Ok, folks, it’s time for the answer to the question posed a few hours ago: What happened when a former student at Pleasant Grove High in Alabama suffered a nasty skateboard spill and entered the high school hoping to get some medical help? Your guesses included:
1) dfzrinbedy
No medical aid or assistance was rendered “for liability reasons.”
2) He was arrested for criminal trespass. Tasered. Pepper sprayed. Held overnight without medical treatment. Charged with terrorism.
3) When police questioned him, he blamed the Let’s Move Stamps for his poor choices in protective wear.
4) Somebody wrote a blog about it?
Ahem. The answer is…none of the above. (Well, 4, sort of.) But anyway: Here’s the real story, from AL.com:
…The former student, [Police Chief] Knight said, had suffered a nasty skateboard spill. Skinned up from head to toe, he found his way into the school. Once he was spotted and school officials notified, the halls were cleared and the classroom doors locked tight to await the arrival of police.
Officers frisked the former student, listened to his story and lifted the lockdown. “The principal banned him from the school property forever,” Knight said, “and we loaded him up in a police car and dropped him off somewhere else.”
Knight said school and police officials have to take reports of an intruder seriously. “I don’t really know how you cannot take it seriously,” he said. “Ninety-nine times out of 100, it’s what we just had. But, you just don’t ever know.”
That’s right. Overreaction is ALWAYS called for. It’s the ONLY way. – L.
54 Comments
Supposedly, there’s more to this story (there always is more to any story!) and the vibe I’m getting is that this guy was skateboarding on the school grounds and had been asked not to on other occasions. This I can believe, being the mom of a skate-rat who has been tossed out of church parking lots and parking ramps.
The banishment from the school possibly has more to do with the skateboarding “infractions” than the injury and seeking help at the school, but who knows? It’s gone through the storytelling filters of a few “journalists” and now it sounds like all he did was hurt himself and ask for help AT HIS FORMER ALMA MATER and everyone went ape-sh*t and called the cops.
So. The calling the cops crap is definitely “Security Gone Wild” á la 21st-century North America. The banishment from the school grounds sounds like they just wanted him to go injure himself elsewhere, and boy, there are a lot of places who want the skateboarders to go away!
So, in effect, someone who walks into a school is labeled an intruder and police are called, before anyone actually speaks to the person. Is this how they treat parents who just walk in, too?
Sounds like the school administration knew him, and knew him on sight.
Yet they called the police and put the school on lock-down for an “intruder”. As if some strange, dangerous looking person has snuck into the school, not some bleeding skateboarder looking for a band-aid.
If he has been a problem, sure, banish him from school grounds forever. But why call the police about an “intruder” and put the school on lock-down? Why terrorize the kids and their parents by having them think something dangerous happened?
The police didn’t even arrest the “intruder”, just gave him a lift. Sounds like they may have thought it was a bit of an over-reaction too.
Can we make over-reacting a felony? Please?
While this was a total overeaction by the school, why would you go to a school to seek medical help? He didn’t appear to want or need an ambulance; just a bandaid, and schools are not in the habit of dispensing bandaids to passersby. I would think it odd, not panic-inducing, but definitely odd, if someone randomly came into my office wanting a bandaid.
Why wouldn’t you go to a school (especially one that had been your own) for basic non-emergency care? They’re required to have first-aid kits, even if there’s not a school nurse on duty. I’d expect most offices to have one or more, too — mine always have. So, yeah, if I only needed a band-aid when I was out in public and took a spill, I’d head to a school, office, or retail location.
Can you please stop taking poorly detailed stories and blowing them out of proportion. We don’t have any facts here.
From the story I can tell
1) School reported an intruder to police.
2) Police responded and when there was no threat school went back to normal.
We don’t know how he got into the school, that’s weird, since most schools are locked and you need to be let in be someone who’ll ask why you are there. There are actual good reasons for this regarding non-custodial parents and just parents who are a complete pain, so don’t assume some sort of overreation just because of a locked door. Have all the facts. In this case we have no idea from this story.
We don’t know who reported an intruder. Intruder reports are actually rare, and police should respond to an intruder report in the way they did.
Hopefully a little skepticism about vague news reports can allow us to focus on the real issues.
I think a lot of us need to stop paying taxes since obviously the taxes are not paying for community property.
