AntiBVBL

On August 25, Anti-bvbl had a post on students who had spelled out racial slurs and statements using sod up at Sinclair Elementary School. (See Link) Since that day, the 6 students who were involved in this incident have been long term suspended or expelled for a calendar year. On Wednesday, 4 of these 6 students will appeal the decision of the School Board to have them removed from school for a year.

 According to the Washington Post:

Officials said that six boys used pieces of landscaping sod to form a swastika and spell out “KKK” and “white power” in a parking lot at Sinclair Elementary School in the Manassas area. They have been suspended from school since the Aug. 25 incident, said Roach, whose 14- and 16-year-old sons were among the group.

A committee of three school board members is to decide in a closed meeting Wednesday whether to follow the recommendation of another school system panel and expel them for the rest of the year, said Roach, who called that punishment “unjust.”

Four of the students were arrested and charged with vandalism, said Sgt. Kim Chinn, a Prince William police spokeswoman, but she couldn’t say which ones. Roach said she didn’t think any of the six had been charged

At some point, we have to ask ourselves what the point is of a year long expulsion. The students were not on school time. Sure they vandalized a school parking lot. If we look at time, cost and effort to repair their damages, unless the grass was killed, it was an easy fix. We also need to look at the impact of keeping 6 kids out of school for a year.

The words were stupid and inappropriate. Kids do things like that. They also say bad words and spell out countraband on calculators. Some even make Elmo say bad words. Are these things worth losing a year of education? I am not so sure PWC School Board isn’t on overkill on this one.

[UPDATE:   10/29/09  insidenova.com] 

Four Stonewall Jackson High School students who admitted to creating racist symbols with sod in the parking lot of a Manassas area middle school (sic) were expelled for at least the rest of this semester after their appeals were heard by the Prince William County School Board Disciplinary Committee on Wednesday.

Correction:  The incident took place at Sinclair Elementary School.

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Prince William County Police should be commended for the quick crime-solve of the Sudley Place vandalism. Kids can do some mighty stupid things but residents should not have to bear the cost and time that go into fixing the damage. Hopefully, the group who did this vandalism will receive very inconvenient, stiff sentences that teach a lesson.

Some of us were talking about what causes this type of behavior. We seem to have had a rash of it with young adults here recently. Houses in Gainesville were vandalized. Cars and a few homes were vandalized in Sudley. Why do young adults (who basically are still kids in my mind) and kids go on rampages like this?

Is this new behavior? Is it reflective of the community? Is it reflective of the times? Is it more rampant than it used to be? Do kids have more freedom? Is it part of a hate crime tendency?

With this type of crime occurring as frequently as it does, is this the time to be cutting back on police on street? As the economy grows worse, should we expect theft to increase, vandalism to increase because unemployed people have too much time on their hands?

What county services would you be willing to give up to keep the PWC police force at its current levels rather than it suffering the same cut backs as other county agencies are going to have to do?

These are tough questions for tough times. Give us your opinions.

See full story at the Washington Post.