When you pack your child’s lunch in the morning the last place you consider it will end up is on the wall of the school cafeteria.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly where dozens of lunch items stuck after a huge food fight broke out earlier this month at a Chicago middle school. In the end, tuna sandwiches, which were made into torpedoes and apples used as attack weapons, were spattered all over the cafeteria at the Calumet middle-school campus of Perspectives Charter Schools, in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.
Even more disconcerting was the fact that police were called in during the food melee, which ended with 25 students, ages 11 to 15, being rounded up, arrested, and thrown in jail. According to officers, the unruly kids were charged with reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.
Thrown in jail for throwing mystery meat. Does it seem a bit harsh?
You might not think so, but parents of the kids who participated in the sophomoric prank, claim the lasting legal and psychological impact of the arrests will scar their children for life.
“My children have to appear in court,” the mother of two eighth-grade girls who spent eight hours in jail told local news reporters. “They were handcuffed, slammed in a wagon, had their mug shots taken and treated like real criminals.”
“They were scared,” the mother continued. “You never know how children will be impacted by that. I was all for some other kind of punishment, but not jail. Who hasn’t had a food fight?”
Ah… me.
Nevertheless, parents are peeved and school officials are hoping their PR nightmare ends soon.
As for the kids involved in the food fight, in addition to being jailed, the school suspended them for two days, and they will have to appear in court. According to reports, if the charges are not thrown out when the students go before a judge, they will most likely be sentenced to community service or probation. However, since they are juveniles, their records would remain confidential until they turned 17, at which point the arrests would be expunged.
Still, some say it’s a bit much for a food fight that got out of control.
What do you think? Should the kids have been spared jail time or do you think the penalty fit the crime?
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