A couple decades ago this would be unimaginable. I was never denied access to a school campus and would be pretty ticked if it ever happened. Schools used to be designed with a view to community use. Ha.
Okay, how is the principal going to enforce “forever”. Are they going to give him an interdistrict pass for his kids in 20 years? Maybe nicer! Or in 2040 when gramps has to explain why he can’t pick up his grandkids from school because someone forgot that phone number you are supposed to call when someone is dripping blood
All the schools have to be ready for these type of situations.They should have a first aid kit for emergencies.
“Why wouldn’t you go to a school (especially one that had been your own) for basic non-emergency care?”
Because its job is to educate the children of the community and not bandage your boo boos? Because its very limited resources should be used for the students? Because the employees are busy doing what they are paid to do and a bandaid is never just a bandaid, but also involves a half an hour conversation? Really I can think of a hundred reasons that schools, offices and stores should not be your go-to for non-emergency medical care. You’re an adult now. Go home for your bandaids. Go to the store and buy your own bandaids. Let others do their jobs. Now if you have an actual emergency, by all means go to the closest place.
Heck, we play on the playground after school every day and I don’t go into the school and expect to be given a bandaid every time my child needs one. If she can’t live without a bandaid, we go home. Otherwise, she can wait until we get home.
I don’t understand this notion that schools exist to serve all your needs simply because you pay taxes. It has never been that way, nor do we view any other government buildings that way. People don’t go into a courtroom and demand that a judge stop court to bandage their boo boos.
I was a government employee for many years. Shortly after I started, we moved into a new, much more visible, office. Our receptionist tried to be nice at first, but within a short period of time, we stopped giving out bandaids, drinks, telephone calls (except in actual emergencies), bathroom usage, tours (it was the historic jail) or cooling off areas for lynching reenactments to the general public. Why? Because our clients deserved us and not us distracted by a million other things. I feel the same about my kid. She, and all the other kids, deserve the full attention of the school during the school day and not the personnel distracted by a extraneous stuff. If the school is viewed as the place to stop when you need something when you are out and about, everyone will start to use it that way.
“When police questioned him, he blamed the Let’s Move Stamps for his poor choices in protective wear.” Hahahaha!
“Ninety-nine times out of 100, it’s what we just had. But, you just don’t ever know.”
Yes, and that’s why we are living the way we do now.
Banned from school property forever?
Back when schools were really a part of the community with its doors open, I see why this former student went in there to ask for a bandaid. I can see a kid doing it at the local library, too. When I was in high school we were always in and out after school. I miss those days. I miss those days for my kids.
Where are we going with this as a society?
Now I gotta get fingerprinted and a background check after signing up to volunteer at the school again. This after being proud that our schools didn’t have that policy last time the subject came up on here. The kids have to do a breathalyzer before going into high school dances, now there’s talk about random drug tests for kids in extracurriculars and sports.
Are there any areas left in the U.S. that have some semblance of normalcy?
@Kay
“Now I gotta get fingerprinted and a background check after signing up to volunteer at the school again. This after being proud that our schools didn’t have that policy last time the subject came up on here. The kids have to do a breathalyzer before going into high school dances”
Maybe local businesses (the sort everybody uses, like food stores) can start requiring fingerprints, background checks and breathalyzers for any and all school employees who wish to shop there. It’s only fair. Can’t be too careful.
The blog entry seems to present a puzzling issue…but again we don’t have the whole story.
Unfortunately, I can think of a former student at my kid’s HS (who happens to be a skater among other “enterprises”) and would not be welcomed at any time. Of course, this kid could have been a valedictorian for all we know, but we don’t.
While I can see that this is odd and he should have probably gone elsewhere, I don’t see this as something that requires the police to be involved. I certainly don’t see this as something that requires a lockdown. Around here, the media would be all over that, with reports of a school being locked down. Parents would freak out, thinking their kids were in peril.
Former student. Skateboarding during the day. Comes into the school for help even though they’ve made it clear they don’t want him around.
To me, all of that points to a kid who has problems beyond a scraped knee. The school may have good reason not to want him hanging around. (And speaking of “may”…I may be completely wrong. I just read it as unemployed and not responding to social cues very well.)
A lockdown, though? That’s just stupid.
