Nine-year-old boy asks for dessert during class party school calls Police Public schools have been implementing some extreme policies to ensure that students all fall in line and don’t offend anyone in any way. In today’s community, there are so many considerations to everything that even the slightest misstep can spoil a child’s record just because another child was offended by what they did, no matter how insignificant that might be, Stacey dos Santos and her son had to face this rough system firsthand. Unsurprisingly racism has become a hot-button issue even in elementary schools, where students are far too young to understand this concept. Sadly, their innocence and naivety haven’t stopped politically driven officials from projecting racism and unconscious bias upon them. During a third-grade class party at William P.
Tatum Elementary School calls Wood, police officers were called out to investigate an incident involving one of the kids. A nine-year-old boy was accused of spewing racist rhetoric, which prompted the instructor to immediately contact the Department. A simple and innocent comment from a clueless child ended up landing him in the center of a very disturbing and controversial investigation, one that only confirms that the world we live in is beyond Salvation. According to police reports, the third-grader, who remains unnamed, had the police call him after he was accused of making a racist comment in class. The racist comment in question was, according to his mother, nothing more than him excitedly mentioning his favorite dessert, brownies, being served in the classroom.
The nine-year-old boy’s mother, Stacey DA Santos, stated in one of her interviews that the local police arrived at the school on the same day and proceeded to interrogate her son over his comments as if he were involved in some major criminal case. She claimed that the teacher who called the police misinterpreted her son’s remarks about the baked sweets. Assuming that he was using some kind of racial slur about dark-skinned people, he said they were talking about Brownies. Who exactly did he offend? Stacey asked.
The school contacted the boy’s father later that day, saying that the police had been called on his son and that an investigation had been referred to the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and permanency Stacey claims that her son was traumatized by the investigation. Stacey further explained that her son, who is half Brazilian from his father’s side, has gone through great emotional suffering because of the harsh accusation of his teacher. Stacey added that the whole situation was due to the odd policy her son’s school has in place that requires the teachers and administration to contact the police instead of dealing with situations themselves. I’m not comfortable with the administration at Tatum. I don’t trust them and Meader does my child, she said.
He was intimidated. There was a police officer with a gun in the holster talking to my son, saying, Tell me what you said. He didn’t have anybody on his side. Because of the state’s memorandum of agreement, the school district automatically turns over all instances of perceived offense over to the local police Department and family services, no matter how trivial they could be, which means that even the slightest and most insignificant accusation can turn a child’s life around by getting them and their family into an invasive investigation similar to the one dos Santos has been forced to go through. Furthermore, the Superintendent, Scott Oswald, admitted that officers are called out to investigate matters in the school district, Sometimes up to five times per day, which is a lot considering the other significant cases the officers can be dealing with instead of investigating children’s innocent remarks that are mistaken for something else.
The uptick in incidents involving police intervention has sparked concern and outrage among parents which eventually made the school look into its policy. Police chief Kevin Kerry explained that his officers are called over as minor as a simple name-calling incident that the school would typically handle internally. In addition to that, the calls wood, school board President David routes on later confirmed that the prosecutor’s office defines almost every issue as a potential criminal issue. This is what got parents worried about their children’s criminal records being tarnished because of a policy that would ruin their futures over something as little as a disagreement with a classmate. It is unfathomable to us that the prosecutor’s office believes that having uniformed police officers responding to incidents of name-calling or a second-grade playground shove is appropriate for the children or taxpayers of calls wood Routs on road.
The school later released a statement saying that all the accusations made by dos Santos were entirely false. However, when asked about details concerning the incident and subsequent police investigation, the school refused to comment any further. Stacey explained that she wanted a real and honest apology from the school Regarding the incident that had her little boy’s life turn into hell. In addition to that, she wanted the district to change the way it dealt with noncriminal issues involving its pupils. Many other parents share the same thoughts.
They all believe that such incidents should not involve any authorities, Let alone the police, as it not only negatively affects the children but wastes the officer’s time and efforts that could be put to use for more urgent and critical issues.