VALDOSTA, Ga. (WTXL) - After 17 students and teens were arrested for breaking into Valdosta High School, the Chief of Police at the Valdosta Police Department is asking the community to stop the "name calling".
Brian Childress posted a long comment on the department's Facebook page on Friday, calling on the community to not be so quick to jump to conclusions.
This comes after around 30 students and others broke into and vandalized the school, costing over $4,000 in damages. All arrested are being charged with felony burglary.
His full statement is below:
Dear community:
Recently the Valdosta Police Department announced the arrest of numerous young adults who broke into the Valdosta High School and damaged the school. This department has pledged to the community, regardless who you are, what color your are, how much money you make, or any title or position you hold, that we will treat everyone the same and file charges based on the crime that was committed. These young adults did commit burglary and they were charged appropriately.
But many have commented that these same young adults are "thugs" and "hoodlums". These statement are simply inappropriate and wrong. These are kids who made mistakes and this department will work with the prosecutor's office and school system to ensure they learned their lesson but to also ensure their lives are not ruined because of what they did. Let's all not forget we were young too and sometimes young people don't think; wait a minute, adults don't either when we resort to name calling.
Let's not label people, especially young people, who made a mistake. Many of you don't know these kids. I have met them and they simply made a very bad mistake which some perceived was a prank that was clearly a crime. There is too much of this nonsense name calling, stereotyping going on today in this country and it needs to stop.
These young adults are NOT thugs. They are our future; period. You want to attack someone; come after me but leave them alone.
Brian Childress
Chief of Police
More arrests are still pending in this case. VPD says that they are still looking for one minor and two adults in connection to the crime.
