Felony for a spitball???

Take a look at the news article below…

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/3136922p-4179403c.html

Some highlights…

"Jeffrey Figueroa was sentenced to six days in juvenile hall, put on probation and ordered to contribute 150 hours of community service at an eye bank. He also was ordered not to make any more spitballs, according to his mother, Yvette Figueroa.

Jeffrey and his parents were also ordered to undergo anger management counseling. His parents also must take parenting classes.

Jeffrey was facing up to eight years in juvenile hall after being convicted on felony charges of battery and mayhem for hitting a classmate at Walnut Creek Intermediate School with the gum wrapper."

What is up with that? What happened to parents putting their kids on a little bit of restriction, maybe giving them a small spanking on the behind…instead, he gets charged with a felony by the court and has to do time for it? I’ve made many a spitball, and spat them at many a child in my youth…have parenting and government involvement in things really escalated to this, or is it just San Francisco?

You conveniently omitted the following: “The boy who was hit had to have surgery after the September incident.”

An assault that results in the victim needing surgery is awfully damn serious, regardless of what the weapon was.

I didn’t omit it, just didn’t include it in the highlights. And yes, I agree! It’s pretty serious…but I wouldn’t call it assault! It’s childish horseplay with spitballs.

So the parents should pay for the surgery and all that, but a felony charge? I still think that’s wrong.

“Jeffrey’s older brother, Stephen, 14, who was convicted on a lesser charge in a separate incident involving the same boy, was sentenced to five days in juvenile hall, community service and counseling.”

Although mom denies it, it looks like the two brothers were bullying one kid - at least to this observer. Also:

“The boy who was hit had to have surgery after the September incident.”

Doesn’t say how bad it was, but surgery after a spitball? That must have been one helluva monster.

Still, I’d say the whole thing is a tad over the top. I dunno, but what’s wrong with sending your son over to the victim’s house to apologise, and pay for any medical costs your kid may have caused? Why should something like this end up in court?

Let me rephrase…I didn’t cut it out intentionally, I just grabbed up to it, not including. But you still get it in the article. :wink:

My point exactly. :slight_smile:

This could be another in a string of attacks against this boy. This boy may not be the only child this kid and his brother have beat up on.

What I’m saying is, there is a lot we don’t know here…

If the victim was hurt badly enough to need surgery (eye surgery, I presume, since the article says he was hit in the eye), then I would consider it felony assault. What if he had been blinded in that eye?

I’m tired of the excuse, “Oh, well, they’re just kids.” Shit, my father was working full-time at 13; my grandmother was married at 16. When did this artificial extension of childhood come about, and why does society feel that anything done by anyone under 18 somehow is excusable because “they’re just kids”?

They’re doing childish things, because younger people do have immaturity that experience (sometimes) alleviates. At 13, a child does not have the right to drive, smoke, stay out after midnight, vote, drink, have their own money, work, or any of that. The reason behind this is because they don’t have the sense of responsibility necessary (indeed, most adults don’t) to handle these freedoms.

I agree that it was wrong, I agree that it was severe. Most kids shot/shoot spitballs, it’s a kid thing…this one happened to hit a more sensitive area. His parent should have made him apologize, paid for the surgery, and grounded the kid or punished him; it’s not up to the government to do that! Sure, make the parents go to parenting classes. If their child is unruly, it’s because of their lack of parenting skill anyways. And then they should punish their child accordingly.

I wonder what happened to parents stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for themselves and their children. I bet they’ll try to blame the horrible firing of a deadly spitball on a video game or something. It’s a spitball people!

It’s up to the victim to decide whether to press charges. In this case, it was probably up to the victim’s parents. I don’t believe the government can’t press a criminal case (except murder) if the victim doesn’t ask them to. Once the victim asks them to, the government is doing it’s job and not a bit more. Further, if they hadn’t proven their case, the judge/jury would not have found the verdict they did and executed the sentence they did. So pick who you want to blame, but I think you’ll have a hard time blaming the government.

[/quote]
It’s a spitball people!
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And where, exactly do you draw the line? Which weapons should be taken seriously? If I stab you in the neck with the hollow tube of a ball point pen and allow you to bleed to death from your aorta, is that not a serious crime because “It’s a ballpoint pen people!”? :rolleyes:

By and large, our justice system is set up to punish people for what they do, not what tools they use to do it.

Hey, the parents of the other kid could have always declined to press charges. But they didn’t.

Let me try that again:

It’s up to the victim to decide whether to press charges. In this case, it was probably up to the victim’s parents. I don’t believe the government can’t press a criminal case (except murder) if the victim doesn’t ask them to. Once the victim asks them to, the government is doing it’s job and not a bit more. Further, if they hadn’t proven their case, the judge/jury would not have found the verdict they did and executed the sentence they did. So pick who you want to blame, but I think you’ll have a hard time blaming the government.

