Leave Them Kids Alone of the Day: A lawsuit filed against Cleveland Middle School in Albuquerque alleges that a student was arrested and sent to a juvenile detention facility without due process for “burping audibly” in class.
The 13-year-old’s parents were not notified, according to the lawsuit, and he was also suspended for the rest of the school year without being given a chance to refute the allegations.
“Criminalizing of the burping of a thirteen-year-old boy serves no governmental purpose,” reads a passage from the suit. “Burping is not a serious disruption, a threat of danger was never an issue.”
In fact, he was given a risk assessment test at the detention center and scored a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being “extremely dangerous.”
The suit goes on to note a separate incident wherein the school accused the boy of selling marijuana to classmates because he had $200 in his pocket. The kid claimed he was going shopping after school, but was still forced to strip to his skivvies “while five adults watched.”
He was not charged with a crime in either incident.
A spokeswoman for Albuquerque Public Schools declined to comment.
[abqjournal / cbs+ap.]