One Nation: Students Turned Into Criminals

Stephen Laudone / April 29, 2010

Twelve-year-old Ansche Hedgepeth grabbed an order of French fries after school on her way to the Tenleytown/American University Metrorail station in Washington, D.C. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority had decided to kick off a week of “zero tolerance” enforcement of “quality of life offenses.” When a police officer noticed Ansche, unaware of the no-eating rule on the metro, consuming her first French fry, she was immediately searched; her jacket, backpack, and shoelaces were confiscated; and she was handcuffed and taken to the Juvenile Processing Center in a paddy wagon. Ordinarily an adult is fined on a first offense and arrested on a second. A minor can be warned but not fined, and the zero-tolerance policy removed the officer’s ability to warn Ansche, leaving arrest as their only other option. (more…)