DOCUMENT: Bizarre, K-12

Boy, 13, Busted For Illegal Marker Possession

Oklahoma math teacher in citizen's arrest of student

permanent marker

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Child Marker Arrest

DECEMBER 22--A 13-year-old boy was arrested Friday for using a permanent marker while in class at his Oklahoma City middle school, a violation of an obscure city ordinance.

According to an Oklahoma City Police Department report, the boy was spotted “in possession of a permanent marker” by Roosevelt Middle School teacher DeLynn Woodside. The 50-year-old educator told cop Miguel Campos that the student was “writing on a piece of paper, which caused it to bleed over onto the desk.”

Woodside, pictured at right, reported that the child, whose name was redacted by police from the report, attempted to hide the marker when she asked him for it. Strangely, Woodside’s Facebook page reveals that her “likes and interests” include the official “Sharpie Permanent Markers” page on Facebook.

Campos reported that he allowed Woodside, a seventh grade math teacher, to “sign a citation” against the boy, who was then transported to the Community Intervention Center, a juvenile holding facility. A police sergeant subsequently “booked the marker into the property room.”

A police spokesman referred to the student’s bust as a “citizen’s arrest” effectuated by Woodside.

The marker ban--which apparently is aimed at curbing graffiti--stems from a city ordinance making it illegal to possess spray paint or a permanent marker on private property (without the owner’s permission). (2 pages)

Comments (558)

