No smarmy title here, just this:
A 12-year-old Aurora boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project this week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug, Aurora police have confirmed.
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Two other boys asked if the bag contained cocaine after he showed it to them in the bathroom Wednesday morning, the boy’s mother said.
He joked that it was cocaine, before telling them, “just kidding,” she said.
Aurora police arrested the boy after a custodian at the school reported the boy’s comments.
…
East Aurora School District officials declined to comment on the case, citing privacy issues.
Apparently those privacy issues weren’t enough to keep them from turning the poor kid in to the police. But when someone questions them about their judgement, then they suddenly start worrying about privacy.
The district issued a written statement, which said: “The dangers of illegal drugs and controlled substances are clear.”
Apparently not, because the kid only had powdered sugar.
The district officials aren’t the real villains of this piece. For all I know, they really thought the kid had a big bag of cocaine and just did what they felt they had to do by turning the kid over to the police.
The police may not be the real villains either, because they too might have believed it was really cocaine. (Cops only taste unidentified white powders on television. In real life, that’s a little dangerous.)
The prosecutor, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing. We know this because he charged the kid under a law that criminalizes fake drugs. I believe it’s intended to allow drug dealers to be charged with a crime even if it turns out they were ripping off their customers (or the undercover cops doing a buy-bust sting).
Unfortunately, it also allows idiotic or malicious prosecutors to charge 12-year old kids with felonies for goofing around.
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