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Where Have the Adults Gone in our Society?
To the Editor:
Your headline on the June 13 front page article says "Haldane School Delayed by Prank." You report that a two-hour delay was called when chalk figures were found on school property, some with "smiley faces." Cold Spring police and Putnam County sheriffs were brought in to investigate (as well as Crime Lab people, I'm told.) The maintenance staff cleaned up the chalk, and the Putnam County District Attorney's office joined, and helped identify the culprits. The students admitted that it was a "senior prank," and that it was a stupid idea, and they apologized.
According to my dictionary (and I'm sure, to yours), a prank is "a playful or mischievous trick." No damage was done. Yet the Superintendent says the school will be "pressing charges."
So: in response to some chalk figures being drawn on school property (whether on the ground or on a wall, you don't say), our children and teachers lose two hours of the school day, several police and sheriff people and a DA person are paid for several hours of work to investigate (and, from what I hear, the children are "locked down" inside their buildings most of the day, and police are conspicuously present), the maintenance staff are paid to clean up the offending figures, and the pranksters are going to be charged (requiring more people- including parents- to use their paid time on the matter.
One can only ask, where have the adults gone in our society? We seem to have completely lost our grip, our sense of proportion, our sense of humor, our ability to distinguish between "playful mischief" and crime (not to mention the difference between crime and war). Instead of using our natural and/or our professional authority as adults, we immediately bring in the legal authorities - the cops, the lawyers. Instead of working within the school community, figuring out who's responsible, and letting them clean things up, we get the maintenance staff into the act- doubtless they didn't have anything more important to do. Finally, instead of being able to think of an appropriate- perhaps even a creative- consequence, all we can come up with is litigation- pressing charges!- for this playful, mischievous trick.
One can only imagine that those who fire these big guns at this little mouse would cite "security" as the reason - security of the school, security of the kids, etc., etc., etc. Why else the trespassing charge? We have become so obsessed with "security" (aided and abetted by the propaganda constantly streaming from our government and our media) that we've become all too willing to compromise our liberties - including the liberty of our young people to be playful and mischievous.
I do not doubt that our Founders have been spinning in their graves the last six years, especially Ben Franklin, who famously said, "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
James O'Barr
Cold Spring
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