School Yard

[tarajudy]

Told to leave school today near house.
Some person came up to me and said I have NO RIGHT TO BE HERE. I said why, his reply was because I said so and this is private property.
I never new public schools were private property. He called the police they came I was asked to leave said I'm trespassing.
Most schools here in VIRGINIA LOOK LIKE PRISONS WITH 8 FOOT FENCES. ( When I was a kid we went to the school to play. what ever happened?????)
I will post pics of high school in my town of this.

 

[Surfinsafari]

The problem is the government has grown out of control. They tax us to death to aquire things and then severely limit the use of the things aquired to the people who actually pay for it. Take the Cook county forest preserves around Chicago for example. They have banned metal detecting in all preserves, as have other surrounding counties. It really irks me as all the land was payed for by the taxpayers and now we have these idiot politicians who probably dont know a thing about our hobby, saying stay out. I have had some animated conversations at my MD club because they continue to go and beg to the forest preserve council for permission to hunt on land that is already ours. I hunt anyway. Catch me if you can I say.

 

[Oldguy]

Why didn't you leave when you were first asked? Involving the police only got that, and probably all the other schools in that jurisdiction closed to detecting.

A better way is to leave when asked and then later talk to someone in authority to gain permission. School board meetings are great for this as the officials seem more eager to please the public and gain your tax dollars at these meetings.

 

[ChicagoJohn]

Something to do with Sept. 11th and I know few crazy went to school and shoot at kids! I would ask Police to see if okay at way back lawn during school closed like Sunday morning!

 

[Elton]

Or at least in my area............ Public is taxed for the money.

Goes into a general fund ear marked for schools. Then transferred to the school board. School Board of Education then buys the property ( School property). School board is separate entity from the government. ( semi-private ) in fact.

This translates legally to Private owned property. Owned by The Board of Education operated by elected, or appointed School Board Officials.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Much wisdom in that Oldguy. Thanks Dave.

 

[ChicagoJohn]

The problem is the government has grown out of control. They tax us to death to aquire things and then severely limit the use of the things aquired to the people who actually pay for it. Take the Cook county forest preserves around Chicago for example. They have banned metal detecting in all preserves, as have other surrounding counties. It really irks me as all the land was payed for by the taxpayers and now we have these idiot politicians who probably dont know a thing about our hobby, saying stay out. I have had some animated conversations at my MD club because they continue to go and beg to the forest preserve council for permission to hunt on land that is already ours. I hunt anyway. Catch me if you can I say.

Any late news about Cook County forest preserve? I see many cigarettes all over park so that's okay to smoke? Fishing line, bobber, soda cans all over lake! paper plates, plastic fork, etc at picnic tables! I see worker ride lawnmower over soda and beer cans and it tear up all over grass! I did ask them I will bring garbage bag to pick up any garbage during metal detecting and they still not allow it!

 

[Mega]

I am amazed that you think you have a right to detecting on basically what is private land,i can only speak by what happens over here in the UK,all land is owned by someone and unless you gain permission you dont go detecting on it,council owned land over here this includes parks,schools and other public open spaces are a no go area this is mainly due to the modern culture of accident claims as local authorities just cannot be bothered to have massive claims made against them so basically its best just to say 'NO'

Of course we can detecting say farmland,estates and any other land but once again with the farmers/landowners permission other wise you just dont go detecting,we are finding a massive big take up of detecting over here as a result of the news media including television series about detecting and finding big hoards of which we are famous,so folks think i will go out and buy a detector and then they thing they have the right to go on any land and start detecting.

By just taking the decision to go detecting on any land thinking its your right as a citizen or what ever is totally wrong and of course this is my personal opinion its giving detecting a very bad image and name,if you want to go detecting on land that is not owned by you then why not ask,if its a YES then thats find and you are then total legal and within your right,but to just walk onto land thinking it will just be all right is totally wrong.

One last thought,if you owned a property that had no form of boundry ie say a fence or hedge or something like that and you woke up one morning finding somone detecting on your land without asking,how would you feel ??? of course you may just say go ahead thats fine but the person who is detecting is covered,but if you said no and he said why not and he did not leave you would then get the police involved and this is exactly what has happened in your case.No legal permission so please leave.

