This is where our anxiety about drugs and school crime takes us. The LA Times reports today that a jury has issued a million dollar judgment for a 12 year old boy who was coerced into being a decoy marijuana buyer. The boy's middle school dean was organizing a buy-and-bust scheme targeting an eighth grader alleged to be selling weed. Without consulting police or parents, the dean marked a $5 bill and sent the boy into action.
I'm sure that these sorts of transactions happen all the time in America's city schools. They are fully consistent with viewing such schools on the prison continuum, complete with metal detectors and virtually unreviewable disciplinary power. Of course, when an adult gets co-opted into serving as a decoy, he (or she) has hopefully considered the many social and physical dangers involved in the maneuver. Somehow, I suspect that this youngster was a little less savvy. Apparently, a jury agreed.
All well and good, but a million dollars?
Posted by: David Bernstein | October 07, 2011 at 11:00 AM