BLOG VIEW | HEADLINE VIEW

ALL

GEEK

No Child Left Behind

MONDAY OCTOBER 1 2007 4:00 PM

Submitted by Bitch_PhD. Edited By erin_broadley.

TAGS: racism, los angeles, schools, police brutality

Unless, of course, they're expelled for having their wrists broken by school security guards.

A young black woman was attacked by a Knight High School security guard in Palmdale, CA, for not sufficiently cleaning up the floor after dropping a piece of birthday cake on it. He subsequently broke her arm, then he and his buddy attacked the folks who were using their cell phones to videotape and take pictures of their attack.
The mother who complained was herself arrested and is now suspended without pay from her job WITH THE SCHOOL DISTRICT!
The young woman and the two who bore witness to the attack by taking photo and video evidence WERE ALSO ARRESTED for assaulting the officer of the high school security. [In addition to assault charges] The young woman was also arrested for littering as well.

Watch this video: the girl went back to clean up the dropped cake three times and finally left for class when the security guard decided to get all George Wallace on her.

As Brownfemipower points out, shit like this does not exactly help black (or brown, or poor) kids with that whole "stay in school and succeed" party line. And no, this isn't an isolated incident: in March, Florida police arrested and cuffed a kindergarten girl for having a tantrum, a few years ago there was a lawsuit filed over frequent arrests of Indian children at school in South Dakota, the drug raid at Stratford High School, where--though the student body is 80% white--90 of the 107 students arrested were black. And of course you've heard--I hope!--of the Jena 6. I'm willing to bet you all can come up with other stories like this, too.

Then of course there are the high-profile cases of police violence/harassment of black adults: Amadou Diallo and Rodney King are the famous cases, but here are a few more recent ones: Kathryn Johnson, Jessie Lee Williams, Jr., Timothy Stansbury, Robert Davis, Frank Jude, Jr., Timothy Stansbury, Jr., Juan Herrera, Donovan Jackson,

Whether you want to admit that this kind of racist authoritarian bullshit is endemic or not, you have to acknowledge that there's good reason for young black people to distrust authority figures. Especially when the kid videotaping the assault on the cake-dropping girl also gets roughed up and arrested, and the girl's mother gets arrested--and suspended from her job--for marching into the school--as any parent would after a security guard broke her daughter's wrist and demanding the guard's arrest.

Below is footage from a protest at the school last Friday.

Another news story here. The moms of the students arrested are demanding that the guard be fired and their children's expulsions reversed.

Bitch_PhD is amazed by the women's restraint; she'd be suing the pants off the guard, the principal, and the district, if it were her kid.

64 Comments

PAGE:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Crissis

Ecuador

January 2007

OCT 01, 2007 04:20 PM

fuck! those guards are insane or what?

boygriv

Arcata, CA

December 2006

OCT 01, 2007 04:23 PM

The "nappy head" part seems kinda odd. A little convenient, especially after the Don Imus ordeal. Everything else is typical bullshit that's unnecessary, like the kids with the camera phone being arrested.

RileyStClair

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

OCT 01, 2007 04:26 PM

awful.
i read about this earlier today and it's just fucking nuts.

hoff_09

Calgary, AB

January 2007

OCT 01, 2007 04:29 PM

fucked up...

CherryCoke

North Conway, NH

May 2007

OCT 01, 2007 04:33 PM

Why does shit like this happen?
I can't even wrap my head around it.

blackroseMD1

Tacoma, WA

April 2003

OCT 01, 2007 04:40 PM

Wow, that mother and that girl are going to own that school. It's just amazing to me that shit like this is going on in our schools. That security guard needs to be fired, and then arrested for assault, with a hate crime multiplier attached.

xazapdmytinu

Fort Collins, CO

July 2007

OCT 01, 2007 04:40 PM

Its scary that a guy like this would have gotten such a job in the first place...it's hard to believe that he's never been reported for innapropriate behavior before...then again if he isn't being punished NOW...

MrStitches

Sag Harbor, NY

November 2003

OCT 01, 2007 04:41 PM

CherryCoke said:
Why does shit like this happen?

Because people are idiots.

LostLucy

USA

December 2006

OCT 01, 2007 04:50 PM

I want some high-powered opportunistic attorney like Alan Dershowitz to step in and pro-bono sue the crap out of all of them. But then, that is my entitled white middle-class perspective. Those poor kids - can't imagine how many will want to remain there.

Salieri

Montreal, QC

July 2004

OCT 01, 2007 05:20 PM

Side note;

...a few years ago there was a lawsuit filed over frequent arrests of Indian children at school in South Dakota...

"Indian" is still an appropriate term for Indigenous people? Both Bitch_phD and the article linked made use of it. Am I crazy for being taken aback by that?

Lockeblade

Australia

May 2007

OCT 01, 2007 05:32 PM

I feel the need to comment... but I just don't know what to say. What the fuck is wrong with you people? How has your country become so FUCKED up that a young girl has her wrist broken for dropping a piece of cake... and yet, in the eyes of the law she's still not the victim? Makes me sick...

Flux

SUICIDEGIRL

North Carolina, USA

OCT 01, 2007 05:37 PM

Salieri said:
Side note;

...a few years ago there was a lawsuit filed over frequent arrests of Indian children at school in South Dakota...

"Indian" is still an appropriate term for Indigenous people? Both Bitch_phD and the article linked made use of it. Am I crazy for being taken aback by that?

It's actually the most generally accepted blanket term in the U.S..

OctEgon

Tustin, CA

July 2005

OCT 01, 2007 05:42 PM

Gotta love the MySpace font in the "my fox" logo.

Rupert Murdoch doesn't fuck around when it come to consolidation.

Salieri

Montreal, QC

July 2004

OCT 01, 2007 06:15 PM

Flux said:

Salieri said:
Side note;

...a few years ago there was a lawsuit filed over frequent arrests of Indian children at school in South Dakota...

"Indian" is still an appropriate term for Indigenous people? Both Bitch_phD and the article linked made use of it. Am I crazy for being taken aback by that?

It's actually the most generally accepted blanket term in the U.S..

Thanks for the clarification. Using the term "Indian" in most places of Canada will be met with rolled-eyes at the least and calls of "racism" pretty often.

Gringo

Liberty Lake, WA

May 2006

OCT 01, 2007 06:23 PM

Imagician said:
I feel the need to comment... but I just don't know what to say. What the fuck is wrong with you people? How has your country become so FUCKED up that a young girl has her wrist broken for dropping a piece of cake... and yet, in the eyes of the law she's still not the victim? Makes me sick...

C'mon, dude. Before you start with the "holier than thou" attitude, you may want to learn about your own child abuse epidemic.

Child abuse is sickening no matter where it happens. But don't think for one minute that it doesn't occur in your own neighborhood.

PAGE:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5