(Location: New York)
Last November, on a Tuesday, at around 4 pm, I had gone over to a public elementary school that I went to as a child (the school day there normally ends at 3:20 pm, but on this day the school day ended at 12 pm, since it was a half school day because it was a parent-teacher conferences day) to play on the swings. I thought that I wasn't doing anything wrong since the school day had long since ended, and there were NO kids at the school at the time (although I was unaware that the school was still open for parent-teacher conferences). After I was done playing on the swings, I walked around the building (on the outside, not the inside), and I was looking in the windows as a way of strolling down memory lane. That’s when some staff members saw me and freaked out. But it was still after school hours.
A man then came out and asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was just walking around, and that I didn't mean any harm (since they seemed alarmed by my presence). He then told me that I couldn't be there during "school time" (which I found odd since I was fairly certain that the school day had ended several hours ago) and went back inside (does parent-teacher conference time count as "school time?"). I then left the school grounds feeling very shaken and embarrassed. Then, when I got to the parking lot, the principal of the school came out, stopped me, and demanded to know what I was doing. I told him that I had just come to play on the swings, and then he shouted at me in a very harsh and angry voice "DO YOU REALIZE THAT YOU'RE TRESPASSING ON SCHOOL PROPERTY?!?!" I then said "But, the school day is over" to which he replied "Yeah, and the gate is closed!" Looking back on it, I realize that I hadn't done the greatest job explaining my point of view to him, but then again, he was being very aggressive and not giving much of an opportunity to speak. After he was done scolding me, he asked me if I lived nearby, to which I answered yes, and then when I approached my car, he demanded sharply and urgently "is this your car?!?!" to which I (naively) responded yes. He then took a picture of my license plate with his iPhone. I opened my mouth to ask him why he did that, but he cut me off before I even had a chance to speak, and sharply demanded that I "dismiss myself", so I left.
Fearing that the people at the school would give that picture to law enforcement so that I could be tracked down and arrested, I decided to send a message to the principal of school on LinkedIn that evening explaining what happened, and asking him to please not report me to the police. Realizing I had made a bad choice by sending that message, I deleted my LinkedIn account the next morning. The next day, in the afternoon, I decided to call the elementary school as an anonymous caller, to see if I could find out what information they had on the incident from the previous day, and what they were planning to do about it. I called the main office, and I asked them if there had been any trespassing incidents that had occurred at the school recently, and the person said on the phone that they did not have access to that information and hung up. Then, a few minutes later, the main office called me back, and it was the principal on the line (I could sense great aggression behind that phone call). The principal said in a firm authoritative that he had been told that I was inquiring about a trespassing incident, and asked who I was. I then said that I was an anonymous caller, and he said that he would not give any information to anonymous callers. He then said "is this [my first name] [my last name]," to which I said no, but to which my heart then sank because that let me know that he had read my message before I deleted my LinkedIn account. I then said that I had to hang up, and then he hung up.
The evening of the day after that, since I was still feeling anxious, I decided to contact one of the teachers that I had in elementary school on Facebook. I explained to her what happened, I asked her if there had been any notification sent out about what I did, and I also asked her if she felt that I deserved to be punished for what I did. She responded the next morning, telling me that she never heard anything about it, and that I wasn't in any trouble.
However, she apparently brought my messages to the attention of someone, because later that day, some security guards from the school came knocking on the door of my house. No one was home to answer the door, but my mom and brother saw them on the security camera of our house, and they freaked out (I had told them about what happened the day before). My mom called me but I didn't answer. I started heading home because I knew something was up, and then when I got to the house, my brother shouted out to me to pull over. He then explained to me what was going on, and told me to stay home because mom was scared, but I drove away as he turned around to speak to my mom on the phone. I then went into a parking lot, called the main office, and I told them my name and that the principal wanted to talk to me about something. The principal wasn't in that day, so the security person at the school spoke to me instead. He told me that I wasn't in any trouble and that I didn't need to worry, but but he told me not to go back to the school for any reason, and to not get in touch with any of the teachers at the school (the teacher who I contacted has since blocked me on Facebook). I then texted my mom brother letting them know that everything was okay, but they never answered me, so I decided to go home. I then found out that they hadn't responded to me because my brother had gone to pick my mother up from her job and bring her home. My mom had also called the main office, and they explained to her everything that had happened and was happening. (Apparently, one of the people who saw me said that I was knocking on windows, which is not what I was doing!). She then told me to stay home, because she had been told that the security guards were going to come back to the house, and that they would have to speak to me in person. We then waited, but after two hours, I got tired of waiting and decided to go out anyway…
Which do you think I deserve more, prison or guardianship?
