Famous Death Row Last Meals
Food Fights: The Biggest Culinary Scandals Of 2011
Photo: BeckyKP, flickr
The kids, aged 11 to 15, were arrested Thursday after the food fight at Perspectives Charter Schools Calumet Campus on Chicago's South Side, according to reports.
"I saw a tray fly up in the air, and then I saw an orange fly," student Jordan Grevious told CBS2Chicago. 'Then, I heard the words 'food fight.'"
Three people were injured in the food melee, but parents of the arrested children worry that their records will hurt their chances at higher education or a job, the station said.
"These kids are going to have records for things that they potentially did not even do," parent Monique Greene told the station.
The children were held for hours at the police station, charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct, the New York Times said. They've also been suspended for two days from school.
"They're all scared," parent Erica Russell told the Times. "You never know how children will be impacted by that. I was all for some other kind of punishment, but not jail. Who hasn't had a food fight?"
Do you think the punishment fits the crime? Spill it in the comments.
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11-11-2009 @2:24PM Jill said... I think it's great that they got arrested! You can't spank kids anymore and they don't listen when you lecture or yell. There is no way other than calling the police in that you can properly discipline kids anymore! Spank them and YOU get arrested! Maybe this way they will understand that this is not an acceptable way to behave. Society has consequences and the time to learn that is in school. Besides, as juviniles this will all be sealed or expunged or whatever as soon as they turn 18. Maybe they will learn something.
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11-11-2009 @2:44PM Megan said... I don't feel sorry for those kids. They're old enough to know better; they're not toddlers, for pete's sake. As for this:
"Who hasn't had a food fight?"
I haven't. But then again, my parents taught me to behave and not to destroy property. And if I had been stupid enough to food fight, my parents would have said "That's your own fault. You'll have time to think about this at the station."
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11-12-2009 @11:29AM Tawnee Cowan said... Well... lets see. The Police are Peacekeepers. This was a moment of chaos and needed to get under control. Having the police show up and halt it, probably would have been sufficient. The reason I say this is because I have taught this age. My students were Honors and Creative Writers but still I had contact with the whole student body. Look at this from a complete perspective. Jails are over crowded, crime in the US is high. Money in the US is short, very very short. with the pedophiles that need to be caught, and the cars that need to be recovered, and the extremists watched... does a city really need to tie up it's resources and space for kids that went to far? Like I said, having the police come in and calm things down, would have been enough. The extreme measure of putting them in jail makes me question the integrity and abilities of the Principal and Vice. They are the ones that are put into control while the student body is present, they should handle this situation as such.
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11-11-2009 @3:43PM Jo said... Oh, brother. A food fight is disruptive, but it's not violent. It's a prank. It's possible a few suspensions might have been in order, but charging 12-year-olds with crimes for making a mess is just silly.
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11-11-2009 @4:15PM manongtenchi said... I'd say it's more than just disruptive and more than a prank when 3 people get injured. If it were just about making a mess, then suspensions would work out fine I'm sure.
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11-11-2009 @4:16PM limric said... I absolutely agree with these kids being arrested. As far as parents being worried about the impact of their actions on their future education/employment--how about worrying about teaching appropriate behavior and personal responsibility.
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11-11-2009 @9:03PM m bitetti said... These students were vandals, people were injured, property was damaged, innocent students' clothing was soiled and the learning process was disrupted (yes, that's what they are there for). A suspension or detention would do nothing to prevent something like this from happening again (take it from me...a high school teacher who has seen several food fights over the years). Parents should be ashamed to treat this as a harmless prank. They would be better parents if they taught their children to take responsibility for their actions and accept their punishment. There was recently a food fight at the school where I teach. Many students has to be dismissed because they had barbeque sauce, salad dressing, yogurt and other food items in their hair, clothing etc. It is not fair for the janitors to have to clean up the mess. Let's leave the schools as a place of learning and save the food fights for home.
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11-11-2009 @9:37PM Ricardo Kutz said... Well. A whole lot of commentary on what should have happened to the kids, yet none of you have addressed the root problem. The ultimate responsibility is on the child, with equal importance in attached responsibility to the parent.
When I was in junior & senior high school, I was involved in probably involve in about a dozen or so FF's where no one was ever injured. Sometimes suspensions happened, but 90% of the incidents were resolved with stiff lectures from our administrators and instructors.
The three students who used food ammo that was dense enough to cause injury should have known better, and as a result of the hard lesson learned will probably not do it again. But those other kids who knew that a food fight with small bits wouldn't do more than make a sticky, gooey mess don't deserve such a ridiculous overkill penalty.
In the end, modern parents still need to spend enough quality time teaching their kids judgement, restraint, self-control, and ultimate responsibility.
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11-11-2009 @9:37PM Ricardo Kutz said... In response to m bitetti.
I have to say that I do agree with your views on parental responsibility. However, labeling the entire 25 students as Vandals smacks of inquisition mentality. Really, a handful could be singled out and punished accordingly, (precluding arrest), the rest don't deserve that level of correction.
Are you so certain that suspension/detention would not deter some of the kids from instigating or even participating in a FF's in the future? These kids are individuals, not a mob of truants with pre-meditated plans to cause harm or vandalize, which as a teacher you should know means to "destroy wantonly other peoples property". Nothing was destroyed, nor is it likely that Vandalism was intended by even the students who caused negligent injury.
