Why send a student to detention when you can just have him arrested?

I couldn't believe it when I read the media release from the police this afternoon. A 12-year-old boy was arrested at Ross Tilley Public School in Bowmanville on a charge of threatening.

His crime? He was upset that he had to get a hepatitis B shot and he said some things in the heat of the moment because he was a kid.

No one was hurt and no weapons were found at the school, Durham police said. A school board spokeswoman said the boy threatened to cause damage to the school building.

"We just wanted to send a strong message to everyone out there ... that this will not be tolerated in schools," Durham police spokesman Dave Selby said. "We want to let people know that under the Criminal Code, if there is behaviour that warrants it, we will be laying a charge."

You cannot blame the police for intervening. When they're called to a situation, whether it's at a bar, a home or at a school, they have the responsibility to respond. That's their job.

But really, who was the Einstein who made the call to the police in the first place? There were clearly other options that could have been put in play to calm this student. How about just not giving him the needle, contacting his parents and telling them he'd have to get the shot from his family physician or face suspension? Wouldn't that have been easier than calling the parents and explaining that their son had been arrested at school because he freaked out about getting a needle? Many kids freak out when they have to get needles including my own. I'm not fond of getting them either and I'm far from being a kid.

Not only was the student arrested but he was also held for a bail hearing. All over a needle.

This was no situation to call the police in to settle. They have far bigger issues to deal with than upset students. Talk about an over reaction by the teachers and principal involved. They just taught this kid a lesson he didn't need to learn and humiliated him in the process.