Violence
Back when I was in 6th grade, I was playing volleyball in the morning with some of my friends. My friends started to leave and a big group of girls surrounded me. One of the girls kept asking me if I had been talking about them. I kept telling them no, but I guess they didn't believe me because all of the sudden one of the girls punched me in the cheek. There were no teachers around, so no one saw what happened. I went to the office and reported what the girls had done. The girl who punched me was suspended for three days. After that, all of her friends kept giving me dirty looks and acting like they were going to beat me up. Then when the girl came back, she was always looking at me. I started going straight to my classes because I was scared. After a while she stopped giving me dirty looks and left me alone." Threatening, intimidation, and assault are against the law and against school policy. Talk to an adult that you can trust if these things are happening to you or to someone you know.
Hi, I'm Jay. That's not my real name because the law prevents me from using my real name since I'm locked up in detention at the South East Facility. Let me tell you what got me here. It wasn't really one thing that I did. It was more like a bunch of things over a couple of years that I did that finally got me locked up in detention. See the penalties for breaking the law increase each time you break the law, and the judge always considers your past record in court. So it started when I was in Junior High. I started hanging with some friends who would get into a lot of trouble. Each of us was not really a trouble maker when we were on our own, but we'd do dumb things when we were together. So I was arrested for drug possession, smoking, truancy, vandalism over the period of 2 years, and each time I was released to my parents and put on Probation. On my last probation though one of my friends and I took a neighbor's Cadillac. We didn't really steal it, but we just wanted to take it on a joyride, I mean we were bored and thought it would be cool to drive a Caddy. Well, the police started following us, and then we led them on a chase because we didn't want to get caught. When we finally pulled over, it was like something out of one of those car chase TV shows, we were surrounded by several police officers. That stunt was more than enough to get me put in detention. Now I'm waiting to see the judge again, and I don't think he will release me to my parents. And forget about driving ever again, I can guarantee you my license will be taken away. So as part of my class here in detention, they've asked me to give you a tour of the juvenile detention facility. Click here to see what it's like in detention.
Hi, my name is Cindy and I’m 15 years old. It’s my first day in jail, adult jail, and boy am I scared! I was at juvenile jail once and this isn’t anything like that place! I still can’t believe how fast all of this happened. One night I’m out dancing at an after hours club and wham, now I’m in prison for up to 22 1/2 years! I suppose you’d like to know how this happened. Well, I was leaving the after hours club when these three girls from the north side were messing with me. My friends had already left so I was alone. I pulled out my pistol which, by the way, wasn’t even loaded, and pointed it at them and told them to leave me alone. I didn’t mean anything by it. I wasn’t going to shoot them. I just wanted them to leave me alone. But I got arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. (How deadly is a gun with no bullets I asked, but that didn’t mater) Anyway, I guess last July a new law makes it so that kids that get charged with certain crimes have to go to adult jail instead of juvenile jail. Well, I’m one of them, on my way to adult prison at age 15. I won’t get out of jail until I’m almost 40 years old!"
“Don’t be a chicken. It’s just a little fun.â€
Randy did the right thing by hesitating and choosing to not get involved. Deliberately damaging someone else’s property is against the law. In addition, mailboxes are considered federal property and it is a crime to vandalize them (and to injure, deface, or destroy any mail deposited in them.) (Title 18, United Stated Code, Section 1705). Violators can be fined up to $250,000 or imprisoned for up to three years for each act of vandalism.
In Arizona, deliberately damaging or defacing the property of another person is called criminal damage and it is a felony. Deliberately damaging any building, structure, or place used as a school or educational facility is called aggravated criminal damage. If the damage exceeds the cost of $10,000, it is a class 4 felony. Damage to another person’s property may sometimes be class 2 misdemeanor (under $250.00) but damage to an educational facility is always a felony. Painting graffiti is a form of criminal damage and it is against the law. Some juveniles have been tried as adults for committing criminal damage. The sentence includes jail time and probation. Juveniles who damage the property of others can be placed on probation (with or without detention) and can be required to pay for damages.
"Back when I was in 6th grade, I was playing volleyball in the morning with some of my friends. My friends started to leave and a big group of girls surrounded me. One of the girls kept asking me if I had been talking about them. I kept telling them no, but I guess they didn't believe me because all of the sudden one of the girls punched me in the cheek. There were no teachers around, so no one saw what happened. I went to the office and reported what the girls had done. The girl who punched me was suspended for three days. After that, all of her friends kept giving me dirty looks and acting like they were going to beat me up. Then when the girl came back, she was always looking at me. I started going straight to my classes because I was scared. After a while she stopped giving me dirty looks and left me alone."
Threatening, intimidation, and assault are against the law and against school policy. Talk to an adult that you can trust if these things are happening to you or to someone you know.
