Student Arrested for Burping During Class
EmailA 13-year-old student in Albuquerque, N.M., was allegedly arrested for burping during class.
According to his lawsuit, after he “burped audibly” his teacher called the school resource officer, who in turn called the authorities to have him arrested for “interfering with public education.”
“They are using petty misdemeanor charges to arrest children in New Mexico,” said Shannon Kennedy, the boy’s attorney.
A seventh-grader at Cleveland Middle school, he names his teacher, principal and a police officer in his civil rights lawsuit.
The lawsuit also claims that school authorities transported the boy from the school to the detention facility without notifying his parents.
Additionally, it describes an incident that took place in early November in which the same boy was allegedly strip searched on suspicion of selling marijuana. He was never charged.
According to Kennedy, after a minor is booked at the juvenile detention center for a nonviolent offense, a referral is sent to the Juvenile Justice Department for a counseling appointment. She says the arrest was unnecessary because the referral to the Justice Department could have been faxed directly from the school resource officer. The student did not need to be subjected to the traumatizing booking process.
The same day this lawsuit was filed, a similar suit was filed on behalf of a 7-year-old autistic boy alleging he was hand cuffed to a chair for acting out.
Last year Kennedy said she settled a class action against the City of Albuquerque Police Department for arresting children for nonviolent crimes.
“This suit was started by a girl who was arrested for not wanting to sit next to the stinky boy in class. We settled the damages claims for a confidential amount that is sealed,” said Kennedy.
A spokesman for Albuquerque Public Schools said they would not comment on pending litigation.
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Really… the writer can not even compose a complete first sentence. I could not even continue reading. Get it together ABC.
Posted by: Donna | December 2, 2011, 10:24 pm 10:24 pm
What? Doesn’t the city have a full time firing squad?
Posted by: Jaffo Nerr | December 3, 2011, 2:07 am 2:07 am
I am guessing farting would be considered a terrorist attack.
Posted by: Jeff | December 3, 2011, 5:16 am 5:16 am
Close the school. Send the principal and teacher to jail. Put the Police Officer on unpaid leave. Get rid of the Department of education. Move everybody to Perry’s Texas!
Posted by: Ralmu | December 3, 2011, 5:51 am 5:51 am
OMG! If this is how the school authorties treat students, then what are the school bullies like?!
Posted by: El | December 3, 2011, 6:17 am 6:17 am
what this kid did is disgusting, I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal but try to have a normal conversation with a group of teenagers with a jerk breaking wind & burping loudly, it’s disrespectful & inappropriate & if this was my son, I would’ve used my belt to straighten him up, not encourage his delinquent behavior & sue the school.
Posted by: Walid | December 3, 2011, 7:31 am 7:31 am
A hole, they should send him home & humiliate his parents at the next parents – faculty meeting & suspend the kid from school for a while & force his sorry ass parents to deal with his burps & farts for a while, maybe they will get a clue of what it’s like to be near their son, I ‘m sure his parents would then rectify the situation & re-evaluate their parenting methods. & a note for the judge presiding over this case, please, I’m begging you to dismiss this case & don’t make these folks get rich because of their son’s misbehavior.
Posted by: Walid | December 3, 2011, 7:41 am 7:41 am
Of course, all we have in this article is one side of the story.
Posted by: WorkingClass | December 3, 2011, 8:16 am 8:16 am
A complete waste of taxpayer resources, and not just in police time – they will probably win a settlement … just suspend the kid – remove him from the classroom. This inept school staff needs to be removed immediately.
Posted by: yeah.i.said.it | December 3, 2011, 8:19 am 8:19 am
I bet this kid is no innocent and likely has a history of disrupting the class. I suspect the teacheer is getting him for every incident to build the documentation needed to remove him permanently. Same process an HR department has to do to remove employees.
Posted by: realbob | December 3, 2011, 8:31 am 8:31 am
Omg what is wrong with our country….. and schools …… wow in my day he would of just been sent to the office!!!!!
Posted by: Lori | December 3, 2011, 9:23 am 9:23 am
You people have never heard of bodily functions? What the story did not mention… was this right after lunch, was the child ill, was he doing it on purpose. I can’t believe that any school would arrest a child for this but so be it. I agree with one you said they need to close the school, fire the principal and the teacher. Someone needs a “board of education” to the seat of their pants and I don’t think it is the student. This is out of control. By the way for those of you too young to know, the board of education in my comment is a paddle for acting out.
