Side Conversation…
January 29, 2008
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Posted by Aubrey Turner
In the post below I mentioned a previous encounter that I had with some people who vandalized the football field in Pilot Point. This quickly brought a comment from one of the people in question. In light of the subject matter of the post below, I have decided to move the comments out of the comment section and into a post of their own.
Here’s the comment:
You just don’t get the message we were trying to get across. We didn’t have a problem with teachers, coaches, cops, football, basketball, Pilot Point, or even Celina. Our beef was with parents. Our high school experience was ruined by the parents of the town quarreling over irrelevant things. We acted out against parents in general because all the attention was on them, it is the same stuff you hear about everyday where parents get too involved in their child’s sports and sometimes they take it a step further and try to live vicariously not only through sports, but through friends, classes, dates, parties, and so on and so on.
We chose that prank because it was a clean prank, no one got hurt and all damages could be fixed with relative ease. Most importantly, well to us anyways, it put the proverbial cherry on top of the cake because the town and school was going down hill with e-mail controversies, recruiting allegations, teaching scandals, and parents fighting. Our parents got so wrapped up trying to be us that they forgot who they were, I mean it was like “Hey mom, dad, get out of my school, you can squash your beef with Johnny’s parents at the flag pole after school at 4, but for now go home and let me go to class.â€
And as far as us being whiney and not wanting to accept responsibility for our actions, it was a perfect prank, no witnesses, no fingerprints, no evidence. The cops blatantly ignored our Miranda Rights, we were removed from the school which doesn’t constitute a stop, but we were not arrested or read rights, instead the police said that we didn’t have time to contact an attorney or our parents, we could turn ourselves in right then and there or go to jail. If we gave our statements admitting guilt then they said they would not arrest us, but before we gave our statements we had to sign off on our Miranda Rights and the last right on the paper was “I was not coerced into an admission of guilt by the threat of jail time†we didn’t sign that right or the right to remain silent and the rights to attorneys. Anyways the police will do what the police want to do. And don’t come back on me with any guff saying that police are fair, good people. Those same police were later arrested for soliciting sex from a minor.
We accepted our consequences with the school. We missed prom, received three days suspension, paid full restitution, and volunteered our time to repaint the entire football stadium during our suspension. In restitution we paid the school for seven people to repaint at $8 an hour for 24 hours, five of those seven were us and the other two were school maintenance men who brought us paint in the morning. So that is $1340 that we paid the school to have us come volunteer our services while we were not allowed on school grounds by law because we were suspended. And even though we were volunteers we were told when we had to be there, when and where we could go for lunch, and when we could leave.
All of that was shady, but we did it because the superintendent promised a letter promising that the ISD would not press criminal charges. Now I’m assuming that you think that we are whiny brats because of the Steve Stoler interview where we said that there was double jeopardy, and while I don’t so much agree with the double jeopardy statement I do think that what led to us going to jail was fubar. To this day no one can tell us who called for us to be sent to jail, all we know was it was a school board member. What we do know is that there was one board member that doesn’t favor two of us who have parents on the board or running for the board, her position on the board to be more precise. She was very vocal about her dislike for us, and right after our suspension was up and we were back in school her freshman kid was caught with a water bottle full of vodka. Her response to the school is that if here kid is getting expelled for a little alcohol then we needed to go to jail.
In the PPISD code of conduct books it states that PPISD has zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol they are a level 4 offence that merit immediate expulsion, our infringement, vandalism is a level 2 offence that will result in a maximum of 3 days in ISS or in school suspension. We had already gone far past what the school district itself called for because we were promised no jail. At the end of the day an anonymous school board member pressed criminal charges on the five of us and we went to jail.
In conclusion, we are not whiny, were pissed because after all the smoke cleared parents still acted like children but realized that they were children with more authority.
Posted by VandalFromPilotPoint on 01/29/2008 at 01:17 PM
I had one interim comment, with my reaction to the speed of the first comment, but here is my second comment with the “meat” of my response:
Our high school experience was ruined by the parents of the town quarreling over irrelevant things. We acted out against parents in general because all the attention was on them, it is the same stuff you hear about everyday where parents get too involved in their child’s sports and sometimes they take it a step further and try to live vicariously not only through sports, but through friends, classes, dates, parties, and so on and so on.
Somehow, this message fails to move me. It also does *not* justify pulling this “prank†(as you call it).
And don’t come back on me with any guff saying that police are fair, good people. Those same police were later arrested for soliciting sex from a minor.
Guff? Interesting tone to take with me if you’re trying to persuade me that you were railroaded. Anyhow, the police that I know *personally* are generally fair, good people. Not to say that there aren’t some bad ones I’ve encountered. But it’s a bit far-fetched to judge them all based on your small sample.
At the end of the day an anonymous school board member pressed criminal charges on the five of us and we went to jail.
That’s an interesting statement, and I don’t see how it can be true. You have the right to confront your accuser in court, so I suspect what really happened here is that the DA decided to pursue the charges, which is within his purview. It matters not whether the ISD wants to press charges (although in some cases this could be a mitigating circumstance).
As for double-jeopardy, it doesn’t seem to apply (as you noted), as the criminal justice system didn’t attempt to try you twice.
Anyhow, after reading your statement, I remain unmoved with regards to any justification for your actions or the punishments you received. The simple solution to the whole thing would have been not pulling the prank. It’s amazing that this escapes you, but perhaps someday when you’re older you’ll understand.
