Model High School to pay informants for info about drugs and guns.

[jsalcedo]

ROME, Ga. Apr 11, 2005 — A high school is looking for a few good snitches. Using revenue from its candy and soda sales, Model High School plans to pay up to $100 for information about thefts and drug or gun possession on campus.

"It's not that we feel there are any problems here," said Principal Glenn White. "It's a proactive move for getting information that will help deter any sort of illegal activity."

Under the new policy, a student would receive $10 for information about a theft on campus, $25 or $50 for information about drug possession, and $100 for information about gun possession or other serious felonies.


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Informants will not receive the reward if they are involved in the crime, White said.

At nearby Rome High School, there is no similar program because students there have a rapport with officials and are comfortable providing information, said Superintendent Gayland Cooper.

"We feel the reward is the kids knowing they have a safe school," Cooper said.

The idea for the program came from Kell High School in Marietta, an Atlanta suburb. There, student tips earlier this year led to the arrest of a classmate who had brought a handgun to school.

No Model High students have received the reward yet, but some questioned the logic behind it. Jaime Parris, a senior, said that most students already would tell faculty about anything that threatened student safety.

"But if it's not going to hurt other people, I don't think many people are going to tell on their friends," she said.

 

[RevDisk]

Some enterprising young student will likely make good wages on planting evidence and ratting out his fellow students.

 

[Bear Gulch]

But you'd have to respect his taking initiative! Actually competing dealers will snitch each other off to protect their market.

 

[El Tejon]

Is this money upon "information" given? If so, my buddies in high school would be flush with beer money, giving "information" out left and right.

 

[erikm]

I wonder what kind of social life these IM's* will have once their names surface in the school grapevine. High school students aren't noted for subtlety.

*) Inoffiziele Mitarbeiter.

Cheers,
ErikM

 

[foghornl]

Gotta rank this idea right up there with "Zero Tolerance Policy" . . .





Offer 'em cash to be good Nazi-Facsist Ratfinks.

 

[Joejojoba111]

The worst part is that schools don't stop their snooping when you leave at the end of the day, they claim responsibility (not liability though, of course!) for students until they get home. My college even passed a rule where one's free-time activites could be considered grounds for expulsion (too many girls were stripping or something - stupid rule but what to expect it used to be a bible college). In high school kids were suspended and expelled for fighting hours after classes were out, far from school property.

'Tis a sad state of affairs, we used to have such pride. I remember when every student claimed Chong went to their school.

Want to hear the silly part? I think theses crazy rules are being passed because everyone put so much emphasis on being cool. Seriously, think about it - if everyone wants to be cool then they don't want to be in the debating club. If they don't want to look like geeks they will try to act cool through class discussions of rights and freedoms.

 

[Blackburn]

Man, if I were still in high school there, I'd get my friends together, make sure we all managed to own a rifle or something legally at home, then take turns turning in "tips", which would then be countered by pre prepared evidence showing the legality and responsibility of the person in question.

We'd bankrupt their little system in a month.

 

[Redneck Revolver]

i used to have a friend who went to rome. all this will do is SUPPORT illegal activity. it'll give the kids drug/beer money.

 

[Too Many Choices!?]

Is the name Model Highschool?

Or are they trying to be a model highschool

 

[geekWithA.45]

It's rare we get the opportunity to quantify the percieved magnitude of a "wrong", and place them into the priority sequence

$10 for information about a theft on campus, $25 or $50 for information about drug possession, and $100 for information about gun possession

So,

Theft, a violation of personal and property rights, and an activity that is ALWAYS WRONG is at the bottom of the totem poll, and is rated

2.5 to 5 times less serious than posession of certain substances, the wrongness of which is subject to much debate

and

10 times less serious than posession of an instrumentality of a fundamental right, which may or may not be wrong, (depending on the plans of the posessor)

So there you have it.

 

[Standing Wolf]

We feel the reward is the kids knowing they have a safe school...

Safe from...?

I'm sure this scheme won't deter criminals, but will help create a clique of semi-professional snitches.

 

[Crosshair]

Considering my school was a "nice" high school, snitches where delt with appropriately. Usualy it was slashed tires, mayonnaise in the locker, swirly in the toilet. A classic that was done against the younger sniches was to get a $5 bike lock and lock up their bike to the bike rack.

