• commentary
  • MONDAY OCTOBER 1 2007 4:00 PM

No Child Left Behind

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.

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Comments
lefthandright

lefthandright

New Zealand
September 2006

OCT 03, 2007 03:53 AM

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..



It is simple. If I see a group of people walking down the street and and I say to someone, "hey, I used to go to school with that guy." and they say back "which one?." and I say "The black one." Then it is politically incorrect. There is no need for me to identify him by his colour. I could of identified him as the one on the left,..the one in brown trousers,..the one with the shaved head, the one with brief case,..the one with his arm around the girl...There is a a myriad of ways I could have identified him..but I choose to identify him by his race....honestly, you live in America..you people coined the phase 'politically incorrect.'

Squire

Squire

I'm lost
November 2003

OCT 03, 2007 03:55 AM

Kanner said:

Squire said:

I have an Native American friend who says that only guilt-ridden white people use the term Native American.



This post deserves an award for outstanding use of irony. =)



*takes a bow*

Clidna

Clidna

Canada
January 2005

OCT 06, 2007 01:43 AM

A black guy, a white guy, and an Indian guy were sitting around having a beer, and they all decided that people spend way too much time worrying about what they should call people.

Next thing you know, we won't be able to use, blonde, brunette, or redhead to describe somebody... it might offend someone. I think whether or not you use a physical attribute to describe a person very much depends on the context that it's used in. If it is used in a derogetory manner then it is inappropriate. I don't get offended if someone calls me white. But if they were using my skin colour to try and make a disparaging comment to or about me, obviously that would be different.

Shellyangel

Shellyangel

I'm lost
January 2007

OCT 07, 2007 07:17 PM

Ridiculous. I just don't understand what is wrong with people these days.

The news seems to be nothing short of littered by articles about people getting drunk, breaking into museums, and destroying priceless paintings... Jealous ex's (an off-duty cop, no less) shooting his friends when he didn't get an invitation to a pizza/movie party... Mothers either chopping the limbs off of their children and wondering why they're STILL crying, or just microwaving them in order to shut them up.. And that's of course when they aren't killing pregnant women and 'stealing' their unborn babies, then claiming them as their own.

Society today just boggles me. Perplexes me. Disgusts me.
puke

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