Is there no common sense left in the world or the school system?

i'd say it is.back in the day we'd get detention and the fun of scrubbing it back off.carving's one thing,doodling's another. hell,i saw a kid set his desk on fire in 5th grade and all he got back then was a month's expulsion.and that's a lot worse than that...rubber cement is amazingly flammable.

What a news. Never thought I could be arrested for that. I used to do that back in elementary and High school but never got arrested for it. There are lots of like that before me.. hahaha This sounds pretty alarming though and could cause trauma for teens. They should have given her another punishment aside from that.

Oh Jeez! This is really awful.. I just went through the entire news. I wonder what kind of a school it is that called Cops for such a small and negligible offense... And what kind of cops they are? Couldn't they see that there was nothing serious in it... Wonder, where is the world leading now...

That was a bit of overkill. All the teacher had to do was to have her go to detention and do some very demeaning work like scrubbing all the desks clean or helping the janitor clean the toilets. Another suggestion would have been to take her to civil court and have her sued for defacing the desk. Who knows whether she thought the markers were permanent and picked up the erasable ones by mistake? In some states, I heard they can renew the suit so when the girl is 21 she has to pay for the damage. But to have her put in jail for this is wrong. A little physical work never hurt anyone and she sure would have thought twice before marking up the desk again.

I would be going ballistic over this. If a school has trouble with vandolisim, it doesn't mean they make an 'example' out of something as simple as that. This is the only way I can see it in my own head that the school would have done this. Handcuffed? I'm sorry, I'm against law suits but this one has some serious grounds for - hey school you doing STUPID or what.

Ok Dawn, This is carrying the art of wasting taxpayer's monies too far. Next they will be filing case against a babies for something. :) Think of something. :)

I notice that the police have since admitted that the arrest was over the top. I think that the school authorities are to blame as well for calling the police in the first place. I also deplore the fact that the mother is apparently either so ill-advised or so greedy (or both) to waste considerable court time in suing for $1 million! I guarantee that she won't get it.

A twelve year old is till a kid .Adults do unbelieveable things and get away wiTH IT. I find this arresting a kid pretty strange.DOes the law give scope for it in your country?

Hiya Dawn. I read the story earlier and think it was rather extreme to arrest this girl for doodling with a marker, especially one that is erasable. And here she was "physically dragged by a teacher and an assistant principal" for it beforehand? Was it really necessary to do that? No, of course not. Did you read what she even wrote on the desk? "I love my friends Abby and Faith," and "Lex was here. 2/1/10" and a smiley face. OMG, it makes this girl a regular hooligan. It's no wonder the mother is suing the city for what happened. I don't know if they'll get the full amount, but they deserve some sort of monetary compensation for what this young girl went through.

There was another discussion a few weeks back where a young girl was arrested for this same thing. I'm not sure if it is the same incident or not but the responses were so very different from this discussion. Most of the people responding actually thought it was a good idea for the cops to go into the school and arrest this girl in front of her peers. I think it is way over the top. Notify the parents and make the girl clean the desk or as you suggested...maybe clean all the desks. Maybe clean them all once a week for a month. Arresting her did not fit the crime.

Hey, D! The girl should have been instructed to clean it off, or maybe even clean all the desks in the room. This, though, goes very much too far!

ok... arrested for scribbling over with an erasable marker... how about a non-erasable one? Jailed for a day? ... sick.

OMG! What is that? It's like an ant bite treated like cancer. I think what we call figures of authority should have lessons in humanity because all they know are rules, period. They have rules, words, letters to follow blindly. What are they doing to real criminals? These school figures are actually barking up the wrong tree. They should put their energy into training these kids real lessons in life so they won't do what they are not supposed to be doing. But putting them on handcuffs is way too much.

Using an erasable marker, when I was in school if you were caught drawing on school property then you were kept behind at the end of school and given the task of cleaning it up! And your parents were told, its going to far to start arresting kids because of this, they should be looking out for bullying before making a fuss of something that can easily be fixed.

How did they know Dawn if it was all rubbed out?!

Hi, dawnald. This is so pathetic! How in the world can they put this girl into jail over this small and non violent thing??? She did not write anything offensive on her desk and she wrote with an erasable marker. This could easily be removed by wiping the wood surface of the desk. It is not a permanent mark of any kind at all. This is so messed up! If she is not considered a bad student then the teacher should have gave her a warning and or detention. But she should not have been given this type of punishment at all. Of all of the years that I have been living, it is quite normal to see writings of all kinds written on desks. When I go to the park, people have sentences of all kinds written on the wooden railings. I see curse words and drawings of all kinds. They mind as well lock up these people too. It is so many writings on things, she is not the only person that has written all over a desk or a wall. I guess I should put my kids in jail too, they write on walls and anything that they can get their hands on on. As a mom, I would fight for my daughter's rights. This should have not went this far by throwing her into jail. I understand that the laws are very strict for vandalism. But this was no vandalism, this was just simple doodling by a 12 year old girl. Something that I am sure all of us have been guilty of doing when we were younger too. Shame on her teacher and principal for taking something as small as this so seriously!

Way over the top... as is the amount of the compensation claim - tho' I'd guess that no other school will take the girl after that.

Hi dawn, I really don't understand what the world is getting to, heck! I used to doodle all the time on my desk when I was in school, this is just too ridiculous, i am sp please they are sueing the police, they should also sue that stupid school. Tamara

This is ridiculous, did the stop to think that this could traumatize this little girl for the rest of her life. The support the mothers lawsuit and they should appologize to the girl. It is only in the US things like this happen.

Sorry to say this, but better on time... Before teenage years. She will probably never do any bad thing again...