Students at a junior high school in Queens are keeping their pens on their paper after witnessing a fellow student hauled off in handcuffs on Monday.
Twelve-year-old Alexa Gonzalez was arrested for scribbling “Lex was here 2/1/10” and “I love my friends Abby and Faith” in washable marker on her desk at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills.
According to her mother, Moraima Camacho, Alexa was led out of school and walked to the precinct across the street where she was held for several hours.
“I started crying, like, a lot,” Alexa told the NY Daily News,”I made two little doodles.”
David Cantor, spokesman for the education department, says the incident “shouldn’t have happened” and “common sense should prevail.”
This is not the first time a student in the city was arrested for a minor incident. In 2007, WCBS interviewed 13-year-old Chelsea Fraser after she was arrested at her Dyker Heights School for writing “okay” on her desk.
Last month, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful arrests and assualt by school safety officers.
Alexa is still suspended from school and has been assigned eight hours of community service, a book report and an essay on what she’s learned from the experience.
