A local girl is a freshmen at a big state university. She is in her room, drinking beer. She is not rowdy, not causing a disturbance. She leaves to go to the restroom down the hall. She passes the RA, who smells beer. The RA calls the police. The 19 year old is arrested for underage drinking and public intoxication.
Are you allowed to break the law on your own private property? Is a dorm room considered your private property? Was the RA right to report the crime? Should the police arrested her? Should she be prosecuted, or disciplined in another way? Should she be expelled from school?
What are you feelings if the above were true?
6 comments:
I think the RA had a responsibility to do something, but I don't think it required calling the police.
She's lucky she wasn't expelled. They make it clear to you that while you're paying an arm and a leg to stay there, your dorm room doesn't not "Belong" to you in anyway. poor kid. :-(
If it had happened to me I would wait until the RA was asleep and soak the bed with beer and then call the cops and scream that I had been sexually harrassed by a drunken RA! SUMBITCH. First of all anytime an 18 year old can join the military and die for his/her country but not be allowed to drink a porkin beer something is wrong with the thinking of that country-namely ours. Second-the RA had no right to harass unless the kid was being disorderly. I would have to hear both sides before I would make a judgement call excepting the underage bit. It sucks.
The Founding Fathers believed in the sanctity of the citizens person, home and property, but with the concoction of income and property taxes, imminent domain &c, the idea of "a man's home is his castle" has become tagged with "unless" and "if"s to the point of meaninglessness.
You have the right to whatever Der Schtaat doesn't rationalize an excuse to steal from you at the moment!
EVERY university I know of has an alcohol policy that this girl would have been in violation of.
Her "Privacy" wasn't violated, she was in a "common area" when the violation was determined. Even in "her" room, she didn't have a right of total privacy, as was no doubt explained to her upon contracting the living arrangements with the University.
Having said that, the R.A. AND the police both overreacted. The R.A., I'm sure, had other means of handleing this situation than calling the police.. a report to the dean or faculty advisor; or housing council. She wasn't being a problem, and certainly didn't deserve for this to escalate to the point of an arrest.
The police officer should have used his power of discretion and if he felt it warrented it, issued the young lady an order to appear in court, she didn't need to be taken into custody.
College is a time of experimentation and growing one's personal scope of activities to try to find one's place in an adult world. Drinking, while illegal at her age, is usually a part of this self didcovery process, and as long as the situation doesn't progress to the point of causing undue disturbance, or a danger to others, I feel that the University has methods of punishment to correct the behaviour in the case of a first offense other than causing the student to get a criminal record.
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