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Twenty-five students arrested in lunchroom food fight

Chicago school incident sparks the question: are schools over-policed by police?

The arrest of 25 Chicago middle school students for participating in a lunchroom food fight last week has parents questioning whether police presence in schools resulted in the criminalization of age-old adolescent pranks, and also whether there will be a lasting legal and psychological impact, the New York Times reports. The students, aged 11 to 15, were rounded up, handcuffed, put in a police wagon, had prints taken and charged with reckless conduct, a misdemeanor. They were also suspended for two days from the Calumet middle-school campus of Perspectives Charter Schools. If the charges are not thrown out when the students go before a judge this month, the paper reports, the accused will most likely be sentenced to community service or probation. Since they are juveniles, their records would remain confidential until adulthood—17 under Illinois law—at which point the arrests would be expunged.

New York Times

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