Chemical spray used on students (IN High School Sit-In)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/219711-9452-103.html

A peaceful student sit-in turned unruly at Manual High School, and school police used a chemical spray to disperse the crowd Thursday afternoon.

Duncan Pat Pritchett, the Indianapolis Public Schools superintendent, said it appeared officers overreacted by using the spray.

"Students do have First Amendment rights," he said.

About 100 students were in a hallway when police sprayed several bursts of the chemical in the air to disperse the crowd. No injuries were reported.

Those students had been among about 400 protesting the lack of time they have to pass between classes before being marked tardy. Students now have five minutes to change classes.

Construction in some areas of the Southside high school makes it difficult to get from one side of the building to another.

[jdj]

1. This is freaking unreal.

They don't even have time to take a piss.

Ostomy bags instead of bookbags?

[Magleetis]

2. I believe

that everyone looks like a common criminal through the eyes of the police

[BiggJawn]

9. You figured it out.

I've been saying that for a long time now.

BTW, We're "perps" now, not "citizens"

[TahitiNut]

15. "Guilty until proven innocent " in the Fascist States of Amurika

Our human rights are only what the Bushoilini Police State say we can have. All hail the State!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. No, that was the previous stage.

Now it's "Guilty, period. And if you say they aren't you'll join them at Gitmo."

[LifeDuringWartime]

3. we have four minutes

although our school is small so it's plenty of time.

[realisticphish]

29. we have 12 minutes

but 50000 students take a little longer to get to classes lol

:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[IA_Seth]

4. Anyone in Indiana that can arrange some help for these kids?

[htuttle]

5. One hundred new left-wing radicals were created today...

...when police gassed a hallway full of students in Indiana. Nothing radicalizes a person like a (metaphorical) billy club to the head.

Welcome to the struggle, kids! A reading list will be provided soon.

:hi:

[Demit]

6. Police are getting entirely too quick on the trigger, with tasers and

chemicals. I am generally sympathetic to what police officers have to contend with, but this is escalating--and it is a reflection of the policies of this administration. Hey, guys captured in wartime, it's okay to torture them? Then it's okay for us to use whatever means WE want to control citizens. It's an abuse of power, and it has to stop.

[sniffa]

17. don't worry

eventuaLLy the bubbLe wiLL grow so great it wiLL have to burst - at that time, you can either join in the fray or hide.

[ladjf]

24. I believe that your prediction will happen. I only hope that it

doesn't take decades to come to pass.

[ladjf]

23. Jacksonville Florida to spend 1.8 million on TASERS for

school police. If they use it 10 times the first year, it will cost 180,000 per incident and runs the distinct risk of killing some of the students. Does this craziness ever end?

[RamboLiberal]

36. Not to mention the lawsuits

But never fear...the chimp can talk about those frivolous lawsuits in next year's SOTU.

[Pam-Moby]

7. Here goes the Police mentality again!! n/t

[Massachusetts]

8. Civil Disobedience will work!

[donsu]

10. yes indeed it will

nt

[EST]

11. Welcome to the Police-state phase

of the Bush/Hitler empire. Damn them all to---- your favorite perdition.

[mrbassman03]

25. Beat me to it...

Well, better not question authority any more... they must be doing the right thing if they'd go this far to protect it.

[EST]

28. Two great minds... n/t

[SemiCharmedQuark]

12. Ugh, I had five minutes, and my school was four levels

When I had to go from the bottom floor to the top, I thought I'd die.

[TahitiNut]

16. Individuals are not allowed to be outside the "Norm" in the Factory.

It's the Factory Method - interchangeable parts all treated the same. We are not "Persons" we're statisical myths called the "Average".

[mutus_frutex]

13. This is ridiculous...

You need at least 5 minutes to clear your mind and get ready for the next class, let alone to walk from one place to another. From an educational point of view it is really bad to just jump from one subject to the next without rest.

In my country we had 5 minutes between classes, but we didn't need to move anything since it was the teachers that changed classes.

The actions by the police remind me of my time in high school when we would stage student assemblies (which were, for the most part, illegal) during the end of our right wing dictatorship. Sometimes police would show up (inside the high school, which was kind of strange) and look at us from a distance. Even in those days, though, we were never sprayed with anything..

[MisterP]

30. which country?