And where, exactly do you draw the line? Which weapons should be taken seriously? If I stab you in the neck with the hollow tube of a ball point pen and allow you to bleed to death from your aorta, is that not a serious crime because “It’s a ballpoint pen people!”?

By and large, our justice system is set up to punish people for what they do, not what tools they use to do it.

I think stabbing someone with a ballpoint pen and watching them bleed and shooting a spitball are very different things. Didn’t you every shoot spitballs as a kid? I don’t know a kid who hasn’t at least once! Stabbing someone is a bit different…I’ve never done that!

I’m quite sure that some kid has stabbed another with a ballpoint pen, at some time or another, and there was probably a chorus of people singing, “He’s just a kid!”

If you don’t teach a kid that they’re responsible for their actions when they’re a kid, when are you going to teach them?

Alright, this is the 21st Century now. Therefore, we will disallow the following:

  • Spitballs
  • Snowballs
  • Videogames (carpal tunnel syndrome, you know)
  • Coughdrops (dangerous drugs)
  • Doodling of any violent images(because you might be that .0000001% of the population that might actually carry it out)
  • Any type of pickup, contact sport
  • Hell, while we’re at it, any type of contact sport
  • How about some non-contact sports
  • And just to be safe, any type of contact at all must be forbidden

We are doing these things for your own safety. Our goal is to make life 100% antiseptic. No injury ever need be suffered; no one ever need die. Failure to achieve such is a failure of society (I got it right this time Coldfire) and will be punished.

J.F.C. KneadToKnow, there’s a difference between jabbing someone with the hollow tube of a ballpoint pen and shooting a spitball. And if you can’t see that, then do society a favor and stay away from juries. We don’t need this shit.

Well, duh. The point of my exaggeration and the question that went with it, which I noticed still has not been answered, was not what should happen to someone who stabs someone with a pen. It was where do you draw the line for what should be considered a “serious” weapon, since you disallow spitballs.

I doubt you’ll believe me, but I haven’t. I have been stabbed, though (javelinned would be more accurate, but stabbed will do), so maybe I’m too sensitive to victims’ rights in this regard. Your entire argument on this point seems to boil down to, “I’ve done what that kid did, so it’s alright.” Sorry, but that just doesn’t hold much water. You seem terribly reticent to discuss the actual point of the problem, which is (again) what this kid did to the other kid, not what tool he used to do it.

And I will again ask, where do you draw the line? What instruments qualify as dangerous and worthy of “felony” status, since spitballs automatically disqualify one from that status, regardless of what damage they inflict?

C’mon now. For the love of Zombie Christ. Any self-respecting classroom miscreant knows that spitballs should be shot at the blackboard while the teacher is writing on it with his/her back to you. I’m picturing the note-perfect slow burn of Ray Walston, everyone’s favorite Martian, aka Mr. Hand, in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. “The Platt Amendment was ratified in nineteen-oh…” <SPLORK> Hamilton, Brandt, and Cornfeld know what I’m talking about.

People of the Internet, heed my words: to bombard and terrorize a playground adversary, the recommended weapon for any discerning ne’er-do-well bully would be a lawn dart, a handful of pebbles, or a boomerang, just to name a few. Hope it helps!

Didn’t read the article, but I suspect the victim needed surgery to install a much-needed spine.

Whew! Just as long as popping No-Doz and huffing Liquid Paper is unsanctioned. Please don’t mess with my precious memories.

I agree… the parents should definitely be teaching these kids! If they’re not adept enough at parenting to prevent problems from arising…well then, I’d place blame in the parents, and not in the child.

Nice Labyrinth quote by the way. :slight_smile:

While I don’t think I’d have pressed charges if it were my kid, I agree with KneadToKnow. Putting someone’s eye out is putting someone’s eye out, whether it’s with a spitball or a mellon baller.

I think a more ideal solution to the problem though would have been for the agressor’s parents to foot the bill and discipline their child as they see fit. I don’t think he ment to blind the other kid, and was doing something that is deemed a “childhood prank” or something like that. Litigation sucks sometimes.

Thanks. :slight_smile:

Yes, of course the parents should be ultimately responsible; I infer from the fact that they themselves were ordered to take anger management classes that they reacted uh, unwisely (?) to the situation.

Meanwhile, let’s get some perspective on the punishment: six days in juvy and 150 hours of community service. The kid wasn’t locked up in prison or anything. The probation part is so he doesn’t walk out of juvy and promptly do the same thing again.