Gilbert police create unnecessary drama with teacher arrest
March 7th, 2008, 12:55 pm · 9 Comments · posted by Le Templar
Update:
Gilbert Police Sgt. Mark Marino called me to make it clear that steps were taken by his department and the administration at Coronado Elementary School to prevent students from witnessing the arrest of a teacher for writing bad checks. Marino said the teacher was escorted from her classroom by a school official and was taken to an isolated area of campus to meet the arresting police officers.
Marino also repeated his earlier statement there were attempts to catch up with the teacher outside of school. But he said couldn’t disclose yet what attempts were, and that information might not be available until the police report is released to the public.
I respect the Gilbert police for showing some concern for how tramatic arresting a teacher in front of students can be. But given what I know at this point, I still believe the police should tried harder to avoid coming to the school to make the arrest.
Original post:
Tribune writer David Biscobing has updated information about the Thursday morning arrest of a Higley teacher at Coronado Elementary School in Gilbert. As the arrest took place on campus during class time, the school felt it had to rush a letter home to parents to try to explain what was going on. No real details were available Thursday, but the school said the arrest had nothing to do with the teacher’s job or her interaction with students.
Now we know the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office had issued a misdemeanor warrant for writing bad checks. That makes me wonder why the Gilbert Police Department had scare some Higley children by arresting a teacher at 10:45 a.m. This is a relatively minor offense. The teacher had shown up to work, so it doesn’t appear there was an immediate danger that she would flee.
Gilbert Police Sgt. Mark Marino said the teacher had been avoiding police, so the department decided to pick her at her work place when it was clear she would be there, Biscobing tells me. I have to wonder just how hard the police were trying if the teacher still was doing her job like there was nothing wrong. But surely, the police could have arrested the teacher before school started or waited until the end of the day. There was no reason for the police to inject this extra drama at the school, with the implication that the teacher had done something so bad that she had be arrested right away.
I’m not trying to excuse bad check-writing. But sometimes people in bad financial straits just make mistakes with no ill-intent, and then those mistakes snowball into misdemeanor charges when they fail to deal with the bounced checks. (Yes, I have accidentally bounced a couple of checks in my life. But I paid off the amounts and associated penalties promptly and law enforcement never got involved.)
Gilbert police should have shown some compassion for the students and the school, if not for the teacher herself, and found a better time to make this arrest.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I think the Gilbert police could have handled this in a much better manner. It’s not as if this district has gotten enough attention lately. Geesh!!
March 7th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Here’s another word for writing bad checks: stealing. It’s the media that has blown this out of proportion, not the police. They didn’t make a spectacle by making the arrest in front of students. If she’s avoiding the police, they have to do what they have to do. Just because someone is a teacher doesn’t mean they can hide from the police in our public schools. The kids might have questions, but this is a good teaching opportunity. No one is immune from the consequences of their actions.
March 7th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Looks like she was trying real hard to avoid the cops. I’m Glad the misdemeanor offenders are off the mean streets of Gilbert.
Bravo, and well done GPD! It will be a great day when Osama shows up to work.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
She committed a crime and it’s her own fault. Who cares????
March 8th, 2008 at 9:48 am
I agree with the report that the Gilbert police could have made this far less dramatic. I’ve known other people who hit financial rock bottom and the shame and failure they felt was overwhelming to them. None of them didn’t want to resolve the problems. They wanted to resolve them and get things straight as possible as best they can. I doubt this is any different than the teacher. However now that teacher will have the stigma of this event following them forever. I fully agree if they police felt they had to arrest the teacher on the school grounds, they should have done so before or after school hours.
March 8th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Do you really believe this was traumatic for the children? PLEASE. Any kids that witnessed her being arrested probably thought it was cool. Besides, what a great way to teach the kids if they commit a crime that there will be consequences.
March 8th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Templar,
What sugar coated La La land do you live in?
“Bad Financial Straits…” “Shown compassion…”??
Give me a break. You are definitely part of the entitlement -generation with your whiny apologies for this woman.
She is charged with a CRIME..get out a dictionary and find the definition of the word.
Shame on you for making excuses for her! Bet it was NOT any of your money in her pockets.
As for the 8th grade kids…Gee whiz Opie, maybe they will learn that bad things happen to people who make bad choices. Even Teachers.
March 9th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
THis is my teacher that was arrested. If she did something wrong she should be arrested. It wasnt a big deal to us that it happened during school. Our principal called her out of class so we didnt see the police officers. We’ve only had her for a week, but so far she was a good teacher. I think she could come back and still be a good teacher. Apparently she is just not good at financial management.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
As a former Police Officer of 20 years, I pretty much have seen it all. It’s not easy to try and make everyone happy no matter what you do BUT I will also say this, Gilbert PD “DID NOT HAVE TO ” have this Teacher escorted from the class room by a school official.
If Gilbert “attempted” several times to make contact with this Teacher out of class and they couldn’t, I’d bet they didn’t try too damn hard.
How about this one?? Why didn’t the PD wait until school was over for the day and arrive to the School shortly before that and as the students were gone then take this Teacher into custody.
What a bunch of Bull S**T to yank someone out of class over a Bad Check?
This tells me one thing, Gilbert PD has a lot of time on their hands and should be doing more patrolling and worrying about harsher crimes instead of a bad check warrant.
Gilbert PD obviously needs stronger management for Police Deployment and duties as far as priorities.
Was this person a flight risk?? Highly doubt it since she was showing up for work.
I know how attempts are made, You go to the alleged criminals address and knock on the door and when no one responds that’s the attempt.
Gilbert PD knew they could go there while she was at work and “show her” how things are done.
Some Police Officers today think they are going to change the world by doing what they feel is lawful which in this case was lawful but forgot about “common Sense”. I’ll take a common sense over a college education any day with a Police Officer candidate/recruit. I hope this police officer has a Bachelor Degree because he obviously doesn’t have much in the common sense area.