[mutus_frutex]

31. Uruguay.. nt

[MisterP]

35. thanks ('cause there are so many rightist monstrous brutal dictatorships

we supported)

[mutus_frutex]

38. How did you guess

from my original message, I mean, that the US had supported it?? :-)

(I'm been ironic here.. you had pretty good chances of being right.. :-)

[MisterP]

41. Friendly Dictators Trading Cards:

http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/Cards_Index.html
on top of that, there's Nigeria, Cambodia, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Venezuela coup, Colombia, the mujahedeen and the Taliban, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia...

[mutus_frutex]

44. I remember seeing that page.

We never had a really big dictator. The military was quite intelligent and never really had a strong figure at the top and changed it every 4-5 years, almost like a president, but elected by them.

The dictatorship in Uruguay was horrible, but in many senses was more civilized than in the rest of south america. Might have been our old civic tradition...

[StClone]

14. How can we at DU symbolically adopt these real Americans?

What message could we send in support of the students. I have never heard such harsh treatment for such simple infractions. Instead of a learning experience in Democracy they were pushed Right into the bowels of Fascism. My school would have NEVER done this! ACLU?

[elehhhhna]

18. Their parents need to sit in at the police station. BIGTIME.

I'd be there in a hot minute if my kid was gassed. Then onto a lawyer. And the parents, en mass, must threaten to pull their kids out of the school (money talks!)unless their complaints are dealt with satisfactorily.

[Ian David]

19. Find the high school sports section of their local paper

Find the names of the students in the papers, and "plug them in" to the system of the resistence.

You'll find athletics, drama clubs, civics clubs... activists...

all in the paper, and most of them listed in directory assistance, too.

[Blue_Tires]

20. i like how the paper doesn't say they used mace or tear gas

just an innocent, anonymous 'chemical spray'

[KissMeKate]

21. the civil rights movement wouldnt have happened in this atmosphere.

our Democracy is truly sick.

What lesson did they teach these kids?

[htuttle]

26. Oh, sure it would have -- after all, it did

They used tear gas, firehoses, dogs, shotguns, and mass arrests to try to stop the civil rights movements. Didn't work.

Action leads to reaction. As long as people have hope, repression leads to radicalization and eventually the will to change things.

[KissMeKate]

43. true, forgot the firehoses and dogs, etc.

eom

[maxsolomon]

27. No disrespect for authority will be tolerated

if we tolerate dissent, soon we'll have to fight the terrorists in the homeland!

question: why no tasers or rubber bullets? why no humboldt-style liquid pepper spray in the eyes? why no billy club beatings & plastic cuffs? they QUESTIONED AUTHORITY!

[Shakespeare]

32. Jesus-this reminds me of the logging protesters in Eureka.

Remember that one? The cops came in and used swabs to rub pepper spray into their eyes. One of the cruelest, most sadistic things I've ever seen.

[KissMeKate]

42. I cant imagine how those people sleep at night.

we dont even let that happen under the Geneva conventions.

[LibertyLover]

33. Students

That is disgusting - students don't check their rights at the school house door. (I will say that when I was in high school, back when rocks were soft and dirt was in beta testing and dinosaurs roamed the earth freely, that we only had 3 minutes to get from class to class. Now, granted it was a small high school,but still many times it was almost impossible to get from class to class, let alone have a bathroom break.)

[geomon666]

34. You see...

it's incidents like these that give me just a slim feeling of hope for this country. Yeah the fascist dogs came in and sprayed the students but they got what they were after and they did it with nonviolence and solidarity. When will it be our turn to do that?

[0007]

37. This and other issues are just a matter of time before the 'shit hits

the fucking fan'

[Borgnine]

39. As someone who's three years removed from high school...

...I feel sorry for those poor students. I had five minutes to get from class to class, and that did prove to be a tough feat when you had to get from one end of the building to another in hallways packed with students doing the same. Forget about going to the bathroom... you hold it.

As for those police, it's a shame when a bad bunch give all police officer's a bad name. They do fit in perfectly in the new America though.

[kodi]

40. shall we assume ourselves lucky that they did not use guns on the kids?

today, the non-violent civil disobedience of the 50's-70's would provoke from the authorities the same response as kent state did; only this time, it would be standard fare and not an anomaly to shoot the protesters.

this is how far back we have fallen.

[inslee08]

45. Though, this does seem to be a

pretty lame reason to protest. Nevertheless, good for them :)