Can't fire her, she followed protocol. How do you know all the personal details about these people or did you just have a hoot making them up? How can someone reasonably criticize the interpersonal communication skills of a cop if he or she is a moron that thinks it would be clever to call someone on the phone to point out that they are fat? Just askin?
What sick country we live in. Teachers now forced to call the police because parents raise thugs and don't give a damn. Scores of idiots here encouraging people to contact the school and condemn her for enforcing a contraband rule enforced by virtually every school in American. And some here even suggesting she ought to commit suicide. I'm assuming some of you are adults. Why in the world would any school official contact the likes of you to report a problem? There isn't enough critical thought amongst the whole bunch of you to muster a wet fart.
You're an idiot Redrover, I suspect you would have worn a brown shirt and blown a whistle for Hitler to rat out all the Jews too....this is a MARKER, not a GUN, not a BOMB, not a KNIFE, not a CLUB, not a TASER, not DRUGS...it's an EFFING MARKER.....I hope you don't have kids because if you do they probably make citizen's arrests for jaywalking and spitting.
LOL! It is because there are so many folks like you running loose that teachers call the police instead of inbreeds that think everything is "relative" or a "debate". The idiot was damaging school property with contraband and refused to surrender it. Nuff said
Talk about asinine. I would like to think that cops have more important things to do than arrest 13 year old kids with markers. She wasted their time and the cities money. Is this really what our tax dollars are being spent on? Apparently we are now paying two people to do one job. Why does this woman even have a job? Clearly she isn't getting the job done if she has to outsource it to others. By the way, the people defending this are delusional. Arrest, marker and 13 is really all that needs to be said to realize how ridiculous and petty this is.
Student with contraband refuses to turn it over to teacher when ordered to do so. This woman did the right thing. kid learned to listen to adults. Something his parents neglected to teach him.
Yes, arrest someone for felony possession of a marker. You're an f'ing idiot!
No genius. Arrest anyone who brings contraband into a school and refuses to surrender it. Try to keep up.
How many times are you going to repeat the same thing? You are one of the delusional people I am taking about. It's your opinion that "she did the right thing". It's your opinion that the "kid learned to listen to adults". It's your opinion that "his parents neglected to teach him". How do you know? Quit trying to pass it off as fact. For all you know, this is just going to make the kid more rebellious for being arrested(keyword) over a marker. If you honestly think that's the right thing then I can honestly say you're contributing to the downfall of society. It's her job to punish the kid, not the cops. Cops should be off arresting drug dealers and protecting citizens from dangerous criminals. Instead, they are punishing a 13 year old over a marker. I have a lot of respect for cops and to have them waste their time doing that is demeaning. Now go ahead and copy and paste the same thing you've said 20 times today already. I am starting to think you know this woman personally. Clearly you're on a vendetta to defend a stupid situation with an opinion that couldn't be more wrong.
It's not my opinion at all. The school prohibits markers and spray paint, idiot brought it to class and began marking up desk, refused to surrender it, teacher called cops, cops arrested kid. Get it. Those are all facts, not opinions.
Spray paint, I'm sure. No excuse for spray paint at school. Markers? Where's your proof this school bans markers? You claim this is a nationwide ban but I've never heard of it. Now, if you can post a link to the school website where it's posted that permanent markers aren't allowed, I will graciously concede the point.
The teacher couldn't do the job herself so she called the cops. You're right, that is a fact. What's not a fact is claiming the kid learned some sort of lesson from it. You have no clue how this is going to impact his life.
The teacher has no authority to seize the contraband from the student after he refused. That's why she called the police. That is the cops job. You are correct, I was more than likely ascribing too much intelligence to the kid in assuming he might have learned anything.
And you failed reading comprehension 101. The ordinance states that contraband won't be brought on PRIVATE PROPERTY. The school is PUBLIC PROPERTY, so the fat f'ing cow was not following the law and illegally used law enforcement to arrest the child. I hope her parents sue the crap out of the school and this hog is left to teach inmates for her job.
You sound hysterical. Schools can make any rules they like and those who don't comply may be removed by a cop at the whim of the school and with the cooperation of the police department. They do business this way now because of silly wacky, sue-happy crackers like you. Get to know someone who's had an education. They'll tell you what I say is true.
http://www.edline.net/pages/Roosevelt_MS Here is the school she works for, you can find her contact information (email) if you get the staff directory...all public information.
Great idea. It's not enough she has to deal with morons all day, you thought it would be nice to make her life even more unpleasant.
Grow up, all of you. This nation is not free, nor has been for decades. And if the detaining of people in concentration camps without trial or rights didn't teach you that, nothing ever will. This isn't a left or right thing. Gitmo was started by a republican and is humming along fine under a democrat. It's a you have the right to whine to your hearts content in these forums, but obey every command as soon as you log off and get back to the real world. This boy learned that lesson young - how long will it take each commenter to learn it?
Says the guy doing the exact same thing. Instead of chastising the situation, you're chastising everyone else. I'm not sure how that makes you better than anyone else here. Apparently it does though, at least in your mind. Where you get off telling people to "grow up" and "get back to the real world" is beyond me. You make no sense.
Because 99% of these comments sound like they come from this kid's fellow classmates. Magic markers and spray paint are contraband in virtually every school in America. Get a grip instead of your pitchfork and torch.
Is it me, or the does the law prohibit Markers on PRIVATE property? A government school is on PUBLIC property is it not?
Seems to me that this teacher has too much time on her hands if she is reading and applying "obscure" OK laws. Just when & what does she teach? Ms. DeLynn 'Broadside' should be fired on the spot for being such an idiot. And speaking of idiots there seems to be quite a few of them here blaming Obama or Liberals for her idiotic action. Frankly she sounds more right wing republican to me.
This "obscure" law is common to virtually every school in America.
You people confuse me. Obama had nothing to do with a city ordinance in Oklahoma City. In fact, it was probably the white-bred picket-fence loving people of the town that made the law so those brown kids would stop messing up their walls... The left doesn't want you to go to Auchwitz. You people are pathetic. Don't you understand that left and right are directions and not political mindsets? Pinkos usually want to let people out of prison, not put them in. OH--and they don't throw you in jail for protesting abortion peacefully. What kind of nonsense do you people eat for breakfast? Network news and talking heads? Whens the last time you looked up something for yourself?? A quarter to never, most likely. And it's not MURDER of unborn child. It's abortion and I hate to break it, but it's not only as old as humanity, but it's as legal as a 21 year old going to the bar. ;) You wanna live in the land of the free? Let people be free you uneducated, unread, freaks.
