Gable]

Okay, does this seem insane to you? A 12-year-old special education student has been legally charged with disorderly contduct for wetting her pants in school. The principal was apparently talking to her (yelling at her? ) when this happened, and they say she did it on purpose, but the kid's mother says the child is afraid of the principal. But they've had the POLICE charge the kid. <sigh> Not for hitting someone. Not for spitting on someone. Not for swearing at someone. For wetting her pants.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,241579,00.html

Susan G.

[billythrilly7th]

If wetting your pants is now a crime, I'd better find me a lawyer damn soon.

[William Haskins]

if they try to make my kid wash dishes at school, i'll go up there and piss on them myself.

[WildScribe]

This is why I plan to homeschool... among other things, of course.

[tourdeforce]

They ate in the library and the girl was told to go to the kitchen to wash some pots and pans

The legal charge is ridiculous but why are special ed kids, or any kids, being ordered to wash dishes in school?

[alleycat]

I'd be terrified of someone named Duckwork too.

[greglondon]

Originally Posted by tourdeforce

The legal charge is ridiculous but why are special ed kids, or any kids, being ordered to wash dishes in school?

Soylent green is students!

[kikazaru]

Aw the poor kid. How humiliating for her and so cruel and totally unnecessary to put her thru this. What the hell is that principal thinking? If anyone has ever been very scared, involuntary urination often happens. This should be thrown out and the principal disciplined til HE pees himself. Jerk.

Is it just me or has common sense become a rare occurance? I was reading a few weeks ago of a 5 year old (yes 5!!) charged with sexual harrassment for pinching a fellow classmate (girl) on the bum. 5 years old and he's a labelled a pervert???

[Celia Cyanide]

Originally Posted by William Haskins

if they try to make my kid wash dishes at school, i'll go up there and piss on them myself.

I kind of wondered about that myself.

She's in special ed, so she gets to clean up after the other kids? And if she doesn't want to, she's a discipline problem?

[Del]

I've tried 3 times to post to this...a little brain oil might help. I'll try.

There are a lot of assumptions here. Were I to make one it would be that the dishwashing was a discipline. As for the charge, unless she admits guilt it is not provable. The principal should know this. What if she couldn't help it? What is the preceding going to do to her. It is potentially psychologically damaging.

I sense he was frustrated with the girl and decided on a "I'll teach you" effort. He should be taught as well. Charge him with false arrest.

I hope this is coherent.

[Celia Cyanide]

http://www.boston.com/news/education...wetting_pants/

Looks like the charge was dropped, but it doesn't say anything about why they told her to wash pots and pans. I'm looking...I'm still bitter about that one.

[maestrowork]

School admins have way too much ego and power that go to their heads.

[Susan Gable]

Originally Posted by Celia Cyanide

http://www.boston.com/news/education...wetting_pants/

Looks like the charge was dropped, but it doesn't say anything about why they told her to wash pots and pans. I'm looking...I'm still bitter about that one.

Thanks for posting that, Celia. At least they came to their senses over the actual legal charges. Sheesh.

District Attorney Robert Buehner spoke with Keifer and Gill on Thursday and decided to drop the disorderly conduct charge. Buehner said, "it makes better sense to just let the school district handle it with the child and parents."

D'uh!! You think? <shaking head>


Susan G.

[dclary]

There are various levels of special education, stemming from both physical and mental variations in a child's cognitive growth. Rodney King, for instance, was a special ed student... even before getting his brains beat in. And so was the Down's kid who played "Corky" on that TV show in the 90s.

Anyway, I think we all need a lot more information from both sides before rushing to judgement here.

Was it over the line to charge a kid with wetting their pants? Maybe. Was it over the line to wet your pants because you didn't want to do an assignment? Maybe. We just don't know.

[Celia Cyanide]

Originally Posted by dclary

Was it over the line to wet your pants because you didn't want to do an assignment? Maybe. We just don't know.

No, we don't. And you're right, we don't know how advanced she is. But I still have to wonder why the "assignment" was to wash pots and pans. I couldn't find an explanation anywhere when I searched.

[Perks]

Originally Posted by Delarege

As for the charge, unless she admits guilt it is not provable.

Lol! Wonder what the legal eagles would have come up with as suitable jail time for pissing yourself deliberately?

