This looks fishy - activist prosecuted for chalk messages

[Patiod]

Penn State is prosecuting a student activist for writing on sidewalks and buildings --- with CHALK. That's right - she wasn't tagging with spray paint, but using the most innocuous medium possible.

They claim the chalk did hundreds of dollars of damage, but it sounds to me like they're prosecuting because 1) she's embarrassing them for using sweatshop labor and 2) she wouldn't rat out her colleagues.


http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2007/02/02-05-07tdc/02-05-07dnews-09.asp

[mainegreen]

1. Well, if she used chalk on glass doors, it will scratch the glass.

That pretty much counts as vandalism.

[ContraBass Black]

2. Regardless of how difficult it is to clean up, it's vandalism.

[Occulus]

3. Oh, PLEASE!!!

I suppose you get on the case of every eight-year-old playing hopscotch, too, right?

For FUCK'S SAKE!

[ContraBass Black]

11. I would if the 8 year-old were playing hopscotch on the front door of my house.

[walldude]

15. Bwhahahaha.. Don't have kids do you?

Reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbs comic. Little Susie is drawing on the sidewalk with chalk. She invites Calvin to join her. He digs in greedily. Calvin: "Wow Susie I didn't know you were a vandal". Susie: "It's not vandalism, it's chalk it washes off in the rain." Calvin... drops the chalk and sulks away.

[Rosemary2205]

4. I need to have the 6 yr old next door arrested.

We have a newish asphalt driveway and she loves to doodle on it with chalk. Every time I turn around she's out there leaving us a masterpiece that warms our hearts until the next rain comes along. She doodled on the brick once. I put a stop to that and her dad made her scrub it off.

Make the college kid clean up the chalk on the building and call it even. Geez, even Andy Taylor can figure out this one.

[SutaUvaca]

5. Chalk? Chalk cratching glass?

Methinks some details are missing in this story.
Perhaps my local frame shop is spending too much on good glass cutting tools.

[mainegreen]

6. Depends on the chalk.

I've got some chalk at home that is fine for the blackboard, but is not the soft squishy chalk that comes in crayola packets. It definitely can scratch glass.

[spinbaby]

7. Who uses chalk on glass? n/t

[mainegreen]

8. Well, this girl evidently damaged the doors,

so I'd say she does. Unless the doors are a soft wood, which would still be damaged, but you don't see that to much on university campuses. Glass doors tend to be the norm.

[Warpy]

9. That's what I was wondering

Chalk doesn't STICK. Well, it might be possible on frosted glass, but I don't think how the microscopic scrapes chalk would leave on frosted glass would be visible, let alone a huge problem.

These are just Koolaid drinking, overreacting cops with nothing better to do but go after pot smokers and chalk doodlers.

To hell with the lot of them.

[lectrobyte]

10. According to this other report, the doors are wood

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/living/education/higher_learning/16494721.htm

University spokesman Bill Mahon, in an e-mail message, described the situation as a simple case of vandalism.

"It is alleged that a female student damaged the wooden doors of Old Main," Mahon wrote. "The damage was done in front of a security camera, and we believe we know who did it."

He said the repairs cost about $500 and that the responsible party should pay for the damage.

[stillcool]

13. a much more thorough report...thanks!

what a difference a little reporting makes, eh? I just love how all the liberal minded folk on DU, investigate before incriminating.

Fderal law limits how much Penn State can discuss about student judicial cases. But Mahon did say that grooves appeared on Old Main's doors when someone tried to write a message on them.

The investigation by Penn State, he said, is not about chalk but about door damage at Old Main.
Guevara, however, said court paperwork shows that she is being charged for clean-up at multiple campus buildings. The documents say nothing about grooves on the Old Main doors, she said
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When Guevara met with Judicial Affairs, she said, a mediator told her that she could face reduced sanctions if she would identify six or seven other students on a security-camera recording.
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Guevara is a leader in United Students Against Sweatshop Labor, one of two anti-sweatshop groups that have persistently lobbied the university. Penn State holds contracts with major vendors, such as Nike and Adidas, that make university-branded merchandise overseas.
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Judicial Affairs is seeking to put a criminal offense on her university record for seven years, Guevara said. Separately, the criminal-mischief citation, court costs and restitution could cost her nearly $1,000.

[Buzz Clik]

12. So ... they fined her $450 and now are pressing criminal charges.

Yep. This is bullshit.

[Patiod]

14. ***followup**** Charges dropped

Evidently, there wasn't enough evidence - there was no damage to the piller that was chalked in the only film where she's visible...

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2007/02/02-06-07tdc/02-06-07dnews-15.asp

It seems like a lot of groups use chalk to post messages, but for some odd reason, this is the first group that was prosecuted.