Categories: Random Ramblings
You just don’t get the message we were trying to get across. We didn’t have a problem with teachers, coaches, cops, football, basketball, Pilot Point, or even Celina. Our beef was with parents. Our high school experience was ruined by the parents of the town quarreling over irrelevant things. We acted out against parents in general because all the attention was on them, it is the same stuff you hear about everyday where parents get too involved in their child’s sports and sometimes they take it a step further and try to live vicariously not only through sports, but through friends, classes, dates, parties, and so on and so on.
We chose that prank because it was a clean prank, no one got hurt and all damages could be fixed with relative ease. Most importantly, well to us anyways, it put the proverbial cherry on top of the cake because the town and school was going down hill with e-mail controversies, recruiting allegations, teaching scandals, and parents fighting. Our parents got so wrapped up trying to be us that they forgot who they were, I mean it was like “Hey mom, dad, get out of my school, you can squash your beef with Johnny’s parents at the flag pole after school at 4, but for now go home and let me go to class.â€
And as far as us being whiney and not wanting to accept responsibility for our actions, it was a perfect prank, no witnesses, no fingerprints, no evidence. The cops blatantly ignored our Miranda Rights, we were removed from the school which doesn’t constitute a stop, but we were not arrested or read rights, instead the police said that we didn’t have time to contact an attorney or our parents, we could turn ourselves in right then and there or go to jail. If we gave our statements admitting guilt then they said they would not arrest us, but before we gave our statements we had to sign off on our Miranda Rights and the last right on the paper was “I was not coerced into an admission of guilt by the threat of jail time†we didn’t sign that right or the right to remain silent and the rights to attorneys. Anyways the police will do what the police want to do. And don’t come back on me with any guff saying that police are fair, good people. Those same police were later arrested for soliciting sex from a minor.
We accepted our consequences with the school. We missed prom, received three days suspension, paid full restitution, and volunteered our time to repaint the entire football stadium during our suspension. In restitution we paid the school for seven people to repaint at $8 an hour for 24 hours, five of those seven were us and the other two were school maintenance men who brought us paint in the morning. So that is $1340 that we paid the school to have us come volunteer our services while we were not allowed on school grounds by law because we were suspended. And even though we were volunteers we were told when we had to be there, when and where we could go for lunch, and when we could leave.
All of that was shady, but we did it because the superintendent promised a letter promising that the ISD would not press criminal charges. Now I’m assuming that you think that we are whiny brats because of the Steve Stoler interview where we said that there was double jeopardy, and while I don’t so much agree with the double jeopardy statement I do think that what led to us going to jail was fubar. To this day no one can tell us who called for us to be sent to jail, all we know was it was a school board member. What we do know is that there was one board member that doesn’t favor two of us who have parents on the board or running for the board, her position on the board to be more precise. She was very vocal about her dislike for us, and right after our suspension was up and we were back in school her freshman kid was caught with a water bottle full of vodka. Her response to the school is that if here kid is getting expelled for a little alcohol then we needed to go to jail.
In the PPISD code of conduct books it states that PPISD has zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol they are a level 4 offence that merit immediate expulsion, our infringement, vandalism is a level 2 offence that will result in a maximum of 3 days in ISS or in school suspension. We had already gone far past what the school district itself called for because we were promised no jail. At the end of the day an anonymous school board member pressed criminal charges on the five of us and we went to jail.
In conclusion, we are not whiny, were pissed because after all the smoke cleared parents still acted like children but realized that they were children with more authority.
Wow, talk about fast! And with proper punctuation and sentences to boot. When I get a chance to read the entire thing, I might actually hear your message. But your message was certainly lost in your last attempt at communication (if that was you).
As for the particulars of your case, I still have zero sympathy for people who damage property that belongs to others. So it’s going to have to be a strong message to get past that.
Our high school experience was ruined by the parents of the town quarreling over irrelevant things. We acted out against parents in general because all the attention was on them, it is the same stuff you hear about everyday where parents get too involved in their child’s sports and sometimes they take it a step further and try to live vicariously not only through sports, but through friends, classes, dates, parties, and so on and so on.
Somehow, this message fails to move me. It also does *not* justify pulling this “prank” (as you call it).
And don’t come back on me with any guff saying that police are fair, good people. Those same police were later arrested for soliciting sex from a minor.
Guff? Interesting tone to take with me if you’re trying to persuade me that you were railroaded. Anyhow, the police that I know *personally* are generally fair, good people. Not to say that there aren’t some bad ones I’ve encountered. But it’s a bit far-fetched to judge them all based on your small sample.
At the end of the day an anonymous school board member pressed criminal charges on the five of us and we went to jail.
That’s an interesting statement, and I don’t see how it can be true. You have the right to confront your accuser in court, so I suspect what really happened here is that the DA decided to pursue the charges, which is within his purview. It matters not whether the ISD wants to press charges (although in some cases this could be a mitigating circumstance).
As for double-jeopardy, it doesn’t seem to apply (as you noted), as the criminal justice system didn’t attempt to try you twice.
Anyhow, after reading your statement, I remain unmoved with regards to any justification for your actions or the punishments you received. The simple solution to the whole thing would have been not pulling the prank. It’s amazing that this escapes you, but perhaps someday when you’re older you’ll understand.