Honor Student Kills Himself After School Officials Tell Him He "Ruined His Life" by Smoking Weed
Hayden Long, a 16-year-old sophomore student at a high school in Ohio, took his own life after reportedly enduring verbal attacks from school officials after being accused of "smelling like" weed. Following Long's tragic passing, his friend and classmate Hank Sigel wrote an open letter placing the bulk of the blame on those school officials and local police. Sigel recounts that administrators told Hayden he had "ruined his life" by smoking weed, adding that he and other students "would fail their classes" and had made the "biggest mistake of their life."
Sigel and Long were reportedly among six teenagers, described as honor students and athletes, accused of smoking weed before a school dance. The students were then interrogated by two Geneva High School administrators and one off-duty police officer, according to Raw Story. Sigel's open letter, which was widely shared across social media, tells the story of a very misguided and downright maddening approach to discipline:
(link to letter: http://imgur.com/yU6jAYU )
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Marijuana prohibition was the biggest mistake we ever made in this country. Too bad we had to bring the world with it. 
life is so worthless they can treat a neighbor like this, and bully a child to his death.
These administrators should be arrested for murder.
They could have, instead, introduced him to the medical marijuana clinic owner here in Spokane. Clinic for sale for $2.7 million dollars.
Between the weed and the real estate, the owner, the same age as the school admins, will make more in a year than any of those school administrators and teachers will make in their lifetimes. Perhaps more than they could teach the kids in their charge to make, incompetent buffoons that they are.
Sad fuckers. They need to get what they deserve.
As far as that ratio of 75 to 1, it seems incredibly self-serving. Some teachers may not soak switches in vinegar for the black kids any longer (because, as the teachers back then confided in Kozol's book, "Their skins are thicker, you know"
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Today they are much slicker. They don't need clubs, they have the police. The "School to Prison Pipeline" in Chicago, and many other cities, stands as proof.
Heck, they don't even have to send them to prison. For an example of slavery without chains - Texas, where they re-wrote the textbooks to make slavery appear more voluntary. It took a PARENT to complain - not one of those so-called teachers appeared to be willing to risk their salary by refusing to teach white lies that support white privilege disseminated by the school system. http://www.nbcnews.com/video/parents-complaint-about-textbook-goes-viral-540638275928
I worked as a grad student at a university where I got my degree in adult ed. One of the classes I taught was ed philosophy.
I never will forget the day one of them came in, so proud of the fact that she gave an F to a kid for not coloring what he was supposed to. She was congratulated by some of the other students.
This was what she was trained to do on the job. I thought, "Great, the kid only has 11 years of this left".
The schools talk john dewey and experience, but in practice far too many adhere to michelle duggar and blanket training.
Then again, I left before graduation, got a GED, and joined the Navy, because teachers and parents were busy turning over the school buses transporting the black kids being sent there.
It's no wonder that black parents send their kids out thinking there is a target on their backs. It's a sorry school system that paints it there.
People ask why there is so much hate. It's because it is being taught, at home, and at school.
I notice opinions vary on this, especially if people get paid to do this and get all defensive. Figures. Proof that they care more about themselves than they do about the kids.
... but my mom has serious problems with authorities of any sort.
Is it genetic, or something else?
When I got in trouble at school for anything, administrators at first hesitated, and then eventually stopped calling her altogether. (Times as they were meant my dad was always at work. Schools didn't call dads at work, they always called moms at home or work.)
My mom would always go mama grizzly bear and it was about 50-50% odds she'd scold me or rip the ass off some teacher or administrator whenever school called.
The way I felt about it, and judging now as a parent, my mom was always right when she judged the school wrong, maybe only half the time right when she blamed me since at times I didn't want to stir up any more trouble and could handle my parent's disapproval.
One of my kids is a high intensity achiever, a straight A+ student throughout high school, and accepted to many fine colleges and universities, and the graduate of a great one. But blind respect of authority simply isn't a part of the family heritage, on either side.
Not yielding to authority is, in fact, how most of my children's ancestors ended up in the Americas. The rest, on my wife's side were already here when the Europeans first arrived.
This story makes me so angry and sad. I want to rip the asses off these local goon school administrators and cops whose collective intelligence is probably far, far less than the poor kid they tortured into suicide.
Last edited Sat Oct 10, 2015, 03:32 PM - Edit history (1)
probably are closet drunks...yes indeed............
A small town 30 miles east of Cleveland.. .. approximately 6000 people living in Geneva..
according to this article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_High_School_(Ohio)
from Wikipedia.....there are approximately 800 students..
this is a truly ugly story..This kid was a quarterback on football team..and a leader..
So that is the reason the administration would have verbally beat him up...to make an example of him...Witnesses say that they singled him out for verbal abuse...This one will get very ugly..It seems the parents are not believing the witness. (according to one of the articles that has been posted) ..It could be that the parents do not want to offend the district, cause they have been warned not to..
The parents are acting like they have no legal representation..The school district will try to hide this one forever to protect the principal and the assistant principal who administered the verbal abuse.. and the police officer..
They have since built a new one. He showed me where he snuck through the fence because he lived right behind it. He graduated from Ashtabula High (town nearby) in 1929.
The parents should definitely sue the school district and the individuals involved for intentional infliction of emotional distress and any other applicable torts. Honor students are very sensitive and often terrified of doing anything that is a mark against their record. I was in advanced classes decades ago and was terrified of authority. I cried a lot every time I failed at something because I thought my life was ruined. It didn't matter, but I didn't know that at the time. Bullies like that don't like super bright, high achieving kids, and they often think it's their job to smack down the outstanding students.
In law school this is called "you take the plaintiff as you find them". In other words, the defendant's responsibility is not lessened legally because the plaintiff has a thin skull, or some other physical defect, or is emotionally sensitive.
The plaintiff's condition does not mitigate any duty of care that the defendant may have.
And yes I am a lawyer but I do not play one on TV. 