“Officers frisked the former student, listened to his story and lifted the lockdown. “The principal banned him from the school property forever,” Knight said, “and we loaded him up in a police car and dropped him off somewhere else.”
So frisking a bloody, scabby kid who was seeking medical attention then dropping him off “somewhere else” is how they treated an accident victim? Maybe the Sheriff is really Boss Hogg from the Dukes of Hazzard. Did they run him out of town and leave him in a ravine(after a high speed chase)?
Maybe some need to be reminded of this:
com•pas•sion (kəmˈpæʃ ən)
noun
a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for someone struck by misfortune, accompanied by a desire to alleviate the suffering; mercy.
I cannot fathom turning away an injured person who asked for help. Nurse or no nurse, someone could have offered some compassion and give him some paper towels and some bandaids in your purse. Instead, they treated this skateboarder like dirt and called police for an intruder! What assholes.
Interchange the word “injured runner” or “cyclist” with “skateboarder” and there would be no situation here. (Actually if the runner was wearing a hoodie they might still be in lockdown.) Staff would have called an ambulance. But because a menacing skateboarder injured himself, it gets him dropped of “somewhere else”.
Well alot has be revealed here, and explains alot.
Alot of communities in the past, at least, would consider a school the center of their community. And now we have people like Donna, that basically said stay out and wait until you see the bright light, before you dare enter a school looking for assistance. Not only that, but the lack of community denying people bathrooms, phones, water and such at the office is just being jerks. As for first aid, how do you know this kid doesn’t need more than just a bandaid? Most skaters are pretty tough, and my first assumption if they are seeking help is that it is more serious than a booboo.
A former student, bleeding is not welcome in the school? I don’t care if you like skateboarders or not, that is absolutely unacceptable. Anyone that thinks otherwise is simply wrong, wrong, wrong.
And this police chief is an idiot, for supporting the lockdown in the first place.
Our shop is location is in a high traffic area. Not once have we ever denied anyone the use of customer bathroom, water from the cooler, or use of the phone should they need it. Our first aid kits are first aid kits, not employee only kits. And we never will. And to those businesses, offices or whatevers that do, they should be ashamed.
@Donna It is perfectly possibly to have an injury bigger then small boo boo which still does not require ambulance.
If one happen to have such injury, then it is reasonable to go to whatever random place around could have band-aids or at least toilet paper to cover the injury.
It would be unusual for someone to come to my office to ask for such help, but I would not find it suspect. It is unusual cause injuries are rare, but there is nothing weird bout asking for help after they happen.
I would find it weird not to ask for help in such situation.
I agree that the purpose of school is primary to educate. However, I also think that helping injured whoever is something everybody should do, including school, store or office. Especially schools, since they are supposed to ct as role models in such situations. They are free to ask him for 10 cents needed band-aid costs.
I wish we understood statistics better. Non-students in schools are not harmless 99 out of 100 times. They are harmless like 99,999 out of 100,000 times or maybe 999,999 out of 1,000,000 times. If we imagine that, 1% of the time, a person entering a school is intending to kidnap somebody or pull out a gun, then of course we’re going to freak out.
I really hope that this police officer doesn’t genuinely believe that 1% of adults entering schools have dangerous intentions.
^ I think it’s just a figure of speech but I agree, if we could reinforce the real statistics, it might register better.
Our local elementary is slated to close if our levy doesn’t pass. I am very disheartened to hear part of the reason why they chose our school is because it’s an open classroom concept with movable walls, which was popular in the 70’s when it was built. I went to a school like that.
Why is the open class concept a problem now? Because of a shooter scenario and lack of protection.
They’ve denied this was part of their rationale but I have confirmation it was discussed behind closed doors so basically they’re lying to the public.
I don’t understand why walking into an unlocked school during daylight hours is considered a crime or something that should be “banned forever.” Of course if you enter you need to be courteous and all that, but what is the big crime? Bleeding aside.
Or was bleeding in school the crime?
Sure, on the surface this looks pretty cold and a huge over-reaction. Maybe it was.
Or maybe the kid has been asked to stay off campus for good reason. As I said in my first post, I can think of 1 former HS student in our community that fits a similar profile and made his money (and created his police record) by selling to the students while he was student there. The administration and system was very forgiving of him as he was allowed to return to the school (over and over) even after having multiple charges (including felonies) against him and graduate with his class. But I can guarantee, as he sits waiting for the next court dates (for add’l charges since graduation) they would not hesitate from reacting strongly if he continued to be seen on his campus.
