Christian Adamek, 15, hanged himself after getting in trouble for doing something that wasn't evil, wasn't a threat to anyone's safety, and wasn't a big deal to any rational person. Christian landed himself in big trouble for streaking across the field during a football game at his high school.
Before Christian's death, the school's principal said the teen's stunt could warrant legal charges atop school discipline. "There's the legal complications," the principal told a news station. "Public lewdness and court consequences outside of school with the legal system, as well as the school consequences that the school system has set up."
Adolescent Brain Development
and Legal Culpability
Christian's death is tragic. Was it prompted by the prospect of an overblown reaction to his schoolboy prank? We don't know for sure. Regardless, Christian deserved detention, not to have his name slapped on a sex offender registry along with rapists. If Christian took his life over the prospect of having his life destroyed by vindictive adults who think streaking is on a continuum with rape, then we've all got blood on our hands.
In our zeal to protect women and children from predatory men, we've enacted a multitude of laws that, among many other things, put high school streakers, guys who pee in the alley after imbibing a little too much, and guys who have sex with their slightly younger girlfriends, onto sex offender registers. The majority of states now register streakers, an indication of why the number of registered sex offenders in America has exploded. If they were all crammed into a single state, it would be more populous than Wyoming, Vermont or North Dakota. It's a cottage industry, with lobbies and powerful interests behind it, and it won't let up any time soon because not enough people give a damn about the Christian Adameks of the world.
Zero tolerance policies excuse people from doing something we are loathe to ask people to do any more: think for themselves -- to use their discretion, to exercise common sense, to employ mercy, and to look at things with balance. It's a lot easier to hide behind a zero tolerance policy so we don't get in trouble for exercising our discretion contrary to the common consensus. The problem is, zero tolerance polices are written for a black and white world, and the world is mostly gray. Sometimes the result of zero tolerance policies is Christian Adamek.
We are beyond saddened by Christian's tragic death. The world has gone mad. ..Source.. by COTWA
What Law Will Be Named After Christian Adamek?
On Oct 11,2013 Justin King posted the following
Op-Ed: Florida Governor's candidate speaks on bullying in Adamek suicide
An Alabama boy, Christian Adamek, hanged himself on October 2, 2013. A week prior, he streaked nude across the field during a football game. He was threatened with arrest and being labeled a sex offender for life.
Adamek, 15, wasn’t a troubled youth with a massive criminal record. In fact, he was literally a Boy Scout. He played football and baseball. His mother, Angela Adamek, spoke to Christian’s friends at his memorial service on Wednesday.
"“Remember to smile, don’t be afraid to do something goofy and remember the consequences of those actions, ask for help when you need it, ask for help if you think your friends need it if you don’t know what to do, be quirky, be happy, be smart,”"Adrian Wyllie, Libertarian candidate for Governor of Florida, spoke out about the “bullies” in this suicide today via his Facebook page.
Bullying can have very tragic consequences.A standard of American justice has always been that the punishment should fit the crime. The criminalization of almost every possible act and constant government supervision have led the nation to a point where punishments are not handed down by judges that can see the specifics of each case, but instead are handed down by legislative bodies intent on find a one size fits all approach to justice. The appropriate government response in the situation was a few days suspension, not branding the child for life with the stigma of the “sex offender” label.
But, the "bullies" are not always fellow students. Often, they are the mindless bureaucrats in our government and schools.
Christian Adamek, 15, is dead as a result of government bullying.
Christian "streaked" naked across the field during a high school football game at Sparkman High School in Alabama. Most of us would view this as a funny, mildly offensive prank. We would probably stifle a laugh and feign disapproval for the benefit of the students in the stands.
What is the appropriate punishment in this case? Parents grounding him? Yes. A few days suspension from school? Sure.
Sadly, local authorities took a very different approach. Christian was arrested, jailed, and threatened with expulsion from school. They further threatened to charge him with a sex crime, and register him as a sex offender.
In short, authorities wanted to guarantee his life would never be the same. Rather than face these unnecessarily cruel and unusual punishments, Christian committed suicide.
