Can Kids Really Be Kids

No!  The days of passing letters with a question that asks “Do you like me? Check the box for either yes or no” or a quick peck on the cheek from your kindergarten crush, have long been gone.  Those days have been replaced with parental claims of sexual harassment and/or assault and battery.  Due to school tragedies such as Columbine, and more recently Sandy Hook, children have been forced to face the harsh reality that everything they do has very real consequences.  Unfortunately, time out is no longer an option. Thus when my client, lets call him Alex, hid a toy gun in the heater of a school van, he ultimately ended up facing charges of possession of a weapon on school property.  Alex was NOT allowed to have guns of any sort in his home.  Alex also knew that guns were not permitted in school.  Alex never threatened anyone with the toy gun nor did Alex ever tell another student where the toy was hidden.  In Alex’s infinite adolescent wisdom, he genuinely believed that the school bus wasn’t school property.  Guess what, so did Alex’s parents.  Nonetheless, because of this juvenile oversight, Alex was hand-cuffed to a police bench and sent off to Lima Detention Center without Alex’s parents ever being informed that Alex had been removed from the school.  Though a huge over reaction to the situation, schools are no longer turning the other cheek to adolescent mishaps.  There is no longer patience for innocence.