Commie, if you kill a living being, it's murder. If you commie's would use some self control, you would not need to commit murder.
Join the facebook group, search for DeLynn Woodside Should Have Her Teachers License Revoked
Why? Is there something to be gained by being a herd animal.
Someone should have her arrested for not keeping her mouth shut at the buffet, have a child arrested for a marker? where is the principal, why not advise the parents...ARRESTED?! She should be arrested for eating Africa's share of food...
I don't understand this discussion got from "kid arrested for marker" to "leftwing nutjob Obama-supporting teacher picks on poor little kid who never did anything wrong". I agree that calling the police over a marker was unnecessary. The teacher should have confiscated the marker or escalated the situation to a higher authority within the school. Having the kid arrested for something so trivial is ridiculous. Also, I didn't see anywhere in the article that said what the teacher's political affiliation is. How Obama got blamed for this I will never understand!
"How Obama got blamed for this I will never understand!" That's easy. Fanatics blindly jump to conclusions and blame everything that happens on their favorite enemy.
What a stupid law, and what a stupid bitch of a teacher. Does anyone else think she looks like Jabba the hut?
The law applies to most schools across the country.
Teacher's unions have certainly proven to be as corrupt as they can possibly be. However, anyone who reads the newspaper on a regular basis is perfectly aware that 13 year old boys across America routinely beat, rape and harass teachers in school every single day. Additionally, our society has developed a generation of parents that not only excuse the bad behavior of their kids but sue to protect it. So.... before you all revel in p*ssing on this teacher, you might want to give that some thought.
Just another idiot with a degree. If they would have listened to their own pinko shrinks they would have realized that they were "traumatizing" the child by doing this. Two faced peopld justifying what ever they do at any given time. I would have been happy with a bill for a new desk and the child would have realized that he should do that.
I think this teacher had it in for this kid. Why in the world would you do that to any kid. Typical TEACHER CONTROL. She looks like she enjoyed it by the picture.
People please know your politics before speaking. Nazis were part of a right-wing coalition. Hitler was extremely Right-wing. Obama is a lefty, a lover not a hater. You dig?
Obama is of the democrat coalition, they are the party that started and supports slavery, still.
Your suggestion is an anachronism at best. It's difficult to define the National Socialists (Nazis) as left or right from our American lens. But even in the politics of the time, left generally meant a leaning towards some sort of change, or social justice and right generally meant a more conservative approach (all relative). From our American perspective, our conservative values were/are based on a relatively newer, left-wing, if you will, ideology that rose against the English "conservative" monarchy. Just because the "common" people (at the time of the Nazis) weren't adept enough to understand the difference doesn't change the fact what was happening in Nazi Germany was a very liberal, leftist sort of movement. Anti-communism, for Hitler, was only a straw-man argument used to accomplish his ultimate design, which was control. At the crux of Hitler's beliefs, or those of Marx, or Hegel, or Mao, or Stalin, or Castro, etc. and in contrast to American conservative beliefs, generally, is an elevation of social justice and identity over individual agency and choice. Though the tools used to accomplish those designs (fascism/communism) may have differed, the religion behind the justification for their actions was the same. That religion was this: The end justifies the means. Such is at odds with American ideals. Lumping Stalin, Hitler, etc. into the fascist, right-wing camp, and Marx, Lenin, etc into the left-wing camp and calling it good feels intellectually lazy. Those men, for all we know, started out with good intentions to better society. In fact, many have said as much, but their plans were truly at odds with man's true nature and potential. To Marx, violent revolution was desirable. Since society subjugated the individual, in his mind, violent revolution could not be seen as bad as it will bring about the ultimate, beautiful design of total equality and social justice. Again, this religion has been followed by communists and fascists alike.
What I think is obama is a hater.....of America from him changing the American Flag to some other symbol on his jet and elsewhere to not sayng the pledge of Allegiance with his hand over his heart to not wearing and American flag on his lapel to not having American flags behind him during press conferences to everything that communist creep did/does. On and on it goes. Dig.....
it's actually not unusual for candidates on the campain trail to change the appearance of their planes. McCain didn't have the flag on his either. See here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/airplane.asp#photo and here, in reference to the "no hand over heart": http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/anthem.asp Get your facts straight and don't just believe everything you hear. That's how things get blown out of proportion.
Incorrect. NAZI, translation: German National Socialist Party.
Teacher's unions are Obama's Brownshirts. They are perfect totalitarians.
ALL LIBERALS NEED TO HANG BY THE NECK UNTIL THEY ARE DEAD. They have ruined this planet.
Can I have permission to copy your comment? It's perfect for every occasion!
Another left wing Democrat comes out of the woodwork to chime in. You can't fool us, you liberal pinko.
This article does nothing to really give a clear picture of what transpired prior to this incident. Did the kid have a history of bad behavior? Was he a graffiti artist in the making? Not enough info to make any kind of judgment. However, based on the merits of the story alone this is an overreaction by someone. Did the teacher call the police? If so, she clearly was out of line. That is for school administration to handle, not her. If school admin called the police they overreacted as well. This would have been better handled by simply confiscating the marker and explaining to a 13-year-old why he was in violation of an "obscure city ordinance." Seems to me the police would have had better things to spend their time on than arresting kids who have sharpies in a classroom.
The law as stated is if the action is done on private property. Isn't a middle school public property? The law as stated in the article should not even apply.
Again, a story about PCism run rampant. Who hires these idiots to teach our children? All this does is damage the child while the teacher gets a few minutes of media coverage. And the NEA protects her. This Country takes another step towards destruction.
So when do the lawsuits begin? It seems the teacher f**k*d up, and the school board is responsible as her superior. I would guess the settlement should be as follows: dismissal of the teacher, 2.5 million to the parents from the schoolboard.
Exactly what did the teacher do wrong? The police responded to her complaint, deemed it valid and arrested the kid. End of story.