http://www.chron.com/news/casey/article/Fire-alarm-kid-may-get-day-in-court-1825385.php
He didn’t pull the fire alarm. He just lifted the cover. This is nonsense!
I do not see an issue here at all other than a reporter who should not be publishing a child’s name. Based on what the DA’s office believed to be the the facts they moved forward with charges. When it was eventually learned that the facts were not as they seemed charges were dropped. The story seems written a little poorly to be honest.
In addition to that, the fear of god was placed in every child in that school that ever considered pulling a fire alarm or touching the cover… Perhaps the child learned that tampering and playing with a fire alarm despite a dare is not a wise choice.
Just because the horn is local does not mean a disruption or panic was not caused.
I will also note that justice is by no means fast/swift. It takes time for all the facts to come out. In some cases there are multiple court hearings before the case even begins to move forward. There are alot of “technical” steps involved that vary state to state especially with a juvenile. Once a charge is opened, it may “sit” untouched for a while as things are mulled over and parties involved meet and discuss things, typically while everyone tries to find a mutual date that they may all appear before a judge.
If this went before a jury which in this case the child was entitled to, the jury would see and hear facts from both sides of the argument. What you would have is men and woman who would then decide if there was in fact any wrongdoing or intent.
I’ve read a story about a child who was 10 or 11 years old, and received a felony for opening a Stopper cover.
That’s even worse!
The authorities were never dispatched, and there was no false reporting. I don’t see how that would be a felony.
Post a link to the story please.
That was about a year ago, I have no idea where the story is.
Although, I found a related story while attempting to find the other story. I have not read the entire thing:
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Key word “charged” it does not appear to say he was convicted of or found to be a delinquent. You said a child “received” a felony. That would indicate, as I just stated a conviction or a finding of delinquent. I would very much like someone to post a link to a story that shows a child being actually convicted of this or a similar charge.
You all need to understand that just because an arrest was made, does not mean charges are followed through with. Charges alone are the method for which the criminal justice system can begin to either help a child become educated on why what they did is bad, or for those that continue to chose to stay on that path they can face other consequences. A majority of children charged with crimes are placed on supervised probation. This is our course not taking into account violent crimes with a true victim. The department bringing charges can always decide to drop or not move forward with the charges, which again is what happened with the OP’s linked case.
I see, they might not end up having an actual felony.
It’s still weird that a child would be charged for something like that. If I were a principal, I would have a meeting with the parents if the student lifted the cover (maybe the student was never going to actually pull the alarm). I would suspend a student for probably a week if they actually pulled the fire alarm (and they might also be charged with the felony).
I would hope that anyone that even touches an active fire alarm system for whatever reason would be charged with a crime.
Why would you place a student out of school, where they would fall behind? Do you not think that perhaps attorneys should be involved who can advocate for the child’s best interest? When a child faces any criminal charge the support of the child is almost always the primary factor. Unless of course you are talking about a crime of say murder. In a case by case basis the child’s risks and needs are assessed and the proper support is put in place.
Suspend a child from school for a week and what do you have? Someone needs to be able to stay home and supervise the child. What does a parent do if they can not get off work? Leave them home alone? How far will the child fall behind in school? If the child has access to services you can discover if the root of the problem is simply poor decision making which can be addressed or perhaps a deeper reason for the need to act out in a criminal or dangerous manner which can also be addressed.
If you discover the child is just a little brat who just wants to have fun and screw around with a fire alarm and put others at risk, there is a place for them to. It’s called a juvenile detention center.
Okay, juvenile is a better choice, as you described. A lot of principals do suspend children, and children can actually enjoy it!
Nowhere did I say that placing a child in custody was a better choice. What I said was, is that the juvenile justice system has multiple ways of dealing with the issue once charges are placed. That involves anything from probation, to treatment, to custody, to simply dropping the charges. It all depends on the situation at hand. Remember, you even have the right to appeal decisions. No system is perfect, but when life safety is involved there needs to be more than just a slap on the wrist and you have to look at the entire situation, just because it was an accident does not mean everyone can just forget it.
Which would you recommend? It seems like custody would be more effective with teaching the kid.
If stoppers are causing mass panic and child prosecution, why have the stoppers in the first place? Would that not defeat their purpose?
Things can happen every now and then with them.
An alternative would be the “break glass” Stoppers, but those don’t really draw attention.
I would recommend finding the root cause. You would then hope for the best solution. I would HOPE that whatever the reason, a child can be helped by keeping them in school and clean of a charge. Remember, that typically the charge would “go away” by the time you are 18.
I’ve heard something like if a child receives a felony, the parents actually get it. Is that true?
No. But parents may be charged in another way if they have some role in the crime. Say for example if the parents knew something illegal was taking place and did nothing to stop it. You can not just charge a child, and then place the conviction on the parents. There was a recent case of a 13 and 14 year old brutally killing one of the kids family members. They were both charged with the crime as they planned and committed it. The parents were not charged in any way.
Scary story, reminds me of a t.v. show I saw a commercial for.
Yeah. They can also prevent legitimate alarm pulls. Someone spots a fire and then simply lifts the cover and thinks they’ve set off the fire alarm.
Yes, I’ve seen a ton of people who try pulling alarms as pranks, actually just lifting the Stopper cover.