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Educators
failed to protect students' civil rights
Editor's note: Andy Thibault is a recovering cancer patient. He had
suspended his column in May at the conclusion of aggressive chemotherapy
treatment. Today, he is a blogger, and he is resuming writing his column,
which is available for reprint courtesy of The Cool Justice Report, http://cooljustice.blogspot.
com
It
would have been nice, this Fourth of July, if someone in West Hartford
stood up for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and other parts of the
Constitution that were once important to Americans.
Sadly, this was not the case.
Instead, West Hartford will be known far and wide for engineering the
false arrest and unconscionable suspension of a student. The student's
crime: videotaping a police officer he believed was breaking the law.
This textbook case of false arrest belongs in a textbook. I don't mean the
cheesy kind of textbooks the school board, the state and publishers force
down the throats of faculty and students. Rather, this case should be
studied along with books like James Loewen's "Lies My Teacher Told
Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong;" and Howard
Zinn's "People's History of the United States." Books like these
show the reality of what befell West Hartford's Frankie Acevedo:
Extra-Constitutional power is wielded by the cop on the beat, the school
official, the boss. They can get away with stepping on the Constitution
more often than not.
On June 15, Acevedo, then a senior at Conard High School, saw Officer
James Parizo apprehending another student who was suspected of releasing
scores of crickets in the cafeteria as a senior prank. West Hartford, you
see, has criminalized student pranks. Students at the other high school in
town, Hall, were arrested for trying to carve their graduation year into
the grass.
Acevedo believed Parizo was roughing up the other student, and he said so.
"I have every right to record the police using force and it seemed
like he was going to beat him up," Acevedo said in a court affidavit.
Acevedo is absolutely right. He didn't do anything that was not allowed,
and what he did was constitutionally protected. His arrest was so
outrageous, the town should be groveling in shame. But, it is not. The
issue boils down to leadership and competence, two qualities lacked by
those on the scene.
An assistant principal at Conard -- Irene Zytka -- saw Acevedo filming the
incident.
"I told him to put the camera away as several students were gathering
around us," Zytka said, according to Parizo's report.
Assuming Zytka was thinking, I wonder what she was thinking. I guess she
was embarrassed. She should be. Instead of supporting the rights of
citizens and investigating whether excessive force was used, Zytka
demanded Acevedo go to the office. There, Acevedo submitted to Parizo's
request for the camera and memory card. Acevedo cautioned the officer,
however, not to erase anything.
In a legitimate school system, Acevedo would have been recognized for good
citizenship. However, for his attention to civil rights and yelling at the
bumbling Zytka, Acevedo was charged with breach of peace and interfering
with an officer.
Neither charge is legitimate. An honest wording of such a charge would be:
"(Angering) the vice principal." In West Hartford, we now know
this is considered a criminal act.
Zytka deserved to be yelled at. Her performance engendered no reason for
respect. She should be arrested -- along with the principal, Chuck
Landroche, for impersonating educators. They have no claim to moral
authority. They have no honor.
The administration also had the gall to suspend Acevedo five days,
effectively banning him from his graduation. That stood until Acevedo's
capable lawyer, Jon Schoenhorn of Hartford, went to federal court to
strike it down.
The presence of police in these schools is a shocking admission of failure
by administrators to earn their pay by performing basic services: teaching
and discipline.
Where does the West Hartford Board of Education stand on this matter?
"I am a serious supporter of civil liberties in general and of
student rights in particular, and so this case did cause me concern,"
board member Terry Schmitt wrote to a constituent, echoing the lame and
irresponsible positions of other board members. "However, as is so
often the case, the situation is much more complex than was made apparent
in the (Hartford Courant) newspaper."
Really? This guy is a serious supporter of civil liberties and student
rights? Maybe in another country. ... And, ah, it was so complex.
Acevedo, a witness to what he believed was excessive force, yelled at a
vice principal whose performance failed to meet minimum standards of
Civics 101. There is nothing of substance in the police report.
West Hartford taxpayers should get a refund equal to the pay of anyone who
came near this case.
Lesson learned: Police are not here to serve and protect. They are here to
arrest because of the failure of phony educators to uphold elementary
standards in a constitutional republic.
Acevedo also learned first-hand about the abuse of power by petty thugs,
something that will serve him well as he goes on to college and the
so-called real world.
What kind of community tolerates such anti-democratic behavior by public
servants?
Thibault,
author of "Law & Justice In Everyday Life," and a private
investigator, is a mentor in the master of fine arts writing program at
Western Connecticut State University. He is consulting editor for the
literary journal, Connecticut Review, and adjunct professor at the
University of Hartford's Hillyer College. Web site: www.andythibault.com
Article
published Jul 16, 2006
link:
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060716/OPINION/607160313&SearchID=73250824861695
http://cooljustice.blogspot.com/
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