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8th Grader's $2 bill sparks police investigation
Catbert
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While technically a currency topic, I thought that you would either be amused, discouraged, or outraged regarding the content of this article.
8th grader's $2 bill sparks police investigation
A Houston eighth-grader was reportedly investigated for forgery after she tried to use a $2 bill to pay for lunch at school.
Danesiah Neal, a student at Fort Bend Independent School District’s Christa McAuliffe Middle School, said she was trying to buy some chicken nuggets with the $2 bill her grandmother gave her, but school officials confiscated the bill and said it was fake, a local ABC News affiliate reported.
“I went to the lunch line, and they said my $2 bill was fake,” Danesiah told the news station. “They gave it to the police. Then they sent me to the police office. A police officer said I could be in big trouble.”
School officials called Daneisha’s grandmother, Sharon Kay Joseph, and asked, ” ‘Did you give Danesiah a $2 bill for lunch?’ He told me it was fake,” the grandmother recalled.
An investigation into the $2 bill led Fort Bend ISD police to a local convenience store that gave it to Ms. Joseph, ABC reported.
Police were then led to a bank where the 1953-issued bill was examined and determined to be real.
“He brought me my $2 bill back,” Ms. Joseph told ABC. “He didn’t apologize. He should have, and the school should have because they pulled Danesiah out of lunch, and she didn’t eat lunch that day because they took her money.”
No charges were filed.
“It was very outrageous for them to do it,” Ms. Joseph said. “There was no need for police involvement. They’re charging kids like they’re adults now.”
ABC examined all police reports from three Houston-area school districts since the 2013-14 school year and found a total of 40 similar cases in which students faced felony investigations for alleged lunch line forgeries, EAG News reported.
A felony forgery charge carries up to a 10-year prison sentence and remains on a student’s criminal record for life, ABC said.
8th grader's $2 bill sparks police investigation
A Houston eighth-grader was reportedly investigated for forgery after she tried to use a $2 bill to pay for lunch at school.
Danesiah Neal, a student at Fort Bend Independent School District’s Christa McAuliffe Middle School, said she was trying to buy some chicken nuggets with the $2 bill her grandmother gave her, but school officials confiscated the bill and said it was fake, a local ABC News affiliate reported.
“I went to the lunch line, and they said my $2 bill was fake,” Danesiah told the news station. “They gave it to the police. Then they sent me to the police office. A police officer said I could be in big trouble.”
School officials called Daneisha’s grandmother, Sharon Kay Joseph, and asked, ” ‘Did you give Danesiah a $2 bill for lunch?’ He told me it was fake,” the grandmother recalled.
An investigation into the $2 bill led Fort Bend ISD police to a local convenience store that gave it to Ms. Joseph, ABC reported.
Police were then led to a bank where the 1953-issued bill was examined and determined to be real.
“He brought me my $2 bill back,” Ms. Joseph told ABC. “He didn’t apologize. He should have, and the school should have because they pulled Danesiah out of lunch, and she didn’t eat lunch that day because they took her money.”
No charges were filed.
“It was very outrageous for them to do it,” Ms. Joseph said. “There was no need for police involvement. They’re charging kids like they’re adults now.”
ABC examined all police reports from three Houston-area school districts since the 2013-14 school year and found a total of 40 similar cases in which students faced felony investigations for alleged lunch line forgeries, EAG News reported.
A felony forgery charge carries up to a 10-year prison sentence and remains on a student’s criminal record for life, ABC said.
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amazing how much taxpayer cash was spent in time and effort running this very simple issue to ground?
i wonder how much was spent attempting to make it right?
really sorry for our species how quickly people get on board with negative issues and how slowly for positive.
the bill had to be taken to the bank? several of the people involved had to be old timers, no offense, and well aware of the denomination?
unfortunate for the kid(s) and grandparent. kid just wanted some food.
.
Steve
He'd be doing hard time in prison.
Thank god he didn't try paying with a Sacagawea $1.
He'd be doing hard time in prison.
Why would anyone spend a Sacagawea? Those are made of gold!
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I spent a Canadian quarter at 7/11 and was called on it and I explained it was the Canadian State Quarter and she said "KeooooL'
Steve
Oh my goodness...how stupid can people be?
That reminds me I need to go to the Credit Union and get my small stack of "Deuces"...thank goodness I am not around Houston (we have a problem).
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"ABC examined all police reports from three Houston-area school districts since the 2013-14 school year and found a total of 40 similar cases in which students faced felony investigations for alleged lunch line forgeries, EAG News reported."
That ABC can report that "a total of 40 similar cases in which students faced felony investigations for alleged lunch line forgeries" is insane, that data exists to make this claim is nuts, to claim felony investigation in the lunch line...
Off the rails.
I spent a Canadian quarter at 7/11 and was called on it and I explained it was the Canadian State Quarter and she said "KeooooL'
Steve
Somehow, I can believe that story!