 

[GeorgeinSC]

We no longer live in a world where it is safe for folks to be wandering around schools. Too many Nut Cases harming Children. I understand why schools are fenced, gated, locked Posted but I do not have to like it.

I will occasionally work an area around a school but I try to do so on a weekend when there are the minimum number of people around. So far I have only been asked one time (not told) to leave a school playground as they were having "Summer School" and the children would be out to play shortly.

 

[msareborn]

Mega B, problem with your reply is .....This Is AMERICA!!!!! We left England a long time ago, and we are a republic of free citizens. We the people own the schools, the parks, the court houses, the city and county property. Most public property is open game around here in the states. All we have to do is go to our local city/state websites and see what the posted rules are and follow them. Some areas where heavy detecting activity has already taken place, there may be rules and laws like probe only. (Usually because some nincompoop left a bunch of open holes or a mess) and ruined it for others. Some cities like the one I live in is still friendly to the hobby. But with that said, sometimes when Barney Fife , (The local constable) is called he may use another law like vandalism or damage to public property, to describe digging for a coin and issue a misdemeanor ticket.
I do agree, getting permission and avoiding confrontation at all costs is usually best. Respecting the condition of the property is crucial.

For instance: I wanted to detect the local high school football field. So instead of thinking it's my right to do it as a local citizen, I asked the grounds keeper if it would be ok. He simply replied that would be fine. Permission also involves educating people in what the hobby involves, and can be key to getting permission. We all have seen the story board pictures of what "my parents think I do, what I think I do, and what others think I do, and what I really am doing". Perception is key to communication and we all have to live together, so when we talk with people and communicate what our intentions are, we all get along better. When we get some no's along the way, be patient the next yes is just around the corner.
I will say, I do like the treasure trove process across the pond. I notice that you get to split 50/50 with the land owner you got permission from, and when the local museum buys the treasure, and you keep it all. Here in the states there is a terrible tax both state and federal. Remembering the couple who "found" the gold coin stashed in cans in California. Supposing the cache fetched 10,000,000, they would pay an estimated 5.7 million in state and federal taxes. Sounds like you have it better in that situation. Sometimes it still feels like were governed by the king, here in the states. I guess I should say, were still, mostly free! Happy hunting!

 

[Larry (IL)]

We the people own the schools, the parks, the court houses, the city and county property.

If you believe that, boy do I have some land to sell YOU.

 

[small change]

From the post, you don't even know if that person actually works for the school or is just some idiot who lives nearby. What's pretty obvious is, that person is a vile tyrant. "Because I said so" - that was the reason he gave - "brilliant". If he really wants to get his point across, I think needs to give a better reason than that. That's how you talk to a three year old. All public schools are supported by state money so how can they be considered private property? Schools have become like most levels of government. Many of the superintendents and the other administrators under them are basically petty tyrants and little Hitlers. America being the land of the free is a joke and a total myth. If this country is still the among the best in the world to live in, then that is a testament to just how horrible the rest of the world is, not how great the USA is.

 

[Surfinsafari]

We the people own the schools, the parks, the court houses, the city and county property.

If you believe that, boy do I have some land to sell YOU.

Larry, with all due respect, I am VERY politically active so if anything I say offends you, I will apologize upfront. The problem with thinking like that is that it only emboldens these mindless political hacks to believe that everything the government owns IS actually theirs. The last time I checked, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is still the law of the land and the words " of the People, for the People and by the People" mean us!
I understand the need to control public property as there is no shortage of idiots in the world but banning or severely restricting public land to a hobby that is actually beneficial to the ecology is absurd.
We have a problem around my area with gays hanging out in the forest preserves and engaging in disgusting behavior in plain view of the public. Why is that not banned or restricted? There have been several reports of such behavior in the comment section of the local papers and STILL, nothing is done. Let the cops catch you MDing and your in big trouble. I live for calling out politicians and the local ones all know me and avoid me because I call them out. I don't just accept "the way things are". As Chicago John pointed out, the fishing lakes in the preserves are a disgusting mess because everyone is too lazy to clean up after themselves but there is no ban on that. If we don't stand up and take back what rightfully belongs to us, then we pretty much are saying that we like the politicians bending us over. The situations we have right now are because most people just take their beatings and behave like good boys and girls. I know what you are saying in your post and you are right, the government does think it owns everything and it will only get worse if we just continue to let them push us out of our hobby that harms no one.