Again – this kid (who is unnamed, btw) could be an angel….or maybe not. Details matter.
If zero tolerance is bad, then 100% tolerance should be also – don’t you think?
Not enough details.
@ Andy –
I don’t think the police should be called. In this case, the kid appeared to be obviously injured, but he wasn’t too injured. The article is clear that the police took him someplace other than home so he went on with his day having received no medical help at the school.
What some of you obviously don’t realize is that there are a lot of really bored people in the world. Their daily activity consists of little more than walking around their “route” entertaining themselves by talking to you. Fun if you have free time yourself. Not fun if you are trying to run a business.
Within a few weeks of being in a highly visible location, we ended up on the route of several of these individuals (luckily they didn’t all come on one day). They’d come every day or two, ask to use the bathroom, get a drink of water, a bandaid (yes, it happened) or some other excuse and then stick around for 30-40 minutes chatting to whomever fell into their net. This was in addition to our clients who were also bored and came by our office routinely just to chat.
Yes, it seems callous, but I don’t know anyone who runs a business with a budget that can support an employee who entertains bored members of the public for 2-3 hours of their work day.
Oh, come on. I can see that in highly dense urban settings where it’s dog eat dog but not in smaller communities. Even men used to gather in places like the hardware store.
Ironic that Pleasant Grove, Alabama’s nickname is “The Good Neighbor City”.
I worked in a small community, not a large urban area. I think that it is much more common in small communities where there is less to do. There are only so many places to stop abd chat.
And the men hanging out in the hardware, or wherever, were largely chatting with each other. The owner floated in an out of conversation as work allowed, but it was a group who met there. Now if we could have coordinated the group of passersby and bored clients so that they were all there at the same time and could entertain each other and leave us out of it, no problem. We didn’t enough employees to handle the case load as it was.
Donna, I think your anecdotal experience is more your personal feelings of annoyance rather than the neighborly atmosphere I’m relating. If they were really holding you up then you should have been more assertive in excusing yourself. I don’t think anyone could hold that against you if done in a firm but polite manner.
The injuries description of the skateboarder remind me of this guy:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/haunted-corn-maze-owner-has-
another-conversation-w,34235/
I mean who wants that in a school? Gross. It could cause the children to get upset. Think about the babies in school.
oops.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/haunted-corn-maze-owner-has-another-conversation-w,34235/
I agree with Warren.
Amazing powers of deduction on Donna’s part. Nowhere does it say they didn’t drop him at a clinic or ER. Nowhere does it say he went on his way without medical treatment.
And not one staff member had the guts or compassion to go outside and check on the kid. Sitting on a curb tending to his wounds, was where the police found him. And they still frisked him…….talk about paranoid.
Totally unacceptable from the staff and cops.
Jobs should be on the line. The school had no idea the extent of his injuries, and just left him out there. Hell they didn’t even call for EMTs, but they called the cops. What a joke.
“Ninety-nine times out of 100, it’s what we just had. But, you just don’t ever know.”
Indeed. Whenever someone comes to my door I spray them with mace and call the cops. 99 times out of 100 it’s just the mail or a sales person, but you never know.
Sometimes a little pain & suffering is just the price that other people have to pay for me to feel a bit safer. And after all, isn’t that what’s most important?
@Donna That story about bored people bugging you have nothing whatsoever with this story. Someone holding you repeatedly and someone going in injured asking for little help are entirely different situations and none of them should require cops.
Maybe you missed how cold and unsympathetic your talk bout “boo boos” and whole “You’re an adult now. Go home for your bandaids.” sounds like.
First, I see no reason to not help an adult in similar situation. I would help an adult the same way as I would help 17 years old. Adults are free to ask other adults for help and adults help other injured adults.
Second, there is no reason to ridicule the boy and write about him as he would be toddler that just fallen from bed in sleep. Unless you have a reason to think his injuries were only imaginary and such people usually pick up sport different then skateboarding.
Shoot. I liked my version better.
@Warren, I see where you are coming from, but is there a scenario where you could see the school deciding to call the police?
