13-Year-Old Boy Was Sent to Jail for Burping in Class

Anyone who went through the American public school system before this country turned into a dystopian nightmare, can probably remember that every class had at least one kid who was disruptive and unruly. Of course, that kid routinely found himself in detention for his mildly annoying antics. These days however, acting childish in a room full of children won’t just get you a slap on the wrist.

That’s what one unnamed 13-year-old boy learned in 2010 when he repeatedly burped in his P.E. class at the Cleveland Middle School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A teacher reported his antics to a police officer, and he was sent to the school’s administrative office. For whatever reason, the assistant principal thought the boy was carrying drugs, so he was strip searched (no drugs were found).

Though it’s not clear what the boy did to receive further punishment, he was suspended from school for the rest of the year, and was later charged under a little known and vaguely written statute that reads: No person shall willfully interfere with the educational process of any public or private school by committing, threatening to commit or inciting others to commit any act which would disrupt, impair, interfere with or obstruct the lawful mission, processes, procedures or functions of a public or private school.

And for that, he was handcuffed and sent to a juvenile jail. If you can believe it, a federal appeals court recently upheld those charges. We now live in a country where a 13-year-old boy can be sent to jail for burping in class.