# Student Records Other Students Bullying Him--then Charged with Wiretapping **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 16, 2014, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261 "2014-04-16T15:23:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261/41 "2014-04-17T20:19:09Z")
> [@LurkerInNJ](#): > > The exact quote was “which her son explained was a book being slammed down next to him after a student **pretended** to hit him in the head with it.” > > So … he wasn’t hit in the head like you just claimed was he? Guess not. > > There wasn’t an actual assault at all, was there? Nope. Check post #4. Read for comprehension. That quote was in the article referenced in the OP. Once again, since you seem unable to comphrehend this: > [@](#): > > I was really having things like books slammed upside my head. [Link](http://benswann.com/exclusive-special-ed-student-records-audio-proof-of-bullying-threatened-with-charges-of-warrentless-wiretapping/). ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261/42 "2014-04-17T20:45:08Z")
After a couple slaps upside the head with a book, someone purposefully slamming a book down next to you starts becoming harassment. It’s a threat, made more real by the fact that actually being hit has happened before. I can also believe that the mother would be pretty shit at submitting a real statement about how her son was bullied because she didn’t even believe it herself. She only started believing him when he made the recording. Good job, mom. Nobody really interviewed the boy directly and fully, who I’m sure could have given much more clear examples of how he is/was bullied daily. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261/43 "2014-04-17T21:15:35Z")
I was killed by a spitball. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261/44 "2014-04-18T02:43:22Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Well, not as seriously as felonies… Would they prefer that the felony be a school shooting? Because that’s the message they are sending; that the authorities won’t help him, they will punish him if he tries to help himself, so all that’s left is to lash out. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261/45 "2014-04-18T03:11:15Z")
All officials involved in further bullying this kid need to be fired ASAP. They’re complete assholes. Any kids who were physically assaulting him should also be investigated and firmly warned that any further bullying attempts will be met with all kinds of punitive measures. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261/46 "2014-04-18T03:12:55Z")
> [@LurkerInNJ](#): > > You don’t have any more special knowledge than I do, so read the articles more closely. > > The article was favorable towards the mother, and the most it could dredge up was “a spitball”. > > No everyone who complains is effective at it, and if the author of the article, who is sympathetic to the mother and the child was unable to come up with better examples that would have showcased the story much more sensationally, then why wasn’t it done? Because it wasn’t there. > > There have been times on this very board when people wrote out a complaint for others to critique and the response was “what exactly are you trying to say?”, “what are you getting at?”, “what is your point?” and “what is the problem?”. > > I deal with all the complaints that come in at my office, and the sad fact is that most people are simply unable to clearly and simply spell out what is wrong, what happened, or what they want. Basic communication can be like pulling teeth with a large part of the population, but if you ask them, they complained effectively. What I have on my end is a rambling missive full of nonsense and made-up legalese. If I’m lucky, 2% will contain enough useful information for me to actually solve the problem right then and there. > > I’d bet anything that her “complaints” weren’t direct and specific like the tape was. Whatever man. I am responding to you saying a spitball does not constitute bullying. You don’t know that. You know everything I know about this situation which is not fucking much. Your unequivocal judgement that a spit ball is immature and annoying but does not rise to the level of bullying is complete horseshit in this case because you don’t know shit about what happened. But if you want to die on this cross, (which you seem to want to given the posts you have made in the last 24 hours) feel free. But you still don’t know shit about what bullying occurred in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261/47 "2014-04-18T04:06:53Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I think the folks in Pennsylvania should get [these geniuses](http://jezebel.com/nebraska-school-gives-most-idiotic-advice-ever-to-deal-1564016234) from Nebraska to write their anti-bullying literature. > > From a bullying advice flyer sent home with students in a Lincoln school district:Follow the link for more brilliance. > > Unbelievable. To quote someone on another forum, “Oh look, the battered spouses handbook”. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261/48 "2014-04-18T06:05:17Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > [Aaron Skrbin](http://www.southfayette.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&ModuleInstanceID=312&ViewID=7b97f7ed-8e5e-4120-848f-a8b4987d588f&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=53&PageID=158) I’d like to buy a vowel please. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261/49 "2014-04-18T22:52:50Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > So . . .will the person who erased the video/ordered it erased be charged with destroying evidence? Maybe the DA is dropping charges _because_ there is no evidence. Or [cynical mode] maybe the DA is dropping charges in order to _protect_ some school official from a charge of destroying evidence.[/cynical mode] ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261/50 "2014-04-22T08:24:52Z")
[Update](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140418/12201326960/finally-someone-acts-like-adult-district-attorney-drops-charges-against-bullied-teen-who-recorded-his-tormentors.shtml): The charges were dropped (apparently they lied about doing so earlier). > [@](#): > > More specifically, both the wiretapping charge (which was apparently still brought despite the involved officer’s statement otherwise) and the disorderly conduct charge (which the judge found the student guilty of) were dropped. > > > [@](#): > > > > A wiretapping charge against a South Fayette High School student who recorded two classmates bullying him has been dropped by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office. > > > > Mike Manko, a spokesman for District Attorney Stephen Zappala, said Judge Robert Gallo signed an order Thursday to withdraw the citation against 15-year-old Christian Stanfield. > > > > “No one in our office who is authorized to give advice on wiretap issues or school conduct issues was ever contacted in this matter. We have made multiple attempts to contact the officer who wrote the citation and (the) results have been unsuccessful,” Manko said in a written statement. “We do not believe this behavior rises to the level of a citation.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-records-other-students-bullying-him-then-charged-with-wiretapping/686261.md?page=2)