Ben's Wild Ride

When I came home from work Thursday, Ben told me about his lunch hour. I signed a form earlier in the week allowing him to have open lunch. Open lunch allows the kids to leave school. This is a privilege for all students but only this year open to juniors. Anyway, Ben and three friends took off on open lunch and soon after were followed by a patrol car. A few minutes later when they were stuck in traffic, the lights came on.

I should first tell you that Ben and his friends are all conscientious young men. Their worst faults seem to be an addiction to video games and the swearing that often accompanies it. I know this, because we never seem to have just Ben here, but Ben and his friends. There was a boy that hung around them that got hooked on drugs last summer - through people he met at work. He was out of the group - they wouldn't do things with him and he had different friends, as those with substance abuse problems do. As things happen, he got in trouble with the law, and went through rehab. He is only now clean and will hang out with them again. They are shy boys and not the type at all that would go out of their way to do anything wrong.

The driver of the car, C., is also very shy. He is not one of the main group yet, but gives Ben and his friend E. a ride to school every morning. When I met him, he blushed. Yes, that shy. Anyway, picture a boy stuck in traffic, with a police car behind him with the lights on, trying to find a place to pull over when traffic wouldn't cooperate. I imagine he was quite nervous.
Finally he pulled into a parking lot, yet had to drive a bit more to find a place to stop that wouldn't be blocking parking lot traffic. When he was finally stopped, the officer came to the window with his hand on his gun, and told C. to step out of the car. He made C. lay over the top of his patrol car while he searched him. They thought he was trying to evade them. Soon another patrol car came and asked the rest of the boys to get out. They were asked for their I.D.s and Ben was the only one that had his. Then they accused the boys of truancy. They explained that they had open lunch. Two police SUVs pulled up with the police dog. The dog searched the car and it was clean. They finally let the boys go, but I think one of them accompanied them back into the school for a meeting with the principal. Apparently the only reason they said they were pulled over was because of a crack in the windshield and a loud muffler. They let C. off with a warning.

So then Ben had to deal with Mr. K.. Of all the boys, he said, Ben was the only one that didn't have open lunch. This confused Ben, because they had given him the form to fill out for it and I had signed it and he turned it in. The principal looked it up and Ben was one point short of being qualified for open lunch. So, he said he was truant. Ben was given after school suspension. Then the principal asked Ben if he was afraid when they searched the car. Ben said, "No, because none of us do drugs!"


I thought this was BS. Friday, the kids didn't have school, but I called anyway and talked to Mr. K. He is an asshole. He said he had to be consistent. Ben skipped school and had to be punished just like the rest. The suspension would be on his high school record. I asked him if being truant didn't imply intent. He agreed. I told him Ben was not like that. He wouldn't skip school. We argued back and forth until I got the suspension revoked and his sentence altered to a 1/2 hour study table that he could do before school and wouldn't be on his record.

Hmm...why do I have a problem with authority?