I spent a Canadian quarter at 7/11 and was called on it and I explained it was the Canadian State Quarter and she said "KeooooL'
Steve
Lot of people, those Jerry Springer types, think Canada is a US state.
http://abc13.com/news/lunchroo...ate-fake-money/1314203
When you think of felony forgery your thoughts might turn to Al Capone or Bonnie and Clyde shooting it out with the Texas Rangers.
Not for some local school cops. For one day, public enemy number one when it came to forgery was 13-year-old eighth grader Danesiah Neal at Fort Bend Independent School District's Christa McAuliffe Middle School.
Now 14, Daneisha was hoping to eat that day's lunch of chicken tenders with her classmates using a $2 bill given to her by her grandmother when she was stopped by the long arm of the law.
"I went to the lunch line and they said my $2 bill was fake," Danesiah told Ted Oberg Investigates. "They gave it to the police. Then they sent me to the police office. A police officer said I could be in big trouble."
Not just big trouble. Third-degree felony trouble.
And that's just one of eight counterfeiting charges investigated against high- and middle-school students at Fort Bend ISD since the 2013-2014 school year.
School officials called Daneisha's grandmother Sharon Kay Joseph.
"She's never in trouble, so I was nervous going in there," she recalled to abc13.
The officials asked, "'Did you give Danesiah a $2 bill for lunch?' He told me it was fake," she said.
Then the Fort Bend ISD police investigated the $2 bill with the vigor of an episode of Dragnet, even though at that school 82-percent of kids are poor enough to get free or reduced price lunch.
The alleged theft of $2 worth of chicken tenders led a campus officer -- average salary $45,000 a year -- to the convenience store that gave grandma the $2 bill.
Next stop -- and these are just the facts -- the cop went to a bank to examine the bill.
Finally, the mystery was solved: The $2 bill wasn't a fake at all. It was real.
The bill so old, dating back to 1953, the school's counterfeit pen didn't work on it.
"He brought me my two dollar bill back," Joseph said. He didn't apologize. He should have and the school should have because they pulled Danesiah out of lunch and she didn't eat lunch that day because they took her money."
Joseph said something needs to change so kids don't have felonies looming over their heads for minor crimes -- or actions that aren't even crimes at all.
"It was very outrageous for them to do it," she said. "There was no need for police involvement. They're charging kids like they're adults now."
Ultimately, no charges were filed. But plenty of times, they are. Not just at local ISD's but across the state.
"For us at Fort Bend ISD Police, arrest is a last resort," Fort Bend ISD Chief David Rider told abc13.
Ted Oberg Investigates examined police reports between the 2013-14 school year and 2016 dealing with lunch line forgery from Houston ISD, Fort Bend ISD & Cy-Fair ISD.
In all there were 40 cases. Cy-Fair had the most, Houston ISD the least. Only Fort Bend ISD police were willing to talk about it. Cy-Fair responded with an email saying, " CFISD is aware of the disproportionate placement of minority students nationally," but refused to to make its police chief available.. HISD declined comment.
Not every case results in an arrest. In fact, many are declined by the district attorney, but all have been investigated by police. In many cases that results in a student being sent to alternative school while the case is being investigated.
That, advocates say, is punishment in itself.
The crime is forgery - a third-degree felony in Texas. If found guilty, students could be sentenced to two to 10 years in prison. The Harris County DA's office says most would be given probation but this is still a felony arrest and/or conviction that has to be reported for a lifetime.
Juveniles can seek to have their records expunged -- but there is no guarantee.
There is concerning outlier when examining the statistics. Ted Oberg Investigates could not find a single white student suspect in these documents. There is one in Cy-Fair, but he is 27 years old and not a student. All the rest were largely black and to a lesser extent, Hispanic.
No district wanted to weigh in on why that was.
"We see a disproportionate impact on minority youth when it comes to these charges," attorney Mani Nezami said. "African-American and Hispanic boys in particular, but girls as well, tend to be overcriminalized for offenses that one might speculate if they weren't, they wouldn't be seeing a criminal charge."
It's unclear if all the students tagged for forgery are minorities. In the 29 pages of Cy-Fair ISD police records, abc13 found five students investigated who were listed as black, three students investigated listed as Hispanic, another whose race was listed as "E." There are 15 reports with no race listed.
Investigating student forgeries for using small bill in a lunch line does not appear to be letting up.
Nezami represents a 13-year-old Cy-Fair ISD Cook Middle School student facing two to 10 years in a Texas prison for passing off what turned out to be a fake $10 bill.
It looks real, and his parents say it felt real.
"The friend pulls out a $10 bill and his friend thinks that it's real," Nezami said. "So they get to the lunch line... he buys his lunch with it, takes his lunch and goes and eats it."
After school, officials did the forgery test and realized it was a fake $10 bill, according to Nezami.
"He comes to school the next day and he gets arrested and charged with a third-degree felony." Nezami said. "He's in seventh grade. He doesn't handle money that much."
"They put him in handcuffs," he said. "They put him in a police car, the whole bit."
His parents even offered to pay the $10 that was owed the school.
The 13-year-old even qualifies for free lunch from the school.
He's never been in trouble and reliably gets A's and B's in class.
