Girl who wet her pants at school gets charged by police, when do they stop?

Question

I am outraged. This is the craziest thing I have heard/read.

DANVILLE, Pa. -- A 12-year-old special education student in Montour County, Pa., is charged with disorderly conduct.
Authorities said she deliberately wet her pants at school. Her mother disagrees.
The child's mother told the Press Enterprise it happened because her daughter was frightened by the principal. The girl had been preparing a holiday lunch with her classmates and teachers at Danville Middle School on Dec. 20. Her mother said when her daughter refused to go to the kitchen to wash some pots and pans, teachers summoned Principal Kevin Duckwork, who confronted the girl.
She then wet her pants.
Her mother said the girl is terrified of Duckwork and has wet herself during previous confrontations with him. But Danville Police Chief Eric Gill said school officials are at their "wit's end" with the girl, and they believe her actions were deliber

Answer 1

this is horrible. how can police charge a 12-year old with such a "crime"??? wow. what is this world coming to? everything is an issue. everything is a lawsuit. everything is offensive! people are so fragile now that no one can do one thing wrong without something getting mad and pressing charges.

Answer 2

That is the most utterly ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I am a retired special education teacher and over the years I often encountered children that would do this very same thing, when upset are frightened. I would not say it is common but it does happen sometimes with certain kids. They cannot control it. Shame on the police for pressing charges on this child. Like she does not already have enough problems to start with. She probably has no clue what is going on here, so therefor it is pointless. Punishing a child for something they cannot control is an absolutely horrible thing to do. I hope those charges are revoked.

I dread to think what kind of special ed department that school has and the quality of the teaching staff if they say they don't know what to do. If they don't know what to do then they should not be teaching special ed!

Answer 3

I feel so sorry for you! Peeing your pants in school is about the worst thing that could happen to a girl. But, at least take comfort in the fact that you're not the only girl that age who has peed her pants - one of my classmates wet her pants in class in the 10th grade. You won't be able to do anything about the teasing, but that will only last a few days and die down. And honestly, most of the remarks will come from the girls, not the boys. If there's a teacher or guidance counselor at your school you can confide in, I'd suggest talking to them. Just being able to talk it out with someone can help. As hard as it may seem to believe now, peeing your pants is not the end of the world. Try not to let it bother you.

Answer 4

I had a child in Pennsylvanis's Public Ed. System. You have to live here to believe how stupid these teachers and administrators really are. They are Arnold Ziffle with a degree.

My child had a shirt on that had a picture on it (not an offensive one) and he was taken to the pricipal's office and told he couldn't wear that shirt in school and was given another shirt and told to change into it.

He told the principal that the shirt he was wearing was fine and he could wear it wherever he wanted and then cited a Supreme Court case to back up his claim.

The next week the school changed it's dress code to allow such shirts and my son was placed in alternative learning. Alternative Learning is where the druggies etc. are placed. The school claimed him was( actually the hand written letter said "him is" argumentative), yet this was the only incident he had been involved in and his grades were very good.

An earlier incident that I had with the same school officials may have been part of the reason. My son had Mono and missed approx. 2 months of school. I took a doctor's excuse to the school and they told me they couldn't accept it because two months was too long to have Mono. They told me they had a boy with a broken arm and he only missed 3 days. Yeah, that one had me scratching my head too.

To make a long story short, they filed charges against me and tried to have me arrested over the absenses. I took the doctors excuse and showed the Magistrate and he threw it out. Needless to say, I took my son out of that nuthouse and he is homeschooled now and scored way above the public school test scores.

Answer 5

I don't think any of us are in a position to determine if it was deliberate or not.
I have a niece that is special needs. She likes to change her clothes-a lot (a dozen or more times a day). She went through a stage that if her mom didn't let her change her clothes, she would wet her pants so she could change. (My niece is unable to talk btw).
You have to know the child to determine if it was deliberate or not.
Calling the cops--that's a little over the top for a possible discipline problem. How many other discipline issues do they call the cops for? I'm surprised the cops didn't laugh at the school personnel. This is an issue that should have been addressed by calling the parents first! Maybe the cops should have arrested the principal for waisting their time on this issue.

Answer 6

It is possible that the girl did wet her pants on purpose because she had already refused a request to wash pots. Sometimes people underestimate the abilities of special education students and automatically assume that they are not accountable for their behaviour.It appears from the article that this student was no stranger to the principal for her behaviour. If she cannot function at least to a minimum standard of behaviour perhaps she would be better suited to a special school. If she cannot control her bladder then maybe the mother should have her wear pull ups at school . She should also follow up with her doctor to see if she has any medical condition.Does this student wet her pants at home? How does she react in other situations if she doesn't get her own way? The article doesn't specify why the student was in a special education class, was it for behaviour or learning difficulties.What would responders suggest the school do ? I am assuming by the mothers statement she is aware of her daughter's problem and wondered what solutions she had to offer.

Answer 7

Mom should do 2 things:

1: get a doctor to back up the claim that this girl's accident was fear induced in order to get the charges dropped.

Get that girl the hell out of that school! They are obviously not equipped to handle special ed kids.

A possible third action:

Sue the school, teacher and principal for terrorizing her daughter

Answer 8

Even if she did wet her pants deliberately why were the police involved? Surely they have better things to do than arrest 12 year olds who make a puddle on the floor.

Answer 9

Thats terrible. I would sue the school and police!

Especially a child in special education. Gosh.

If the principal is so scary that he makes people wet their pants, they should investigate him. That's so terrible I feel so bad for her. =(

Answer 10

Even if she did wet her pants deliberately, who friggin' cares. It's not like she is a little boy and whipped it out and peed on the principles d@mn leg...People are stupid!