A Halloween Civics Lesson

(The following is a true story based on the accounts of children and adults at the event. The names have been changed.)

It started like any other Halloween. A group of eighth grade honors students at a local private school gathered at their friend’s house; three boys, five girls. Like any young teenagers, they wanted this to be their time; a time of friendship where they could share their secrets without the intruding eyes of grown-ups. They complained as Laura’s mom insisted that they travel with an adult. Yet parenthood triumphed, and the children set off accompanied by adults in an upscale neighborhood, not far from the Mayor’s house.

Fiona, Kim and I stopped at Laura’s house first, to find the kids had already set off. We headed up the street and ran into Miranda, Laura and her friends a few houses away. They rushed up and one of the said, “Miranda, your little sister is here.” We briefly discussed plans for picking up Miranda at the end of the evening and went our separate ways. It is more than enough for young teenagers to have to travel with adult supervision. Having a five-year-old join the crew would be too much.

Shortly thereafter, we saw a group of kids that were being spoken to by a police officer. We assumed that things were under control and that it wouldn’t serve anyone any good for us to stop and get involved. We were half right. Things weren’t under control, but if we had stopped, it would probably have exacerbated the situation.

Fiona had a great time trick-or-treating until we got to the haunted house. The line was long and as we waited, Fiona became more and more afraid. We left our friends in line and Fiona and Kim went to another house or two, while I waited for our friends.

While I was waiting, I saw Miranda with her arm around some boy I didn’t know. She is thirteen. She can have her arm around some boy on Halloween. She deserves a certain amount of privacy, even on a crowded street, and I stepped back to not be observed. Then I heard an adult thanking Miranda. It was Laura’s dad. As Miranda and Max went into the fun house, I spoke with him and the whole story began to unfold.

Max was pretty shaken up after his encounter with the police. Laura’s dad was concerned and angry, but restrained. What had happened?

It was Miranda, Laura, Max and their friends that had been stopped by the police. The kids had not been doing anything wrong and no explanation was given to why they were stopped. Perhaps it was because Jose, the tallest boy amongst the crowd, had a darker complexion than most people in the neighborhood. Jose had been born in Mexico and was adopted by a local family. While he is a legal U.S. citizen, at age 13, he didn’t carry any identification to prove it. At 5’11’ an officer might not believe he is only 13.

Side note to parents, do your middle schoolers carry identification proving they are U.S. citizens? With the suspension of Habeas Corpus for non-citizens, it might be a really good idea.

Whatever the reason, Office Kelly stopped the kids. He asked Wes what he had in his bag. To Wes, this seemed like a poorly acted scene from one of the children’s cable TV channels. Was the Officer Kelly playing a prank on the kids, trying to scare them? Wesley giggled. This did not go over well with Officer Kelly who demanded that the boys stand up against the wall. He frisked them. Max started getting scared.

Officer Kelly asked for Jose’s identification, and when Jose said he didn’t have any, Officer Kelly threw Jose in the police car. Laura started crying. It isn’t right for Jose to be thrown in a police car, simply because his skin color is a little different from the rest of us. What if they took Jose away? What would they do?

During the search, Officer Kelly discovered that Max had toy guns in his backpack as well as a jack knife that had recently been used to carve pumpkins.

Officer Kelly started his interrogation of Maxwell. Maxwell was one of the brightest kids in the group, taking honor’s math classes at the high school. He was asked about toy gun and the jack knife. “Are these yours?”

As is common with gifted children, Maxwell believed that he should provide the whole truth, in as much detail as possible. He believed that adults would understand an honor a full explanation and that things could easily be cleared up. “No,” he answered. Before he could explain further, Officer Kelly interrupted, grilling Max about why they were in his bag, what he was planning on doing with them, etc.

It was around this time that Laura’s dad passed off his younger charges to another adult in the group and intervened. It is worth noting that Laura’s parents are active in the local community association. They know Officer Kelly, and the community association was actually paying for Officer Kelly’s services this evening. Laura’s dad tried to get Officer Kelly to calm down and be reasonable, but with little effect.

In the end, the toy guns, knives and a hockey mask were confiscated. The shaken kids and angry parents went their ways. The children were either crying, morosely holding in their feelings, or raging with indignation. Happy Halloween, everyone. Thank you, Officer Kelly.

As we gathered at Laura’s house to pick up the kids, the parents spoke upstairs. The children gathered in a den downstairs. The haunted house had revived the spirits of the kids. They realized that while fear can sometimes result in irrational actions, like the passing of the Military Commissions Act, or the unreasonable search and seizure by Officer Kelly, it can often be defeated by camaraderie and laughter. They also learned a little bit about why it is important to defend our rights.

In history class, they are studying the American Revolution. They have a great teacher who challenges them to think about what a ‘right’ is. They talk about our rights as Americans and what the Bill of Rights is. To an eighth grader, this can seem, well, somewhat academic, another topic on a coming test, no different than quadratic equations.

Officer Kelly, while acting very inappropriately, perhaps taught Laura and her friends an important civics lesson. Our rights as Americans are not something to be taken for granted. It is my hope that Officer Kelly makes reparations by visiting the history classes and talking about the importance of upholding people’s rights. It seems a fitting closure to the whole event.

The school requires that all eighth graders do community service. Maxwell has been volunteering at Democratic Headquarters, phonebanking for those candidates that have not succumbed to the manic fear that was swept parts of the political spectrum in our country. Perhaps he can get a few of his friends to join him this weekend.

Miranda tells me that Max wants to be a lawyer. Perhaps he will be one of those high paid lawyers making large contributions to the Democratic Party, the ACLU and doing pro bono civil rights work. Perhaps Miranda can take some of her indignation and concern and let is shine in some of her artwork. Perhaps Jose and his parents can help people rethink issues and assumptions about immigration and racial profiling.

Yes, I’m pissed off. Laura’s dad has already spoken with the Mayor. I imagine Kim will speak with the Mayor today. Yet I remain the optimist. I hope and believe that these kids and their parents can take the Halloween Civics Lesson and use it to help make our country a better place.

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