Using the scenario I described: former student, suspended numerous times, dealt drugs to students, brought them to school, came to dances when he was barred from extracurricular activities due to prior issues/charges….and the kids shows up at school to skateboard.
We have no idea if the school has tried to deal with this kids before…we have no idea if this kid is a saint or not. If the kid (like the one I know) keeps pushing the limits, perhaps it’s time for the school to treat him for what he is…a trespasser.
The blog entry is SO vague. It doesn’t discuss his injuries, it doesn’t say he went to the office to ask for help (it said he “found his way into the school”).
Like I said….it’s hard to be against zero tolerance and then expect their to be 100% tolerance. Perhaps all the times the school asked this kid to leave aren’t newsworthy and they actually have applied some other methods before this.
Of course, perhaps this kid doesn’t have any past history (the comments suggest he does), but this story doesn’t read like the VB Capt that was punished for being a designated driver either.
boy, I do know how to construct sentences, but you wouldn’t know it from the above^ ugh.
Alex, excellent analogy! Ha!
Eileen, I’m not going to read into it that far. Even going by that quote, “99 times out of a 100”, they said the kid checked out. It also said he was skinned up so I would imagine he was scraped to where he needed a bandaid so he went in there looking for one. It doesn’t seem illogical to me he’d go in there looking to get patched up if he was away from home and dripping blood.
So sad. Unbelievable reaction. The moral of the story is if you are hurt & need help don’t go to a school.
“We loaded him up in the car and took him somewhere else”! Between that and banning him “from the school property forever” this one is really funny.
The car one is my favorite, though. If he is an actual threat, is that a really good way to deal with him? If he isn’t a threat, why not just let him leave?
Definitely some great quotes from the Police Chief.
The school administration knew the skateboarder and yet they called the police and put the school on lock-down for an “intruder”. This is part of the globalist agenda to create global citizens whose first and foremost loyalty is to mother government. It is how to train students to not trust family, other students or ANYONE except government officials, i.e. teachers and police, who are “just here to help keep you safe.”
What exactly do they mean by dropped him off somewhere else? I would hope that’s meant to say dropped him off at the hospital or a doctor’s? Shheeeeeeez, People, please don’t tell me that’s how people think these days?
So long,
Corinna
@Kay. My point is that by presuming the school had ZERO reason for concern for this particular kid showing up is no different than me wondering if they had every reason for concern.
I realize that comments aren’t to be trusted (yet we all post them here about situations we normally know very little), but in the comments of the blog post (it wasn’t a news “article”, just a blog entry) seem to indicate that the parents of kids that attend the school were notified of what transpired and why. They imply there is more to the story and that the kid was asked to leave school premises before.
100% tolerance is no different than 0% tolerance…you are removing the decision making from people who are expected to have some decision make responsibility and intelligence. Without details of the story, it’s impossible to know where in the spectrum the reaction was. Without knowing the details of the story, it’s impossible to know if the kid was an innocent victim, or someone who has a history of issues with the school.
Eileen,
Sure there are scenario’s in which the cops should be called.
When there is an actual threat, not perceive, not imagined, but actual. When an actual crime is committed, not imagined, but actual.
A person in the hall is not a threat. Get off your ass, and go talk to the person. If staff are too scared to do that, they have no business teaching your kids.
This attitude of leaving hurt people to fend for themselves because reasons makes me kind of sad. I see it alot actually these days. The thing is though it’s a really bad thought process.
When I was 13, I had a stupid caused by me accident on my bike and ended up breaking my arm. Now I didn’t look too badly hurt but I was in alot of pain. If someone hadn’t seen that I was in pain and help me home, a total stranger who I still do not know who they were even now, I might have hurt myself worse trying to get me and my bike home.
It’s really sad to me that if I was 13 now and had the same accident, I would not have been helped and the outcome would have been radically different for me.
@Warren, I agree with the puzzling lockdown. Overkill. But without the details, I’m not sure about much else — especially if there is a history with the kid.
@LadyTL. Why would this story make you feel like people wouldn’t help a 13 year old? This was a person that was a HS graduate (adult) with injuries or scrapes that apparently didn’t need medical attention. Yes, it sounds very cold that they didn’t get help from the school, but perhaps the school used prior information/experience with this particular individual before making that decision.