Even if she stood there and defiantly peed her pants (seen The Exorcist?), the best they can do is expel her. Calling the police? That's just a stunt to scare her.

I do wonder about the scutwork. If there's not a real good reason for that, I'm sure someone at that school is going to wish they hadn't dialed 911 over a yellow puddle.

[dclary]

Originally Posted by Celia Cyanide

No, we don't. And you're right, we don't know how advanced she is. But I still have to wonder why the "assignment" was to wash pots and pans. I couldn't find an explanation anywhere when I searched.

I agree. That *does* sound odd.

Many of my wife's special ed kids (she teaches SC-1 at high school level) do vocational training at various retail outlets: wal-mart, hometown buffet, etc. It's possible this kid had a similar arrangement to work in the school kitchen? Who knows? I just know that *in general* when people are arrested, it's because they need to be. And *in general* schools are VERY aware of the legal ramifications of screwing around with a kid in today's litigious society. I would tend to believe they had a good reason for the arrest.

[astonwest]

Originally Posted by dclary

There are various levels of special education, stemming from both physical and mental variations in a child's cognitive growth. Rodney King, for instance, was a special ed student... even before getting his brains beat in. And so was the Down's kid who played "Corky" on that TV show in the 90s.

Anyway, I think we all need a lot more information from both sides before rushing to judgement here.

Special education in some areas also includes those students who are behavioral disordered. My dad has taught said students for a long time. Although I've never heard him talk of police being called for pants-wetting, he has said that the police generally get called on a daily basis.

Granted, his is a school solely for said students (it looks like this Danville Middle School is of the SE-integrated variety), and they are fully trained in how to handle their students, whether they become combative or simply resistive.

Some special-ed students are also taught life skills, which would include the aforementioned washing pots and pans. Since the statement about pots and pans came from the mother alone, there's nothing saying other children weren't asked to do the same thing, and they did so without incident.

But without knowing specifics, it's too early to assume right or wrong...

[Alan Yee]

Completely off-topic, but...

Schools these days are a bit... full of something. We technically can't wear hats or hoods on campus. Ever. Even if it's freezing, raining, both, or something else. They don't seem to enforce it when there's weather problems, so the schools seem to have acquired some degree of logic. But when I was at my middle school, someone I know, straight-A student, never got in trouble in his life, got reprimanded for having his hood up when it was cold and starting to rain. Since apparently only gang members put hoods on when it's cold and/or raining.

May I also remind you that I live in Western Washington, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, where we actually have a bunch of awfully strange weather phenomenon at various times of the year. Dear Miss PNW has outdone herself this year alone: overabundance of rain/flooding in early November; an odd appearance of cold, snow, and ice shortly afterwards (with record lows); and record-high windstorms which knocked out power lines and left lots of people literally in the dark for a few days.

Now all we need is another major earthquake and volcanic eruption to complete the cycle.

After our winter made national news, they apparently smartened up about hoods and weather conditions.

I have no idea what really happened with the Special Ed student, though. There must be something else going on.

ETA: Not to mention that schools around here have completely outdoor hallways. We have to battle the weather just to get from class to class.

[veinglory]

I washed a few dishes at school. I think there are multiple assumption that she was doing it for other kids (not reciprocally) because she is special needs. When there were cooking classes or special events we all washed a few dishes in school--because we all made a few. It was done on a sort of rotation. I also don't find it impossible that she soiled herself in purpose although any kind of charge would be dispropotionate. We simply don't know the full context.

[beezle]

Maybe they should have just arrested her for making terrorist threats against a school.

[Godfather]

god knows what would happen if she wet her bed.

[KimJo]

The arrest of a child for wetting herself is completely ridiculous, and I'm glad they dropped the charges. In reference to the dishwashing, from the article linked in the original post, it sounds like the girl's special education class had prepared a lunch. In that case, the dishwashing would have been a logical part of the preparation, cleaning up after themselves. As astonwest said, life skills are often part of special education programs, and that would include both the preparation of the lunch and the cleanup afterward. It may be that other students also had to wash dishes, or that each student was assigned a specific task related to the luncheon and it happened to be this girl's turn to wash the dishes. I've worked in special ed classes where things like this are routine, and the jobs are done on a rotating basis. She wasn't cleaning up after the entire school or anything, from the article; she was cleaning up after her classmates and teachers from her special education class.