Last November, on a Tuesday, at around 4 pm, I had gone over to a public elementary school that I went to as a child (the school day there normally ends at 3:20 pm, but on this day the school day ended at 12 pm, since it was a half school day because it was a parent-teacher conferences day) to play on the swings. I thought that I wasn't doing anything wrong since the school day had long since ended, and there were NO kids at the school at the time (although I was unaware that the school was still open for parent-teacher conferences). After I was done playing on the swings, I walked around the building (on the outside, not the inside), and I was looking in the windows as a way of strolling down memory lane. That’s when some staff members saw me and freaked out. But it was still after school hours.
A man then came out and asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was just walking around, and that I didn't mean any harm (since they seemed alarmed by my presence). He then told me that I couldn't be there during "school time" (which I found odd since I was fairly certain that the school day had ended several hours ago) and went back inside (does parent-teacher conference time count as "school time?"). I then left the school grounds feeling very shaken and embarrassed. Then, when I got to the parking lot, the principal of the school came out, stopped me, and demanded to know what I was doing. I told him that I had just come to play on the swings, and then he shouted at me in a very harsh and angry voice "DO YOU REALIZE THAT YOU'RE TRESPASSING ON SCHOOL PROPERTY?!?!" I then said "But, the school day is over" to which he replied "Yeah, and the gate is closed!" Looking back on it, I realize that I hadn't done the greatest job explaining my point of view to him, but then again, he was being very aggressive and not giving much of an opportunity to speak. After he was done scolding me, he asked me if I lived nearby, to which I answered yes, and then when I approached my car, he demanded sharply and urgently "is this your car?!?!" to which I (naively) responded yes. He then took a picture of my license plate with his iPhone. I opened my mouth to ask him why he did that, but he cut me off before I even had a chance to speak, and sharply demanded that I "dismiss myself", so I left.
Fearing that the people at the school would give that picture to law enforcement so that I could be tracked down and arrested, I decided to send a message to the principal of school on LinkedIn that evening explaining what happened, and asking him to please not report me to the police. Realizing I had made a bad choice by sending that message, I deleted my LinkedIn account the next morning. The next day, in the afternoon, I decided to call the elementary school as an anonymous caller, to see if I could find out what information they had on the incident from the previous day, and what they were planning to do about it. I called the main office, and I asked them if there had been any trespassing incidents that had occurred at the school recently, and the person said on the phone that they did not have access to that information and hung up. Then, a few minutes later, the main office called me back, and it was the principal on the line (I could sense great aggression behind that phone call). The principal said in a firm authoritative that he had been told that I was inquiring about a trespassing incident, and asked who I was. I then said that I was an anonymous caller, and he said that he would not give any information to anonymous callers. He then said "is this [my first name] [my last name]," to which I said no, but to which my heart then sank because that let me know that he had read my message before I deleted my LinkedIn account. I then said that I had to hang up, and then he hung up.
The evening of the day after that, since I was still feeling anxious, I decided to contact one of the teachers that I had in elementary school on Facebook. I explained to her what happened, I asked her if there had been any notification sent out about what I did, and I also asked her if she felt that I deserved to be punished for what I did. She responded the next morning, telling me that she never heard anything about it, and that I wasn't in any trouble.
However, she apparently brought my messages to the attention of someone, because later that day, some security guards from the school came knocking on the door of my house. No one was home to answer the door, but my mom and brother saw them on the security camera of our house, and they freaked out (I had told them about what happened the day before). My mom called me but I didn't answer. I started heading home because I knew something was up, and then when I got to the house, my brother shouted out to me to pull over. He then explained to me what was going on, and told me to stay home because mom was scared, but I drove away as he turned around to speak to my mom on the phone. I then went into a parking lot, called the main office, and I told them my name and that the principal wanted to talk to me about something. The principal wasn't in that day, so the security person at the school spoke to me instead. He told me that I wasn't in any trouble and that I didn't need to worry, but but he told me not to go back to the school for any reason, and to not get in touch with any of the teachers at the school (the teacher who I contacted has since blocked me on Facebook). I then texted my mom brother letting them know that everything was okay, but they never answered me, so I decided to go home. I then found out that they hadn't responded to me because my brother had gone to pick my mother up from her job and bring her home. My mom had also called the main office, and they explained to her everything that had happened and was happening. (Apparently, one of the people who saw me said that I was knocking on windows, which is not what I was doing!). She then told me to stay home, because she had been told that the security guards were going to come back to the house, and that they would have to speak to me in person. We then waited, but after two hours, I got tired of waiting and decided to go out anyway…
Which do you think I deserve more, prison or guardianship?
