Two Gwinnett high-school students who have been in jail for more than a week will find out Wednesday whether a judge considers them a flight risk for setting toilet-paper on fire.
Carlos Medrano-Lendof, 18, and Ali Eduardo Pazos-Gonzalez, 17, are charged with lighting two toilet rolls in bathrooms at Meadowcreek High School on Sept. 29. They have been in jail since Oct 2 and 5 respectively. The fires caused minimal damage – melted toilet paper dispensers — but disrupted classes and brought serious charges of first-degree arson and terroristic acts to the two students now in the jail’s general population
They both have bonds of $16,900 — and they would have to pay at least $1,690 to a bondsman to get out of jail. At Wednesday’s hearing, they can ask the judge to reduce the bond or charges.
Gwinnett arson investigators, working with Gwinnett school police, considered the fires potentially dangerous because they occurred in an occupied school, said Capt. Tommy Rutledge.
“The fire sent water and smoke into the hallway,” Rutledge said. “We take these actions very seriously because it places others in dangers.”
But a teen advocate and a juvenile court judge, who is an expert at reducing delinquency, contend the get-tough approach is both misguided and hazardous for handling what appears to have been a very bad prank that would have been handled administratively by the school in another era.
They note the teens are not jailed for burglarizing homes, robbing pedestrians, stealing cars or trying to burn down a building. The fire was started in a tiled bathroom with little risk of spreading and was extinguished — or went out — before the fire department arrived.
“If it was a prank and they wanted a laugh – it was a stupid way to get a laugh and a dangerous way to get a laugh,” said Clayton County Chief Juvenile Judge Steve Teske
“The question is what is the best way to respond to their adolescent stupidity.”
Schools now too often seek criminal charges toward teen behavior — fighting, petty thefts, vandalism — that two decades ago was handled by principal, said. Teske, a nationally recognized expert.
He said that whenever possible these cases should be handled administratively. The research shows once a student goes to court the chances of dropping out or future arrests increases exponentially, he said.
Marlyn Tillman, is a co-founder of Gwinnett SToPP (school to prison pipeline), an advocacy group that contends students misbehavior too often ends up in the courts. Under Georgia law a 17-year-old is treated as an adult in the justice system.
“Jail is not the place for them — the adult system is not designed to educate, it is designed to punish,” said Tillman. “We had another Gwinnett student who was jailed and ended up getting raped. I think it was a fight that got him there, because he was 17.”
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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