Yes, it’s true – we couldn’t make up a story like this. A 14 year old Wauwatosa, Wisconsin girl has been arrested for disorderly conduct after refusing to stop texting during math class, and then hiding her cell phone among her buttocks and claiming she had no cell phone on her. The girl, whose name is being withheld, but whose parents are named Brian and Lynn, is a student at Wauwatosa East High School.
According to the police report, “the School Resource Officer at Wauwatosa East High School was asked to go to room 242 and remove a student who refuses to stop texting on her phone during class. …The student is known to me and the administration based on prior negative contacts.”
The office goes on to describe repeated denials by the girl that she had a cell phone at all, as well as an exchange between the girl and a friend, in the hallway, in which the girl attempted to get her friend to take the cell phone from her and hide it.
So the officer hauled the girl into the principal, Mr. Swittel’s, office and there the officer notes that he “observed that the zipper on (her) pants was down. As we talked she squirmed in her chair keeping her hands in her lap.”
The teen was advised by the officer that she was under arrest for disorderly conduct based on her disrupting her math class by having her cell phone out, her refusal to obey the teacher’s orders to put it away, and not telling the truth about whether she had a cell phone.
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Upon being told that she was under arrest, says the officer, “she stated she did not have a phone and she was not going to stand up to be searched. These words alerted me with her zipper open and her refusal to stand up and be searched she was concealing the phone under her pants.”
After having a female officer dispatched to the principal’s office, they “did recover a Samsung Cricket cell phone from the buttocks area of (the girl).”
As a footnote to the story, it turns out that one of the people she was texting during math was none other than her father. And, in addition to being arrested, she was suspended from school for a week.
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Hey, this is bull….. I think that this was taken too far! She got arrested for something that is not illegal. If I had gotten arrested for that I would sue thr school and the individual people involved because a cell phone isn’t disruptive on silent…. and if they want to keep kids in the stone age, then why are they allowed computers and calculators?
I can understand the authorities going to such lengths, it seems the girl had a history of doing these things. I don’t want to be judge-mental at all, so I will continue by stating that she may have had a very good reason for texting. Who knows, but the fact of the matter is, she lied. It has always, in my own experience, been much less of a hassle to just own up to my mistakes, I believe that is where this young woman went wrong. Kudos to Crow and M. Incal. The only thing I don’t know about is the lawsuit part, excuse my ignorance if it is some type of national law, but Wisconsin may not have search laws like your state, Crow. Unless, of course, you live there yourself. As for the girl, I am hopeful that she will learn from this mistake and if she does continue to text in class, that when she is caught, she will own up.
Texting doesn’t always disturb the classroom. Hell, we listen to iPods as long as their lowered. These teachers need to focus more on the rest of the class instead of stopping for one student. If she is a problem, call for someone to remove her, then keep teaching instead of stopping the entire class. It is also ILLEGAL for her to have been searched without her parents there, as she is underage, and having a cellphone is hardly “probable cause” to search a minor. I smell lawsuits here.
My taxes not only go towards a police force, but also into public education. If I am paying for these kids to go to school, they should be paying attention and learning, NOT texting during class. If the threat of legal action against these juveniles is the only way to get them to pay attention, then I am glad that this young woman was made an example of. A juvenile criminal record may not prevent her from getting a high paying job, but a lack of an education surely will.
Rowan I hate to burst your bubble, but a juvenile record is sealed at 18.
GOOD GOD people!!! texting during class and then getting arrested? if that’s what peoples taxes are going toward, why the hell are people still paying them. THIS IS BEYOND INSANE!!! our country needs to sit down and THINK! arresting a 14 year old for texting? really? she probably will have a criminal record for the rest of her life, and then have a very low paying job or even no job. Are the cops really doing their jobs? Innocent people get shot down in ‘bad’ nieghborhoods but you don’t see police actually trying to stop that, no. You hear about them arresting someone potentially innocent
Teens and texting…I’ve never seen a worse combination since sodium and water.