US teen on 'vomit assault' charge

[emad]

A US high school student who vomited on his Spanish teacher has been charged with battery against a school official.

The 17-year-old from Olathe, Kansas, explained it was an accident brought on by the stress of final exams.

But prosecutors said witnesses alleged the boy intentionally threw up on teacher David Young.

Assistant district attorney Rick Guinn said they were seeking an apology from the teenager, who has since been expelled from the school.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4094120.stm

[Hepburn]

1. What utter bullshit...

...a kid throws up...and THAT is an assault??? GMAB!

Part of the def of assault is that it has to put the alleged victim in fear of bodily harm. IMO, the freaking DA needs to go back to law school.

[johnnie]

2. Of course that is assault

If he did this intentionally, then it's assault. What if he pissed on the teacher? Is that OK?

[amazona]

3. when george bush senior is tried for assault...

...for puking on the Japanese prime minister, I'll worry about this kid. I'm glad you don't have the unfortunate experience that I do, so please just trust me on this. Vomit happens. You can't always control it or pick the time and place of your choosing to vomit. It can just overwhelm you, uncontrollably. No one should be expelled for being ill.

While we're at it, let's beat up on the kids (usually boys) who can't control their bed-wetting until puberty. Is that the argument? Don't think so.

Body functions aren't pretty sometimes. God may be a hell of an artist but He's a piss-poor engineer, as the saying goes.

[johnnie]

4. I understand that shit happens..so to speak

But if this kid did it on purpose, then why stick up for him?

[Hepburn]

6. Who is sticking up for him?

I am faulting a DA who is clueless on the elements of a crime and the difference between and assault and battery.

And on the point of it being a battery: How in the heck does the DA prove up the intent? Unless the kid stuck his finger down his throat in close proximity to the teacher while facing the teacher and beyond a reasonable doubt vomiting would result and the vomit would in fact strike the teacher, IMO, the DA is full of shit. And that is not an unusual status for a DA, BTW.

[johnnie]

7. My post was to amazona

As for the assault charge, assault is any physical contact without their consent. I would think that throwing up on someone is contact. I don't know what happened in this case, but most people are intelligent enough to know if someone throws up on them on purpose or accidentally.
We obviously don't know enough from the article, but there has to be something more to this. Maybe the kid ran up to the teacher and shoved his finger down his throat, laughed and bragged to his friends. Who knows? But to call it "bullshit" right out of the box before hearing the facts is a little premature IMO.

[Hepburn]

8. No, that is not what an assault is...

...a battery is based on physical contact. An assault is based on causing the victim FEAR of bodily harm. That is WHY an assault charge is total BS....if it is based on the vomit coming into contact with the teacher. Contact is NOT the gravamen of an assault charge - fear is.

[johnnie]

9. OK, you are the lawyer..lol

Although I guess a little closer look at the article it states that battery charges are brought against the student, not assault.

[Hepburn]

5. Speaking as a lawyer...

...that is an NOT an assault. It most certainly could constitute a battery ~ an unprivileged, unconsented to touching of the person of another or things closely associated thereto. But what I learned in law school is that to charge an assault, the elements are very different than a battery.

Assault means ability to cause the harm (or at least the same is so preceived by the alleged victim) and that the victim is placed in fear of harm. Culpability does not consist just of intent, but also consists of a sufficient act coupled with the intent. Vomiting on a teacher is NOT IMO an assualt, while if intentional, it most likely is a battery, it is NOT an assualt.

That is why I said the DA is clueless.