Middle Schooler arrested for burping appeals to Suprm Court

Unreal.

What are they suing for? I would hope nobody pressed charges, so I'm guessing damages? The kid would be 12 or 13?

How about schools stop calling police unless there's a reason for being afraid for someone's safety.

Here's the 10th Circuit's full ruling: www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/14/14-2066.pdf

I agree that Gorsuch's dissent is awesome and--imo--far more compelling that the 90+ pages of the majority opinion.

I also agree that this is what detention is for, what getting sent to the principal's office is for. But I would hazard a guess here that the principal is the one who instructed teachers to call the school resource officer to deal with unruly students. I would also hazard a guess that this is not the first time this child engaged in disruptive behavior. Looks like a "wit's end" move by the teacher (which still should have led to detention or the like, at worst). But even if the last is incorrect, the finding of the 10th Circuit is still not wholly wrong, imo: I don't think there is a case against the teacher, at all. Not so for the officer--who shouldn't be twisting the law--or the principal--who should have stepped in and stopped the officer, a simple "I'll take it from here," and this mess never becomes a mess.

The subsequent "strip search" is a different story, I think. Student reports a drug deal in hallway x at y time among five students, review of video tapes seems to confirm suspicious activity among five students who can be identified on the tape. They're called in, questioned, and searched. From the ruling:


I don't see a problem here. And I'd note that once again, the kid's mother wasn't easy to contact. That's perplexing, in this day and age. Also, what parent lets a middle-schooler walk around with $200, let alone take it to school? This kid's going in the wrong direction and mom's not helping, imo. She's enabling.

Really, I think that's true of the lawsuit, as well. Again, I agree with Gorsuch's dissent, but only with regard to the first incident and the conduct of the officer and principal. They both erred. Consequences? A reprimand and maybe a small civil award for the kid and his mom.

But I'd really like to see the original lawsuit and ruling. I can't find either; none of the stories on this provide links to these things. What I've gleaned--by going back and looking at some of the stories from 2011, which talk about the lawsuit but don't actually provide it--is that the initial suit alleges that the boy was dragged away in handcuffs, was immediately suspended for the remainder of the year, and that no attempt to contact his parent(s) was made. All three of those things seem to be untrue.