This is the new normal: Excessive punishment for our children and a complete lack of common-sense judgment by administrators. Even the most minor offense is met with overwhelming punishment from schools and government. A child wearing the wrong T-shirt, pointing a finger with thumb raised, or simply running on the playground can result in expulsion and sometimes jail.
Stop the bullying.
We must act quickly to reverse the trend of federalization and zero tolerance policies in our local schools, and we must root out the mindless bureaucrats behind it. We must return the authority to parents, teachers and administrators to exercise common sense; a commodity that is rapidly disappearing as we move toward monolithic, one-size-fits-all government education.
As governor, I would fight to reverse Common Core, and to restore local control and common-sense to our public schools. Schools should strive to produce creative-thinking, well-rounded, and well-educated adults.
Unless we reverse the current trend, we will ensure that our children become nothing more than obedient automatons, conditioned to never question conventional wisdom or think outside the approved parameters.
That is not a world that I want my children to inherit.
Certainly, in the days ahead, government spokespeople will say that they had no intention of pursuing that route of prosecution. In this case, just threatening it was enough to end a child’s life; saving the government the civic responsibility of ruining it.
Boy, 15, kills himself after 'facing expulsion and being put on sex offender registry' for streaking prank at high school football game
A popular 15-year-old student has committed suicide after he reportedly faced expulsion and could have been placed on the sex offenders' register simply for streaking at a high school football game.
Christian Adamek, from Huntsville, Alabama, hanged himself on October 2, a week after he was arrested for running naked across the Sparkman High football field during a game.
The teenager died two days later from his injuries and on Wednesday, friends and family gathered at a memorial service as they struggled to comprehend the beloved student's death.
A video of Adamek streaking during a game against a rival team was posted on YouTube hours after the event and students took to Twitter to call him a 'legend'.
'Sparkman's new slogan is gonna be "Welcome to Sparkman High School, Home of Christian Adamek",' one student wrote.
But school staff did not treat the situation so lightly.
Sparkman High Principal Michael Campbell told WHNT a day before the suicide attempt that the teen could face major repercussions because of his actions.
'There's the legal complications,' Campbell said. 'Public lewdness and court consequences outside of school with the legal system, as well as the school consequences that the school system has set up.'
n Alabama, indecent exposure is linked to the state's sex offender laws, meaning that he could have found himself on the sex offenders register due to the streaking.
Campbell added that that the incident was not just a prank and needed to be treated seriously.
Sparkman High administrators even recommended that Adamek face a hearing in the Madison County court system to determine if formal charges would be filed, WHNT reported.
Adamek had also been disciplined by the school district but the details had not been made public.
The day before the suicide attempt, the principal had confirmed that Adamek was not at school and the teenager's sister suggested on Twitter that Adamek faced expulsion, AL.com reported.
Campbell declined to comment on Adamek's death but the Madison County school district issued a statement saying it had 'received word that a Sparkman High School student has passed away'.
'Our prayers and thoughts are with the family during this time of bereavement,' the statement read.
The messages on Twitter have now turned from congratulatory to somber.
'Praying for the Adamek family. Christian was so funny and nice. He will be missed by so many,' one girl wrote.
The family - Adamek leaves behind his mother, Angela, and a sister and a brother - shared photos and memories online of the fun-loving teen, who was pictured posing and grinning at the camera.
At Wednesday's memorial service, his Boy Scout Troop master, David Silvernail, said Adamek was a popular teenager who always had a smile on his face.
'There are two kinds of people in the world; ones that brighten the room when they walk in and those that don't,' he said.
'He was one that brightened the room when he walked in. That's what I'll always remember about Christian.'
His mother, Angela, thanked her son's friends and said they could learn from his life, AL.com reported.
'Remember to smile, don't be afraid to do something goofy and remember the consequences of those actions, ask for help when you need it, ask for help if you think your friends need it if you don't know what to do, be quirky, be happy, be smart,' she said. ..Source..w/Pictures.. by Lydia Warren
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