I almost went to state prison for going down a flight of stairs? When I was in high school, I lived in Whitehall, Montana. Whitehall is a tiny skid mark on the underpants of Montana (yes it’s that bad) but we had some good teachers, who actually gave a crap (no pun intended). My Problems in American Democracy (PAD) teacher was one of these teachers. His name was Mr. Battiola, and he was young (he graduated with some of my older siblings), and fun. As a special “treat”, he took us to the State Capitol (Helena), which was about an hour away (in Montana everything is measured by the amount of time is take you to get there and not how many miles you travel). While in the capitol building, we were allowed to explore. That made me happy since I hate tours, but I like to see new things.
My friend, Carrie, and I wandered towards where the legislation was passing policies. We watched from the balcony for a little while as the politicians vote ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ before we got bored. I noticed a small open doorway in the back, and so I decided to check it out. There was a little spiral staircase, that was way cute, so I had Carrie come and look. We decided to use our cell phones and take each other’s pictures while one was at the bottom and the other was at the top. Carrie went first, and she noticed that there was a small gate across the bottom to prevent people from going into that floor. We were cool with that, we just wanted a picture of the stairs. When it was my turn, I smiled at the camera and waited for the flash, but it never came.
I felt a large hand land heavily upon my shoulder and a man’s voice ask, very politely, “Might I know what you and your friend are up to, Miss?” I turned around quickly, which was a big mistake since I’m very clumsy and was on a tiny step. I lost my balance and fell into the security guard that had snuck up behind me (he didn't mean to,but I didn't hear him walk up so he scared me). That’s when it got a little crazy. He thought that I was trying to attack him, Carrie thought that I was being attacked (she’s a little high strung like that), and I was trying to pull away from him while apologizing profusely. I was thrown on the ground and handcuffed, while Carrie tried to get down the staircase to “rescue” me but was blocked by another guard.
We were finally were able to clear up the whole thing, but it wasn’t until after we had been handcuffed, taken to the security office, and sat down in a small room with one of the guards. We had been able to tell them who we were and why we were there, so Mr. Battiola was brought in to vouch for us. They explained to him what had happened and why they were suspicious of two teen girls taking pictures. Apparently the floor at the bottom of the staircase had some important offices on it. When the guards saw Carrie walk to the bottom of the stairs, look around, and then look up and talk to me, it peaked their interest. But when I came down the stairs and they saw that I had a backpack (I was the stupid kid with their backpack on every field trip I ever went on), and when I turned around and handed a little silver device (my cell phone) to Carrie, they thought that they had a serious problem. We were released into the custody of my teacher, who had to fight back a grin from the moment he walked in and saw both of us handcuffed to our chairs, and we were assigned one guard each for the rest of the day. I felt bad for the guards; they were in their early twenties maybe, and they had to spend to day with my giggly girlfriends who freaked out when they saw us. This was around 10am, and we weren't going to leave the capitol building until 5:30 that night, so they had to put up with us for a while. I apologized to them, but they just grinned and said it beat video surveillance all day, we came with surround sound. Plus they got free food when we ordered pizza for lunch! I think they liked all of the attention.
I still hadn’t gotten my picture, so I asked our ‘bodyguards’ (as we jokingly called them) if we could go and get it. They agreed, since they knew we weren’t a threat, and one of them actually took it for me. I still have that picture; it’s my pride and joy. But do you know what was the best part of all this? We didn’t get into any trouble with Mr. Battiola. He actually busted up laughing as soon as we were out of the security office. We had to stand there and wait for him to get control of himself before we could continue.
Finally he managed to gasp, “I always knew you’d be arrested someday, I just didn’t expect it to be so soon!” before busting up again. Carrie and I laughed with him since we were always teased about stuff like that (we weren’t bad; just rebels). Our bodyguards seemed a little alarmed at his reaction, but as the day went by and they got to see just how wild Carrie and I can get when we are having fun, they kind of understood. We actually became really good friends while they were babysitting us. I still get e-mails from them every once in a while, but I don’t think they talk to Carrie anymore. She kind of went off the deep end.
HERE IS THE PICTURE:
It’s not very good since it was taken on my phone, but I don’t care!
This is the capitol's website if you want more info on Montana,
1 comment:
I read your experience. I was hoping for much better connection to "law and justice" or what you learned in the material. What was your reflection on the process?
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