Or it’s possible that someone made a bad decision after observing the skater’s behavior and not knowing why an adult had entered the building. It doesn’t sound like the kid went to the office. Perhaps it’s just a misunderstanding and the school (and young adult) could all learn from it.
Again….not enough details, but that doesn’t seem to stop people from drawing conclusions.
Donna and Eileen
Where did you read that his injuries did not require medical attention?
@Warren, it was not included in the blog post linked. It simply said they dropped him “somewhere else”. I guess I could ask you the same thing “where did you read that his injuries required medical attention”?
That’s why I keep saying that this blog entry lacks so much information that seems relevant to drawing an informed opinion (like how recent a graduate?, what kind of injuries did he have that were ‘neglected’?, where did he enter the school?, how did he go from being in the school to sitting on a curb?, did any staff members speak to him? did the staff member that was concerned even know he was a former grad? what was their concern about this specific person etc?)
Like I keep saying, this could have been an 18 year old in need who was the student body president last year with nothing but great relationships with staff/teachers or it could have been a problem student, with a history of being on school grounds that was confrontational. We have NO IDEA.
It would be very difficult for someone to convince me (without details) that the first scenario above is the case (my own HS graduate went to visit his school while on college break just a week ago….no reports of a lock down because he was an intruder and I’m guessing he didn’t go to the office and register as a visitor) but I can think of young adults that attended my kids’ school that would NOT be welcomed back on campus and would raise concern if they repeatedly did so.
I’m guessing the scenario falls somewhere between the two extremes.
Oh and one last thought. When schools DO handle unusual or challenging situations correctly (which happens pretty frequently in a HS setting) those stories aren’t making news/headlines. When someone feels wronged, or the police get a call (and hit a scanner), then it becomes “news” and suddenly the schools are prison and full of moron administrators who can’t make a rational decision…ever. In fact the main post here says “That’s right. Overreaction is ALWAYS called for. It’s the ONLY way.”. Is there some evidence that supports such a claim? Are we aware of all the scenarios where schools DO handle situations that don’t end up with police involvement and lockdowns?
I’m just guessing that every HS deals with situations without overreaction pretty darn frequently. But those don’t make the news…..kind of like the way kids are safe, yet the terrible situations make the news and convince people that they aren’t safe.
See it works both ways.
Eileen,
You make more assumptions than I can shake a stick at.
1. he was injured, extent unknown
2. someone knew he was a former student
3. no one helped him
4. they went into lockdown
5. they called the police
6. police found him outside tending to his wounds
7. police took him somewhere
Those are the facts we know, nothing else. And based on those points and those points alone, the staff of the school were complete idiots, and should all be fired. Totally unacceptable behaviour by educators. And the Chief of Police is an idiot for supporting the school’s actions.
This has nothing to do with your old high school, or anything. It is completely about the paranoid state that schools operate in.
Warren, I’m not making assumptions. I’m simply pointing out that there is a lot missing from the story and most here seem to be certain that the school did everything wrong without knowing things about what *actually* took place that day.
Sure, it looks bad on the school’s front. But there’s not any information from them on why things unfolded the way they did.
It doesn’t fit the m.o. of this blog to consider that there’s more to the story. I’m getting used to that.
But it’s very odd to get upset about the publicity of sensationalized childhood “dangers” that are really rare, and yet hold up all these sensationalized school “miscues” as if they are a common occurrence, especially when you’re drawing our conclusions from blogs that have very little detail about the occurrence.
It just seems like the mantra here sometimes reads like “parents are misguided, uninformed, overprotective…” but only until the school does something they don’t like and then it’s “the schools are misguided, overbearing, police states”.
I probably should have just written “shades of grey” to save time.
Ok…now let me know when the “former student” hires his lawyer to sue the school for their “dangerous” property, on which he got his injuries. And God forbid he have any scars, he’ll be the next superintendent of the district!
Eileen,
Going with what we know, it is not assuming or leaping to conclusions.
The police admitted this was a nothing call. Therefore, had the school staff approached the guy, they would have been able to avoid lockdown, tended to his wounds or at least directed him to where he could. They didn’t. They locked down the school and basically hid in fear. That is just unacceptable behaviour out of educators.
“We don’t know how he got into the school,”
A door perhaps?
“that’s weird, since most schools are locked and you need to be let in be someone who’ll ask why you are there.”
Wait, what? Seriously?! Is this what schools have become?