Posted by: Texas Grandma | December 3, 2011, 9:44 am 9:44 am
I agree we need to make the parents responsible for his behavior, send them to couseling and the boy. we dont have all the facts of this case. but it sure doesnt need to be in the jail and courts. we had a boy who was suspended for having a mohawk. now that is mind blowing, the kid was a straight A, honor roll, student, was not rude or mean to anyone. where is the justice in that.
Posted by: ms. J | December 3, 2011, 9:47 am 9:47 am
Regardless of the audacious writing skills of the person writing this article, there are no complete facts at all. Was the kid intentionally disrupting the class? Was it only one very loud burp or was he doing it over and over after being warned to stop? Much is missing. Fact is though, whether it was intentional, accidental, or what, this child should NOT have been arrested. What is it these days with schools having kids arrested for minor disruptions in class or for things that most of us in our day were sent to the principals office and got detention or suspension for? Overkill much?
Posted by: Lev8mysoul | December 3, 2011, 10:02 am 10:02 am
Does New Mexico have one of those “private” child detentiion centers? Just wondering.how much kickback the school and/or their employees might be getting.
Posted by: dan | December 3, 2011, 10:09 am 10:09 am
Just more incompetent unionized teachers wanting someone else to do their job.
Posted by: Martnique | December 3, 2011, 10:16 am 10:16 am
One more reason for separation of school and state.
Regardless of how offensive the boy’s burping might have been, the arrest was a wildly disproportionate use of force. The school behaved like the Mafia – the demand for so-called “respect” (which really means fear) trumps every other consideration.
Posted by: terrymac | December 3, 2011, 10:28 am 10:28 am
This cop should have shut down a little girl’s lemonade stand instead.
Posted by: Ben | December 3, 2011, 10:50 am 10:50 am
Even if the boy was intentionally being disruptive, based on the information given, it seems like arresting him (especially given his age) was just wildly over-reactive. Some of the other lawsuits are also disturbing. With what mind set does anyone think handcuffing a disabled child to a chair is an appropriate response to an emotional outburst??
I can only imagine how traumatizing something like that would be for some children. It’s terrifying that the people making these decisions are working in our schools. Education is extremely important but when we start arresting kids for not wanting to sit next to someone else, there are some serious problems with the system.
Posted by: Lisa | December 3, 2011, 4:29 pm 4:29 pm
Maybe the kid should have been more respectful in the first place!! Teachers catch too much crap for awful students. If the parents didn’t teach the kid any better manners maybe the parents should be taught a lesson too.. by staying home with their pain in the neck kid.
Posted by: Lynn | December 3, 2011, 6:00 pm 6:00 pm
hahaha the land of the free, for the rest of us outside the USA, America is more and more a land of stupid and no common sense left.
Posted by: Mike Venter | December 4, 2011, 10:08 am 10:08 am
While there is, no doubt, more to this story than is reported here. Detention, suspension and expulsion are appropriate tools for dealing with disruptive minor students, not arrest and transportation, without parental notification, to a detention facility. While I sympathize with teachers, particularly middle school teachers, arrest for typical behavior from kids that age is extreme.
Posted by: lorimakesquilts | December 4, 2011, 11:14 am 11:14 am
That’s a serious overreaction. The kid burped. True, he could have tried to make it quieter, but arresting him is just ridiculous, especially when it’s just a thirteen year old. These same people likely burp their own heads off in public when kids aren’t around. If this is normal for them, they need to replace the school staff and some leadership positions. Unacceptable.
Posted by: Dog Brother | December 4, 2011, 2:11 pm 2:11 pm
Doesn’t matter if the boy has a history of disruption. Disruptive behavior can be effectively handled by a swift trip to the office and a phone call to the parents–not this extreme reaction. The teacher and principle should be disciplined.
Posted by: Brian | December 6, 2011, 10:20 am 10:20 am
Its just insane that teachers have to use the force of the government to gain control over children. Its truly insane and scary that this can even happen. Who are these people that think anything should be punished with jail time? Shouldn’t they move to a place a like Syria or North Korea where they actually hate freedom and personal liberty? Even if this kid was the most annoying sob ever no teacher should ever call the police on a student unless he is doing something like vandalism or stealing. Whats next? No seriously, whats next? Students getting put in jail for getting bad grades? Its not that crazy anymore, I can picture it perfectly. “The student willfuly neglected his homework, he lowers the quality of the whole class and therefor robs fellow students of their right to learn”. God Bless America for being a ocean away from me.
Posted by: Lester | December 21, 2011, 4:18 pm 4:18 pm
Ridiculous. Is this what the country has come to? People are murdering and a 13-year-old gets arrested for BURPING?! Pure insanity..
Posted by: Dami | February 2, 2012, 9:22 am 9:22 am