MEAD GRUVER Associated Press writer | Posted: Saturday, February 2, 2008 12:00 am
LARAMIE - Don't even think about starting a food fight.
Police say that's the message they hope to get across to Laramie Junior High School students by citing three 13-year-old girls for "hurling missiles," an adult crime under city ordinances.
The girls allegedly threw french fries during lunchtime two weeks ago.
Police Chief Bob Deutsch said that the day before the incident, school officials who'd heard rumors of a food fight held an assembly in which Principal Steve Hoff and police officer Al Rich warned all of the students: If you throw food, prepare to suffer the consequences.
"They saw it as really the planning of a riot, when you think about it," Deutsch said.
He said the girls decided to test the warning nonetheless.
"It wasn't a spontaneous thing - a couple of kids giggling, throwing a french fry at each other," Deutsch said. "They intended on getting everybody involved in this and starting something that no doubt would have the potential of getting out of control."
Deutsch said the girls deserved citations for deliberately flouting the principal and school police officer, as well as for not considering that someone could get hurt.
"These things can degenerate into something a lot more harmful than simply throwing food," he said. "At what point does somebody get hit with a piece of food and respond with a tray, and fists, and knees, and glasses, and cell phones and everything else?"
But others said police and school officials went overboard.
"It certainly seems that this was an overreaction to a situation that could have been handled differently," said Linda Burt, Wyoming director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
And one parent said she's upset because her daughter wouldn't have gotten in trouble had she not gone to the principal and admitted throwing a french fry.
"It upsets me that the chief says that she wasn't responsible, or accountable, when she was the one who actually told on herself," Janice Isom said.
Isom said she also was upset that the school didn't call her or her husband. She said they found out through the mother of one of her daughter's friends. She said they drove to the school, but by then police had issued a ticket and the school had issued a three-day suspension.
"The ticket is something that's on her record now. I think that's a bit much for a french fry. They were not inciting a riot as the police chief says they were," Isom said.
Sue Ibarra, a mother of another of the girls, said the citation "might have been a little over the top … when you think it was french fries."
But Ibarra, who is chairwoman of the school board, stood by the school's decisions. Court documents on Thursday showed that her daughter was the only one who had paid the $60 fine.
"The students involved had been warned the day before," Ibarra said. "And my daughter still chose to push it to see if it actually was going to happen. It obviously did and she had to pay the consequences, and it's been a good living lesson for her."
Parents of the third girl did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.