 

[Larry (IL)]

No offence taken, the point is that just because our taxes paid for something does not make it public property. There are lots of federal, state, county and local property that we can NOT even set foot on let alone hunt it.

 

[airscapes]

Well thank god I live here. I pay over $3000 a year in public school taxes and have been doing so for 22 year and have no kids. Every freaking coin I take from my school district is mine, I paid dearly for them, Never had a problem, of course our schools don't have multi million dollar professional fields .. just dirt, grass and weeds.. Feel sorry for those that have to live and deal with rich people..

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Elton, I won't dispute your legal explanations of how it can be called "private property", even though .... we routinely call them "public schools". Let's just assume, for sake of argument, that your statement/post is correct. Then how is it then, that public school yards get ROUTINELY hunted by us md'rs? And that 99% of the time, no one cares less. I mean, so long as you're not being a nuisance in some way, or run into the wrong "miss lookie-lou griper", etc....

I mean, don't kids go there to shoot hoops after school ? Don't people jog the track ? So while I don't dispute what you're saying (some technical jargon of legal status of land), I'm just pointing out that the fact is, schools get detected all the time. And if something happens to an md'r (such as happend in this O.P. here), then to me, that's the exception. It's a fluke. I do NOT take that as an omen that "oh no, I/we can't detect schools anymore because they're off limits [or private property]". To me such an encounter simply means to avoid that one individual in the future. If it means detecting at night at that school, then so be it.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... Involving the police only got that, and probably all the other schools in that jurisdiction closed to detecting. ...

old-guy, 2 things that are askew in your post:

1) you're making this critique via the wonderful vantage point of hind-sight. I mean, it would be like watching a bad pass by an NFL quarterback (that got intercepted). And then watching it on slow motion replay. ANYONE watching that slow-motion replay can say "gee that was a bad pass. I would have thrown it left rather than right." Or "I would have run the ball instead," etc... And such genius statements are bullet-proof correct, right? How do we know? Because all we have to do is roll back the slow-motion replay tape, and the monday-morning quarterback is a genius.

2) If the OP's data (the cop and the busy-body who called the cop) is to be believed (I have my doubts though), then ... how can the OP's encounter be at risk of causing "other schools to get closed to md'ing" ? That statement is odd , because, if the premise of the cop and lookie-lou is correct, then they are ALREADY "closed". Yet your statment implies they are somehow now open ? I don't get it.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I bet I know why those forest preserves are banned. And no, it's not because of holes. And no, it's not because the government has grown out of control. You wanna know what I think put it on some forest preverve's radar as something to be banned ?

 

[Metaldetective1975]

Were you there with a guy named Julio?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Hey John, you know what the difference is between those md'rs, and those people in your post who drop cig. butts, soda cans, paper plates, litter, etc... What's the difference between those people and md'rs? Here's the difference: If any of those litter-bugs had gone to the forest preserve pencil pusher bureacrat's, and asked:

"Hi, can I please drop my cig. butts, and leave litter around the picnic table please?"

What do you think their answer would have been? They would most certainly have been told "no you can't". But as you can tell: they didn't ask permission to litter, and no one cares (for the most part). Ok, do you see the difference between those litterbugs and us then? We md'rs, for several decades now, have gone and made ourselves a GIANT RED BULLSEYE in asking permission to hunt public places. And lo & behold you eventually find someone to give the "safe" answer to your "pressing question", and tell you "no".

So I have a sneaking suspicion, that the ONLY reason you guys got that in Cook County, is ......... if you traced it back to its origin, it probably was a question that got passed back and forth between multiple desks, ended up at council meetings for agenda decision, blah blah blah . Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy, eh ?