Teenager Arrested(BY FASCISTS) For Wearing Baseball Cap Sideways

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Teenager Arrested For Wearing Baseball Cap Sideways

 

Arizona Republic | March 15 2004

 

By most accounts, Marlon Morgan is a great kid. The soft-spoken junior plays

basketball for Saguaro High School. He was nominated for Youth of the Year last

year by a branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Scottsdale.

 

So why were his classmates wearing " Free Marlon " T-shirts last week?

 

The 17-year-old had just been arrested on campus during lunch for wearing his

baseball cap sideways instead of to the front and refusing to turn it the other

way.

 

Morgan, who is Black, believes he was singled out. Other teens in the same room

were wearing their hats that way.

 

His family criticized both police and school officials' handling of the

incident, which happened March 5, the day before spring break. The local chapter

of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Morgan's

mother are meeting Wednesday with Scottsdale Police Chief Alan Rodbell and

Scottsdale Unified School District officials.

 

Morgan was suspended from school for three days, beginning Monday when Saguaro

returns from spring break. Though he was held in a jail cell at police

headquarters for several hours, he wasn't charged. He was held on suspicion of

disorderly conduct, failure to obey a police officer, trespassing and

interfering or disrupting an educational institution.

 

School officials and police defended their actions.

 

Scottsdale police Detective Sam Bailey said Officer Brian Zeller, who is

assigned to the school, knows the teen and didn't want to arrest him. " From what

I gather, he's a pretty good kid, " Bailey said. But the officer was worried the

situation could escalate because other students were starting to gather.

 

Morgan was having lunch when Saguaro security guards approached him about his

hat. It is against school policy to wear hats sideways because it can be a sign

of disrespect for authority, the police report said, but Morgan said that the

rule is enforced selectively. According to a police report, he pointed to

several White students whose hats were on sideways.

 

" Usually I don't have a problem, (but) when you walk around you see everyone

else with their hats like that. I just kind of got fed up with it, " he told The

Arizona Republic.

 

When Morgan wouldn't do as the security guards and three assistant principals

asked, Officer Zeller was called in.

 

The police officer also told Morgan to straighten his hat, and he didn't.

 

Assistant Principal Steve Salcito ordered Morgan to the school office, but the

teen didn't move, police said.

 

Salcito told Morgan he was being suspended for insubordination and was

trespassing on school grounds, according to the police report.

 

Morgan said he stood up to leave. But according to the report, he told Zeller he

wasn't going anywhere. " I didn't think he (Zeller) was going to arrest me, "

Morgan said.

 

But Bailey said that at one point Morgan turned around, held his hands behind

his back and said, " Just put the cuffs on. "

 

Although Morgan and his mother, Bobbie Morgan, said his behavior was rebellious,

they denounced the school's reaction as " uncalled for. "

 

" I shouldn't have had to walk out of there in handcuffs in front of all my

friends, " Marlon Morgan said.

 

Shortly after Morgan's arrest, classmates staged a protest with one student

being suspended for 10 days.

 

A spokesman for the school district said the guards and principals acted

appropriately. " School officials did everything they were supposed to do, " said

Tom Herrmann, a spokesman for the Scottsdale Unified School District. Herrmann

declined to comment on the dispute's specifics.

 

Morgan's mother said security guards need better training to deal with students.

She also questioned the police presence at the school.

 

" When does school discipline stop and you start using police officers to do the

job of the principal and the vice principal and the parents? " she asked.

 

Bailey said such an incident normally wouldn't involve police, but the officer

got involved because the student defied officials.

 

The Rev. Oscar Tillman, head of the local NAACP and a former school board

member, said schools rely too heavily on police officers on campus to resolve

conflict. " I would not even dream of the principal or security calling in the

police, " Tillman said. " Police are not the disciplinarians for the school. "

 

Sophomore Della Rhodes, 15, was sitting one table away from Morgan when the

dispute happened. " I didn't think it was a big deal, " she said, adding that lots

of students wear their hats turned to the side. " That's just how the style is

now, " Rhodes said. " I've never seen anybody get in trouble for it. "

 

Blacks make up only 2 percent of the students at Saguaro, which is near Hayden

Road and McDonald Drive.

 

Morgan's adult supporters praised him. Morgan has been coming to the Boys &

Girls Clubs' Rose Lane branch for years. He has worked the front desk and now

watches kids while they play outdoors.

 

" He's a very responsible young man and a good role model, " said Mandy Terre, a

youth development supervisor the Boys & Girls Clubs.

 

 

 

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