From your attitude/belief set I would conclude you would even advocate adult imprisonment for a group of students that say, decided to throw down and duke it out over some kind of personal differences. You need to think to the scale of the problem, and not whine about soiled clothes and janitors cleaning up messes that they're paid (very well) to handle. Heaven forbid another school day would have to be added to compensate for lost time! Oh No!
While I agree this situation escalated to the need for police intervention, draconian measures like you're suggesting, is complete overkill. The parents will all need to hire lawyers to fight the charges, and needless trauma to the the teaching process will ensue as the case gets dragged through the muck by media and will cause further harm than it mitigates.
Although I may piss you off with my assessment, m binetti, I hope you may take the time to re-analyze your position.
P.S - An instructor like yourself really should have better grammatical structure in her postings, Hm?
Bring it. :< )
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11-11-2009 @10:20PM Jena said... Clearly we don't have all the details and have no place voicing an opinion on whether calling the police was a good decision.
Having been a high school/middle school teacher, I'd say it's entirely likely that this wasn't a spur-of-the-moment, just-for-kicks food fight. Middle school and high school kids can be horribly mean and unpredictable, and this food fight might have been a form of assault.
But if might have been a food fight that was just for kicks. It really might have.
Personally, I've never been in a food fight (unless the flour fight I got into with my sister once when we were making cookies counts)--and I've always felt my character was a little less rounded because of this absence in my repertoire.
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11-11-2009 @11:49PM Eye Disagree said... These kids deserve strict punishment and a lecture on how fortunate they are to be able to have a food fight in the first place. It disgusts me how people fail to recognize the privileges they have. Let some disciplined and talented kids from underprivileged backgrounds come and take these brats' place at school while these troublemakers get to experience what living outside of their protective bubble feels like. And I'll be the one to say that all this wasted food could have been used to feed starving kids in Africa. Don't take anything for granted.
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11-12-2009 @1:47AM Tawnee Cowan said... jail is for felons. Anyone that suggest that you need to be locked in a cage for a food fight needs to get a grip on what the purpose of that cage truly is for.
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11-12-2009 @7:58PM Jeff said... Whats wrong with Kids today? The Parents. instead of whipping the kids they defend them and blame the school.
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11-12-2009 @6:19AM monty said... Gone are the days when I was twelve and me and my buddies would have "BB gun wars" and joust with bottle rockets.....
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11-12-2009 @6:38AM hpawpawkiser said... YOU PEOPLE ARE NUTS.SUSPENION WOULD HAVE BEEN
PLENTY.
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11-12-2009 @9:43PM Karl said... are you kidding? all the comments I see say they should go to jail! maybe those kids do know discipline, maybe they just need to get some things out of their systems before they get older and it becomes way out of line for them to do something like that. Maybe this is good-- if they throw food now, they won't have to in the office later in life. All kids these days ever do is play with technology and sit around on computers, foodfights are one of the few still-honored ways of having some active fun, and though it may go against School rules throwing food is lawful, and those three that got injured? probably just a bruise because the school's apples are hard as rocks.
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11-12-2009 @6:34AM Crimsonrayne said... I agree with Tawnee and Ricardo. Food fight=Jail?! That is just a silly waste of taxpayers money. More and more we are seeing the state overtaking what should be a parents domain. Seeing a police officer show up because you did something bad really does subdue a childs behavior, there really was no need to go any further with the legal system than that. The children should then have been dealt with by the parents and the school disciplinary system. YES alot of parents let their children run wild, this can be attributed to laziness, but it can also be because they are afraid to do anything, because someone ELSE may see what they do as child abuse...bringing about the "inquisition" type of overkill that has (sadly) been a hallmark of the legal system when dealing with families lately.
I have 4 children, I would hope that I have done well enough by them that they would not participate in something like this, but children are young and inexperienced, they can make huge errors in judgement simply because they are NOT wise in years...ESPECIALLY when in a crowd. A simple nudge of disapproval, be that the frowning officer, or the parent grounding, or the school detention,DOES work for the vast majority of children, simply because they feel guilty for disappointing someone that they respect.
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11-12-2009 @6:37AM Suzanne said... I admit that their behaviour was completely inappropriate for a social setting, but the arrest with permanent records are going over board. They should have been forced to clean the mess up and had a school suspension.
They are children bottom line. It is not like they were pulling guns out on each other. I am sorry that some people are so uptight that they have never enjoyed a fun food fight with friends or family. I always had mine outside and yes I was a kid, but it was not malicious or violent.
The people who are quick to throw these kids in jail and potentially ruin their lives need to stop being so anal retentive and let kids be kids,the punishment should fit the crime! And this went way over board. They recieved the same punishment they would have gotten it they would of stolen a car...does that seem fair?
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11-12-2009 @6:37AM eusebio nieves jr said... Jill are you a tard? no they should not have been arrested, maybe detention or suspension that is all.
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11-12-2009 @6:40AM tina said... I don't think they should have been arrested. They could have been disciplined within the school, maybe make them work in the caffeteria for a week. In middle school that would be embarrassing to them, and make them realize the hard work involved in working to clean up after other peoples messes. There should be some common sense!
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