NY Daily News: SC Teen in Classroom Scuffle Engaging in “Age Appropriate Behavior”

Earlier this week, I wrote about a disorderly teenager in South Carolina who refused to leave a classroom at the request of her teacher, administrator, and police.  The showdown ended when a cop forced her from her chair, onto the ground, and presumably into handcuffs.

The officer was fired, investigations were launched, and outrage ensued.  (Watch the video HERE to see the incident for yourself.) The state of South Carolina reported that no one was injured.  Now that the teen has a lawyer, she is wearing a sling.  Her lawyer says she has injuries to her arm, neck and back.

Now that the dust has settled, news has come out that the teen apparently has been going through a rough time.  Her mother recently died and she was put in foster care.  Her rough emotional times are probably compounded by all of the attention.

But this New York Daily News article by Shaun King — which begins with a poem, no doubt — takes the cake:

To think that she has now suffered police brutality and is facing trumped up criminal charges for age-appropriate classroom behavior is just despicable.

Age appropriate behavior for a sixteen year old?  Disorderly conduct, refusing to obey her teacher, digging her heels in so much that they had to call other school officials and ultimately the police?

I argued that this teen’s lack of compliance to reasonable requests resulted in this altercation which was jarring and ugly.  But sometimes maintaining order is jarring and ugly.  The kid is to blame, not the cop.

Of course, once people start rationalizing the teenager’s behavior, there’s no natural stopping place.  As the mother of a three, I hope my kids don’t read the New York Daily News’s interpretation of “age appropriate behavior.”

I’d hate for my seven year old to think that this was okay.

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