Common Folk Using Common Sense

From WQAD.com:

AURORA, Ill. Police in Aurora have confirmed that a 12-year-old boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project last week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug.

The sixth grade student at Waldo Middle School in Aurora also was suspended for two weeks from school after showing the bag of powdered sugar to his friends.

It seems that the boy had the bag of powdered sugar with him while we was in the bathroom. While there two other boys asked if the bag contained cocaine. And, as ‘boys will be boys’, the child replied that the bag did contain cocaine, and then added, “just kidding.”

A custodian at the school overheard those comments and promptly reported the boy. Aurora police then arrested the boy. The kid was taken to the police station and detained before being released to his parents that afternoon.

But now, after all the facts of the event are known, have the felony charges of possessing a look-alike drug been dropped? Are the Aurora courts going to continue with their prosecution of the boy?

If I walk down the streets of Aurora, Illinois with a bag of powdered sugar will I be arrestedand charged with felony for possession of a look-alike drug? And what is the definition of “look-alike”?

In 2004 a school in New Orleans suspended 8-year-old Kelli Billingsley for nine days because she brought about 30 “Jell-O Shots” to school for her classmates. She says her mother made them and suggested that she take them to school to pass out to her friends. The girl was suspended anyway because Jell-O Shots are a “look-alike” drug. The gelatin was turned over to the sheriff’s department for testing to see if it contained alcohol. The girl was suspended for violating school rules against possessing or trying to distribute a “look-alike,” or something that appears to contain drugs or alcohol. Under the look-alike rule, the girl’s suspension will stand no matter what the sheriff’s department finds. “The school system’s position is, it doesn’t matter if it had alcohol in it or not,” schools spokesman Jeff Nowakowski said.

6-year-old Michaela Boyd, a student at Matthews Elementary School in the Sikeston (Missouri) School District, received two days in-school detention for giving a friend a bag full of dirt. Michaela Boyd found an empty baggie on the ground during recess, filled it with dirt and debris, tied the top with a purple ponytail holder and gave it to her friend saying,”here’s a bag of dirt.” After recess her friend gave the bag to her teacher. School administration determined that the bag of dirt and rocks was a look-alike drug simulating marijuana. They then sentenced Michaela to in-school detention under their anti-drug policy. Student Resource Officer Sgt. Shirley Porter says, “If she had been a 14 year old we would have arrested her taken her to jail and she would have to meet with juvenile authorities. She would have been suspended from school for anywhere between 90 to 180 days. That’s how serious it is.” All because a bag of dirt and rocks and weeds is a “look-alike” of marijuana.

The school had called the police and had them question Michaela without ever contacting the mother and/or receiving her permission to question the child or have the mother present. The mother did not find out about the whole incident until 24 hours after the incident occurred. “They said it would be on her school record as far as disciplinary that she made a look-alike drug, but I don’t feel like that’s right. Because she didn’t do anything wrong,” the mom said.

Young Michaela protested her innocence. “There was nothing in the bag. I just found it on the ground,” the first grader explained. So she decided to make her friend a bag of goodies. “They said what did you make this out of? I said out of dirt. And what else? I made it with rocks, clover and dirt.”

So when do all the groundskeepers get fired for allowing the children to have free access to this contraband? Do we need to remove all the dirt from playgrouds since it’s a “look-alike” of marijuana? I can envision her with a SWAT team moving in on the kindgergarten kingpins, encircling the playground sandbox, searching diaper bags, interviewing suspects with handcuffs ready. A suspicious toddler appears to be drinking water from a baby bottle, but it could be liquid PCP! Quick, seal the perimeter! Radio the helicopters!

Let’s apply that to bank robbers. If you just look like a bank robber you go to jail. It doesn’t matter what you actually are. It doesn’t matter what you actually did or are planning to do. It only matters what you look like.

Perhaps the zero-tolerance policies are an indication of the trust in the judgment and decision-making capabilities of our school administrators?

Aurora, powdered sugar, look-alike drug, felony

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