sex offenders, in my school?!

[StressedOutStudent]

Two girls at Hopewell were sexualy harassed on the bus. the boy had 13 counts of sexual battery and is now back in school with the two girls! :eek: He was suspended for a short time and had to go to court. one of the girls even had a class with the boy. the school didnt do anything to remove him from her class, it wasnt until the girl had to ask the court to order the school to put him in another class. I dont think that this boy should be back at this school. everyday these girls have to pass by this boy in the hallway. Kids like that dont belong in our schools.

[Staff]

The incident cited above was reported by the Huntersville Herald.

Beginning last spring, a Hopewell student named Brandon Funderburk began taking liberties with two female classmates on some bus rides home. He only did it on some bus rides because, while he lives near the two girls, he is assigned to a different bus. When he could sneak onto their bus he would make lewd remarks to the girls. Later he worked his way up to grabbing their buttocks and breasts. According to police reports, he also exposed himself on one occasion; and, at least once, forced one of the girls into the seat beside him, grabbed her head and pushed it into his crotch. He wasn't trying to comfort her.

Although Funderburk is not a big kid, he is, school personnel say, aggressive and the girls were scared to report what was going on. One of them finally got up the courage to expose his attempt to sneak on the bus again one day last September, and that caused a scene. An assistant principal was called to the bus and confirmed that Funderburk was in the wrong place. But because the incident took so long to handle, all the other buses were already gone, so the assistant principal let Funderburk ride that bus "for the last time."

An enraged Funderburk launched into a tirade against the girl after the bus left the parking lot. The bus driver told Funderburk to stop. He did not,...

Read more of this article
http://huntersvilleherald.com/articles/2005/02/10/columns/mitchell_tucker/mitchell_column01.txt

Huntersville Herald thread
http://www.dumpcms.com/showthread.php?t=229

[GrayCat]

From further down in the article--


Funderburk was arrested a few days later and charged with 10 counts of sexual battery, two counts of communicating threats, one count of indecent exposure and one count of false imprisonment.He was suspended from school immediately and apparently sent for some period of time to one of CMS' management facilities for unruly students. His criminal case was settled two weeks ago when Funderburk agreed to deferred prosecution on two counts of sexual battery. Deferred prosecution is a sort of probation for offenders with no prior record. He is on an 18-month watch, during which time his activities are restricted and some counseling is required. If there are any violations of the deferment's restrictions, the actual sentence, probably including some jail time, will be imposed.

That may seem like Funderburk is getting off easy, but that is the nature of the American justice system. The case against him is a little hazy and he is young (he turned 16 last April). The courts, probably correctly for the most part, tend to extend some leniency towards kids.
Charged with 10 counts of sexual battery, this is not a first offender, this guy sounds like repeat offender to me. Makes me wonder how many times he has gotten away with this sort of behavior that was not reported to authorities.

How much will CMS put up with? When will all the parents of young women at Hopewell call that school and get this kid out? Exactly what would it take for this kid to be tossed into jail?

[Christine]

If this is what is going on at Hopewell, what is happening in the urban schools? Do the kids feel like they can speak up and be helped? Violent retaliation is much more of an issue for them. The problem is system-wide.

[Skam1kaze]

im a tad bit more worried about getting tazered at north meck. The tazer is the new favorite tool of security guards to break up fights but people have told me that they have been shocked by security guards by accident when the security guards were trying to break up fights.

[Christine]

http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/2004-12-22/news_citizen.html

Season's Bafflers
Things that make me go Hmmm ...
BY TARA SERVATIUS

In an effort to give consumers of this column more of what they want, I've dashed off a Citizen Servatius Christmas edition loaded with sex, drugs, violence and mixed-use development for your reading pleasure. Happy Holidays!

IT'S JUST SEX
At a meeting last week, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Safety Director Ralph Taylor explained to school board members that they shouldn't fret too much initially when they hear reports of rapes occurring in our schools, because kids often cry rape when they get busted doing the nasty.

"Most of the time it started out as consensual sex on campus," Taylor explained. "Ninety-five percent of (reported) rapes end up that way." Apparently satisfied with that explanation, school board members moved on to the next subject without batting an eye.

After the meeting, I cornered Taylor at the elevator in an attempt to get an answer to a question I'd been asking CMS officials for weeks.

"How many kids were expelled last year?" I asked him.

"None," he said. "We don't do that."

Apparently, copulation on campus is just another part of "preparing kids for greatness."

TAXES OF STEEL
Last year during county budget time, the Parks and Rec department wailed about how poor inner city kids could be deprived of pools for the summer, softball leagues and more if taxpayers didn't cover a $32 million county budget gap. Naturally, the commissioners raised taxes. There was just no other way, they said.Now it appears that the supposedly cash-strapped Parks department has made a miraculous comeback from the brink of financial disaster. It's offering taxpayer-subsidized tummy toning classes -- cost $1 -- and free yoga classes. No buns of steel classes are available at this time, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they add those to the county budget, too.

THT ALIEN SPIN-CYCLE
The Charlotte Observer recently reported that the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had rounded up 22 illegal aliens -- 16 of whom had criminal convictions -- as part of its plan to apprehend and remove more than 400,000 immigration fugitives who have been ordered to leave the country but are hiding to avoid deportation.

That didn't strike me as odd until I happened to read a Chattanooga Times Free Press article about how the Department of Homeland Security border patrol has been releasing illegal aliens because they can't deport them without a legal hearing and have no space to detain them all until then.

ICE, meanwhile, is spending hundreds of millions to round up illegals who didn't show up for their deportation hearings after they were released by the government.

That's right. One federal agency releases them because it has no place to hold them until their hearings, then another federal agency spends millions to hunt down just a fraction of the aliens other government agencies release. They call this homeland security.

PROFITING FROM PIT BULLSThe Charlotte City Council, in response to Tameka Brown's campaign to ban pit bulls after her son was mauled to death, hiked fines and fees for pet owners. This is a money grab that will do nothing to address the "dangerous dog" problem. Without meaning to, Brown played a useful role for the city in a tight budget year, and public officials fell all over themselves to meet with her and feel her pain.

During all those meetings about dangerous dogs, these officials apparently never got around to asking her why she left 8-year-old Roddy with his father, a man who she says used and sold crack cocaine the entire time she knew him. Other inconvenient details no one wants to talk about include Brown's admission that one of the dogs had shown aggression toward her son in the past.

So a mother who left her kid with a strung-out, crack-dealing pit bull abuser has become a hero, the city got its money, and everyone feels good.

BREATHING VS. SHOPPING
When city leaders contemplate development proposals for land close to uptown, it's mixed-use retail and condo developments they want, on the logic that if shopping and restaurants are nearby, people won't have to drive very far -- or at all -- and thus won't generate the traffic that could result in enough air pollution that the EPA could ultimately ban business and road expansion here.

But they're apparently willing to let air quality go to hell before they'll allow new retail in the burbs to compete with retail near uptown.

Last week, the key reason city planners gave for urging the council to turn down a developer's request for more retail at Albemarle Road and Interstate 485 was that it might draw business away from existing retail closer to uptown.

The intersection is at the county's edge, so you have to assume they'd rather folks drive 15 miles to uptown, polluting all the way, then chance them shopping closer to their homes. Somehow, this is called smart growth.

Contact Tara Servatius at tara.servatius@cln.com (http://us.f540.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=tara.servatius@cln.com)

Link to other Citizen Servatius colums (http://www.dumpcms.com/showthread.php?t=165) on this website

Discipline thread that has additional columns. (http://www.dumpcms.com/showthread.php?t=131)