Dismayed by deception

I am a senior at Colony High School in Palmer.

This last Friday we were told to take out a piece of paper and write down a statement verbatim. The statement was basically to the effect that finals were this week and that we get out of school the 20th of December. We were then told to sign the paper, and once they were all collected we were told they were going to be used as writing samples to compare with recent bomb threats and graffiti.

The statements were collected without our knowledge or consent as to why we even had to write it. As you can imagine, this made me very upset for several reasons. First, we were not given a reason as to why we were writing it. Second, nobody was notified, not even our parents. Third, they had no right to collect samples from the whole school without probable cause. It is not very probable that the entire school was involved in the bomb threats or the graffiti.

Also, I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but common sense would tell someone not to write a bomb threat in their own handwriting. What if mine happens to match merely because the person who really wrote it was trying to disguise his or her own writing?

My step-dad went to my school and wasn’t given much help. The assistant principal, Mr. [Mike] Looney, then called my mother and was absolutely terrible to her. My step-dad also called the Alaska State Troopers and we found out that in Alaska you don’t have to contact parents before collecting any evidence from a minor. What kind of law allows policemen to take advantage of minors like that? Most young people are not aware of their rights as U.S. citizens and will talk willingly to officials because they think they have to.

That fact aside, it is still ridiculous they would collect evidence wrongly and expect to be able to use it. Even if they find a match, the person accused can fight the fact that the evidence was collected in a sneaky and unfair way. Coming from California, I was awed that the school is trying to get away with this. Did they really think upwards of 1,200 students were going to play dumb and allow their rights to be abused? Are they so desperate that they would abuse the rights of not only minors, but citizens of the United States?

I would like to think I am a citizen of a fair country and the resident of a state interested in my rights, not just bent on getting evidence in any way possible.

There has to have been a better way of going about this. The minute they collected evidence from me, I was seen as a suspect. They had no right or knowledge to deduce that I was a suspect simply because I go to school.

It disgusts me that people we are supposed to trust as school officials and the law would willingly take advantage of people like this.

I take this matter very seriously and I would appreciate it if you would too.

Erika Gray

Wasilla