One Gwinnett County high school student is out of jail on bond but the other remains on an immigration hold after their misguided prank at Meadowcreek High School backfired at and got them charged with arson and committing a terroristic act.
Carlos Medrano-Lendof, 18, made his $16,900 bond Tuesday after 12 days in the Gwinnett County jail. He and Ali Eduardo Pazos-Gonzalez, 17, are accused of setting toilet paper on fire in school bathrooms in September.
The fire caused the school sprinkler system to go off, melted a toilet-paper dispenser and left a scorch mark on the bathroom floor, Ira Burnette, an arson investigator testified at a preliminary hearing Wednesday, in explaining the charges.
Medrano-Lendof didn’t attend the hearing. Lowering bond for Pazos-Gonzalez, who has been in jail for 10 days, was not addressed at the hearing because he has an immigration hold on him, according to the court.
Gwinnett arson investigators, working with Gwinnett school police, considered the fires potentially dangerous because they occurred in an occupied school so they charged them with two serious felonies, said Capt. Tommy Rutledge. But an expert on teenage delinquency contends the jailing on high bonds was a misguided get-tough approach that does more harm than good.
“If school administrators are acting in loco parentis – in place of the parent – they should be advocating for these kids like a parent would,” said Clayton County Chief Juvenile Court Judge Steve Teske, a nationally recognized expert at reducing delinquency.“Why can’t they say, ‘I know this is a crime but this is my school and I am going to take care of this.’
“Kids are neurologically wired to do stupid things and sometimes those stupid things are pranks that could be dangerous. But are they truly criminal in intent? They are not thinking like an adult. They are not trying to harm anybody.”
Jim Taylor, who oversees discipline for the Gwinnett school district, said it was the arson investigators who made the decision to charge the teens but he believed the principal did not oppose it.
He noted, however, the principal had not recommended permanent expulsion for the two teens, who he said would probably be transferred to an alternative school once they were released from jail. There would be a school hearing to determine the in-house punishment, Taylor said.
“If he thought it was the most egregious act, the principal could have recommended permanent expulsion and he hasn’t — in that regard the principal has indicated he doesn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” Taylor said. “The kids will be treated fairly that I can guarantee. It is just unfortunate that the fire department came in.”
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