By Walt Glines – Times Editor
Morgan Hill
– A Live Oak High senior arrested for tossing a rubber ball at a
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office deputy dressed as the Grim
Reaper returned to class Tuesday for the first time in a week.
By Walt Glines – Times Editor
Morgan Hill – A Live Oak High senior arrested for tossing a rubber ball at a Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office deputy dressed as the Grim Reaper returned to class Tuesday for the first time in a week.
The incident occurred as part of the high school’s “Every 15 Minutes” program aimed at convincing students of the dangers of drinking and driving.
Christopher Smith, 18, was cited and released Oct. 20 on one misdemeanor count of battery.
Smith, who was fingerprinted and photographed at the police station before being released to his father, plans to vigorously contest the charge. Smith acknowledges that the racquet ball, made of soft rubber, hit the Grim Reaper on his back shoulder.
Smith said he thought the Grim Reaper was actually Lloyd Webb, a physical education coach that he knows well and jokes around with.
In fact, Smith said Webb has encouraged him to throw a racquet ball at him on previous occasions.
“If I had to do it all over again, I never would have thrown the ball. There was nothing I could have said to calm him down” Smith said Tuesday afternoon. “As soon as he asked who threw the ball I stood up. I apologized.”
Smith described the throw as a soft toss.
“It’s unfortunate that this has become tied to the Every 15 Minutes Program,” Morgan Hill Police Lt. Joe Sampson said Tuesday. “It’s such a great program.”
Sampson, one of the program’s speakers, was outside the geometry classroom when the incident occurred.
Smith said he was taken first to the gym and then to the office where he was handcuffed and placed in a patrol car for a trip to the police station for booking.
Smith’s father, Emmett, is incensed about the incident.
“I finally convinced Chris that he shouldn’t let an ego with a badge ruin his life,” Emmett said Tuesday. “Chris hasn’t been able to sleep since this occurred. I’m furious about what happened.”
The younger Smith has been described as a special education student.
Emmett said Chris has been identified as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Sheriff’s Office Deputy Terrance Helm said Deputy Ron Breuss has played the Grim Reaper role for years without a problem.
“We go to many schools, do this program a lot,” Helm said. “Every one I’ve ever attended, there have been few dry eyes. This is a powerful program, a very serious program, and for a student, an 18-year-old who is old enough to know better, to throw something at him, as a group of professionals are trying to educate students about the dangers of drinking and driving, for him to play jokes, it is not acceptable. Not even if he thought it was a teacher.
“As Deputy Breuss told him, for every positive action, there are positive consequences, just as for every negative action, there are negative consequences. That is how we learn.”
Helm said Smith was not suspended for his action. In most cases involving violence, students are suspended by school officials.
Live Oak Principal Nick Boden was off campus Tuesday and not available for comment.
Helm also said the atmosphere in most high schools has changed since the tragedy at Columbine High in Colorado, with schools adopting a “zero-tolerance” policy for violence.
“We are all taking things very seriously,” he said.
Smith is due in court Dec. 7. The police report has not been processed. Once the paperwork is complete, the case will be forwarded to the District Attorney’s office to determine if a charge will be filed.
Sampson said it is unlikely charges will be filed.
“Something like this, a simple battery, it is more in the nature of a lesson,” he said.
The program is based on the fact that every 15 minutes a person is killed in an alcohol-related traffic collision in the United States. It included a mass “funeral'” as students and parents gathered to mourn the “deaths” of 25 of their classmates.
Students, parents and school officials described the event as an emotion-filled two days.
Staff Writer Marilyn Dubil contributed to this report.