He was charged with a felony and sent to alternative school before being found guilty of anything.
His case is still pending.
"He could face years in jail or prison," Nezami said.
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I spent a Canadian quarter at 7/11 and was called on it and I explained it was the Canadian State Quarter and she said "KeooooL'
Steve
Lot of people, those Jerry Springer types, think Canada is a US state.
Things are getting really bad in this country. This would never happen in the Land of Hills, Glens, and Heroes.
Edited to add that it is a total disgrace that there was no apology offered at all and that this sure looks like profiling or more accurately blatant racial discrimination to me based on the reports.
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Wait until people start spending the new Tubman twenty dollar bills. They'll have to hire a lot more policemen.
Sad, but true. Wonder if Texas will pass a state law against using cash at that point.
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Wait until people start spending the new Tubman twenty dollar bills. They'll have to hire a lot more policemen.
They'll come with a certificate of authenticity.
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At this school who is smarter the grade school students or the adults?
Thank god he didn't try paying with a Sacagawea $1.
He'd be doing hard time in prison.
The name is LEE!
Our country has become so completely ignorant that it's not even funny anymore.
A friend of mine tried to spend a $10 at a Taco Bell a few years back. The Assistant Manager said it was fake and confiscated it. He had to pay for his lunch with another bill.
I asked to look at the bill but they wouldn't let me so I asked them to call the cops which they did.
The Police Officer agreed that it was indeed a fake and let me see the bill. It was soft to the touch and a closer examination revealed the binder paper it had been made on.
BUT........that has nothing to do with a valid $2 bill. Kinda makes me want to order a couple of hundred dollars worth from my bank and start using them.
The name is LEE!
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I wonder what would happen if she tried to spend a 2 cent piece or a 3 cent piece. Tubman will look good on a $20 bill. No smiling allowed. Did anyone ever smile in these early photographs?
It won't matter if her portrait is somber or not. Do you realize how much graffitti will be applied to alter the portrait beyond recognition, by those whose voices have been ignored on the issue ?
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I recently read that someone in Michigan was held/arrested? for using a "counterfeit" $20. The note was a genuine series 1950 note. The police were clueless in that case as well.
Several years ago, I went to a fast food place and handed over a $10 bill, the cashier says, "this is counterfeit", I say "wai.. wha?" and look closely at the bill, it was series 1950, slightly different design details, and their test pen didn't work on it, I say, "No, it real, just real old" she says, "well, we have to call the police!" So I laugh and say, "go ahead, this will be fun" she thinks better of it and lets me take that bill back and pay with a different bill.
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The Fort Bend Police officials and the Middle School officials involved should be arrested and charged with criminal impersonation of an educated adult. Local police have no jurisdiction over what was perceived as a federal offense anyways. This kind of LEO over-reach is disgusting and ignorant. Any one of a number of school officials could have accessed the information about criteria for the authenticity of the $2 Federal Reserve Note from any computer with internet access at the school, yet they chose to make it a criminal accusation about which they knew ZERO. That student's parents would be well within their privilege to sue the hell out the school district and the police department, and I hope they do so. The number of torts lawyers who would take a case like this pro bono would fill up a telephone book.
Wasn't the 1953 series United States Notes?
The Fort Bend Police officials and the Middle School officials involved should be arrested and charged with criminal impersonation of an educated adult. Local police have no jurisdiction over what was perceived as a federal offense anyways. This kind of LEO over-reach is disgusting and ignorant. Any one of a number of school officials could have accessed the information about criteria for the authenticity of the $2 Federal Reserve Note from any computer with internet access at the school, yet they chose to make it a criminal accusation about which they knew ZERO. That student's parents would be well within their privilege to sue the hell out the school district and the police department, and I hope they do so. The number of torts lawyers who would take a case like this pro bono would fill up a telephone book.
Exactly! Why didn't they just google it? Check the library! An encyclopedia! A dictionary! Call a coin store. Heck, call the US Mint! There are so many kinds of money out there and these adults are not trained to recognize them?? Just how dam stupid has society become??? This is liberalism! Shut your mouth and do as I dictate because they think they have powers, are god-like and get some kind of kick out of ruling over others. It's actually a backlash, knee jerk kind of reaction by people who have been receiving the same everyday from their jobs, bosses and the police and government.
And to top it all off, people want four more years of the same.
Leo
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it happened in Texas, what more do we need to know?
I tried out my counterfeit pen on series 1928D and 1953A two-dollar bills. Worked fine on the 1928 but not on the 1953. Go figure . . .
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My dad was traveling and decided to purchase some furniture. He asked the clerk if she would take an out of state check. She said, "Sure, with proper ID." My dad wrote the check and she looked at the check's address and said, "Um, Sir, we can't take a foreign check." It took him a couple of minutes to convince her that New Mexico was not a foreign country.
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I have an uncut sheet of them. They would have called in a SWAT team and it would have been Nationwide news on Fox if she had tried to spend it!
I have one too. I am tempted to go to a bar and cut them off one at a time to leave tips.
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