A few of the good stories:

A snitch who ratted out an after prom party. That individual ended up duct taped to a stop sign, naked, across town from his house. (I, unfortunatly, was not involved, thought I did inform the individuals where to buy collored duct tape )

Another involved my HS band and choir. Both groups where taking a combined trip to Chicago. (I live in ND.) On previous smaller trips people had brought R-rated movies. (The busses had TVs in them.) Everyone on the bus is a Junior or older. The band director (on my bus) had asked before they put the movie in if everyone was OK with that movie. No objections. When we get back, some "unnamed individual"(NOT me) complained to their parents that we where showing R films on the bus trips. So that parent proceeds to throw a sh*tstorm (Any doubt over who had snitched was removed at this point.) and demand that this never happen again.

So the music teachers wrote up a waiver and gave a copy to everyone. Basicly the parents would sign it saying that it was OK for their child to watch R rated movies on such trips. Fewer than 10 students (Out of about 170) where not able to get them signed. Come the big trip to Chicago, we need 4 busses to carry everyone. Everyone who didn't get the waivers signed are on bus #4, (Nicknamed the "Sissy bus" at this point.) otherwise seating was assigned first come first serve to the other busses. I got in early and got a seat on bus #2. Of course nobody wanted to be on bus #4 (No R-rated movies) so some of the latecommers resorted to bribery to get a seat on one of the other 3 busses. From what I heard, one student got $150 cash to switch seats on the day of the trip. The snicher had the nickname "Sissy snicher" for the rest of the trip.

Unfortunatly these sniches will learn about Karma the hard way.

 

[Bear Gulch]

Rome is a town in NW Georgia about 40 mile north of where I went to school. I doubt that it really is bad enough to even justify needing to consider such a policy, then on top of that they pick a totally stupid way of dealing with it.

Rank this with gun buy backs for stupid.

Now hey, there is an Idea. What about a gun Group pooling money for a gun buy back program. We could get guns away from potential criminals, for ourselves!

 

[P95Carry]

Seems this is fast approaching the situation in some communist countries - where kids were encouraged to spy on parents and friends - for some reward or other. Free membership to ''the party'' probably.

The wolf of authoritarianism bites another chunk out of the butt of freedom.

 

[Kenshin]

Dave, man you making me nervous. You making me think that you gon snitch.

Pause

You ain't gonna snitch, right?

 

[Parallax]

Does this remind you at all of 1984?

 

[Blackburn]

A snitch who ratted out an after prom party. That individual ended up duct taped to a stop sign, naked, across town from his house. (I, unfortunatly, was not involved, thought I did inform the individuals where to buy collored duct tape )

Where I come from, brats who bully other kids, even snitches like that, are deprived of functioning kneecaps.

 

[El Rojo]

I don't see what the big deal is. We all talk about having safe campuses and reducing the waste that is going on in modern education, so why not get a good intelligence system going and start taking some of these kids out of school so your kids don't have to deal with the distractions and disruptions at school?

Now at my continuation high school, this would be an interesting concept. I think I am going to bring it up at the policy council meeting on Wednesday. Either there would be a few rich kids at school or no one would participate. If I could get in on the kitty as a teacher, I would be planting evidence left and right!!!

 

[Mikul]

The college that I went to started a plan like that. You could snitch on anything, including alcohol, and if the tip turned out to be good, you'd get $10 toward the school store.

On bored weekend nights, we'd sit in our dorm and call in fake tips until we got bored. They scrapped the program in under a month.

 

[Logistics]

as Al Pacino said.....

"You're runnin a ratship here........a vessel for seagoin snitches"

 

[HighVelocity]

Informants will not receive the reward if they are involved in the crime, White said.

duhhhhh

 

[Bear Gulch]

El Rojo,

I support strict enfocement of school polcies on drugs and violence. But why don't the teachers get off their dead arses and find out what's going on. They want little snitches so they don't have to mix with the kids and get to know them.

 

[jefnvk]

My college even passed a rule where one's free-time activites could be considered grounds for expulsion (too many girls were stripping or something - stupid rule

That is a college, though, you agree to those terms when you go there.

I see no real problem. They are being paid to report activities that are against the rules. I don't see anyone complaining about Crime Stoppers paying for information about crimes.

 

[Bear Gulch]

I don't like the idea of the kids being put in a role that should be up to the teachers.

I worked as a counselor in an alternative high school, the staff knew what was what. I don't buy that the staff at this school doesn't know who is doing what.