A US judge sentenced teenage vandals to read books. This is what happened next

[Bayard]

Juvenile crime presents a challenge for judicial systems the world over. Are severe punishments for delinquent behaviour the answer, or should lawmakers and judges focus on more progressive policies to help young people turn their lives around?

Alejandra Rueda, a prosecutor and deputy commonwealth attorney in Loudoun County, Virginia, clearly believes in the latter.
Two years ago, Rueda was faced with the case of five boys aged 16 and 17 who admitted spraying racist graffiti - including swastikas - on a historic 19th-century schoolhouse.

The schoolhouse had special significance because it was the former Ashburn Colored School, which was attended by black children during segregation in Northern Virginia. The local community was outraged by the attack but Rueda wanted to know more about why the teenagers had done it.

None had been in trouble before and she realised they did not fully appreciate the significance of the symbols and language they had used.

Unusual sentence

So she persuaded judge Avelina Jacob to accept her plan based on a list of 35 books, including The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Each young offender was ordered to choose 12 from the list and write a monthly essay about each of their chosen texts.

Some writers were not convinced by the sentence. Speaking to the The New York Times, Marilyn Nelson, whose poem about the murder of a black teenager, A Wreath for Emmett Till, was not included, asked: “Will kids punished by being made to read poetry ever read poetry again?”

The boys also had to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Museum of American History's exhibition about the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. They then completed a final essay about what they had learned.


Full reading list at link

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/this-is-what-happened-when-a-us-judge-sentenced-teenage-vandals-to-read-books/

[Me.]

1. Excellent Reading List

[zipplewrath]

3. My only observation

All of them were fiction. There are a few very good nonfiction books on the topic. Ralph Abernathy's book comes to mind.

[NewJeffCT]

7. The Rape of Nanking is non fiction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_Nanking_(book)

Though, I think the rest are fiction.

[murielm99]

9. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

is biography. So is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, although it qualifies as science, too.

A Hope in the Unseen is a novelized biography.

This is a wonderful reading list.

I would add Weasel, by Cynthia DeFelice. It is a shocking YA book. When I brought it home for my oldest daughter, I told her that under no circumstances was she to leave it around for her little sister to pick up. I knew my kids, and I knew my seven year old was not ready for that book.

[mainer]

10. In many ways, fiction might be a better way to get across the message

Kids might be more drawn in by the fictional characters and their ordeals against an historical background, than by the history itself.

[Me.]

18. That's What I Think Too

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. Fiction helps build empathy. nt

[Clash City Rocker]

27. The Banality of Evil was about Adolf Eichmann

Reading it might help you to understand some Trump supporters better, assuming that’s something you would want to do.

[onethatcares]

2. haven't read the entire article, but

I thoroughly believe that if you hear something, are made to read it, then write it down, your thoughts will be deeper than you can imagine.

I say, "Way to go, Judge". It was a better approach than tossing them in juvy.

[Dem_4_Life]

21. I agree 100%

What an awesome Judge!

[Mme. Defarge]

4. Merci!

I needed that.

[Duppers]

5. Books!

Last edited Thu May 2, 2019, 04:23 PM - Edit history (1)

She said the boys “needed to open their eyes to the awful things people have done in the name of gender, race and religion. Books are the best way to combat that.”

Amen!

Thanks for posting this, Bayard.


That was a great reading list, btw.

[FakeNoose]

6. I'd like to think the boys' families are supporting this approach as well

Those kids were lucky they got an understanding, proactive judge. It's the ultimate "teaching moment" that can hopefully change five lives.

[lunatica]

8. For decades I've thought that if High Schools taught racial and gender history

it would have the same effect.

I also believed that reading books like this would make all the difference.

[erronis]

13. But we also know that peer interactions are stronger than parents or schools after about 5yo

I hope these kids are made to do their penance (reading/reviewing) outside of being coerced by other teens and other influencers.

Each child should be able to reach their understanding of the acts and the facts on their own terms.

[lunatica]

16. well that will always be true.

Why give into the minority ignorant racists? They have always been there yet we keep progressing in spite of it.

[mopinko]

20. i agree. my high school reading was very good.

went to an all girl catholic school. sometimes those nuns get uppity.
besides reading 'black like me' and 'a doll's house' they actually taught a class in comparative religion. i'm sure the nuns would be appalled to hear me say, as i have ever since, that it made me realize that god was a human invention.
or maybe not. maybe thoughtful followers was the plan. seems quaint now.

[lunatica]

24. I also think teaching comparative religion is a good idea.

It’s really about learning that diversity is probably the most important human experience possible. The effect will always open your mind to the quality of differences and the sharing of cultural and human similarities.

I can truthfully say that the best thing that ever happened to me is growing up in Mexico as a US Citizen which gave me both cultures as a daily experience. Being bilingual in languages that are distinctly different in emotional and spiritual expression is like living in two distinct worlds at the same time. I wish everyone could feel that because it’s profoundly rich.

[mr_lebowski]

28. 3 years in Hong Kong from 7th-9th grade was definitely a profound learning experience

for this kid.

I'd seen a bit of poverty in Oakland and San Francisco prior to that point, but not a great deal. And of course in the Bay Area I'd grown up with a fair amount of ethnic diversity, but nothing before could've prepared me for life in the most densely populated city in the world, not to mention one of it's most cosmopolitan (even if it's overwhelmingly full of Chinese folks).

At first the culture shock was horrible ... by the time I left and went back 'home', I really didn't want to leave ... primarily the fact that my bio dad and 2 baby (half) brothers were there was the only reason I wasn't totally bummed out to return to life in the US.

Things/people I saw, did and met ... completely changed my outlook on life, for life. No question in my mind.

[lunatica]

29. I grew up in Mexico City which is quite the metropolitan city

I was totally at home traveling around in the city by myself on the buses, even as a kid, sometimes in the company of chickens and other livestock. It was quite normal to me. I thought nothing of it. When I became a teenager sometimes I would get some anti-American treatment but all I had to do was say something in Spanish and the angry looks would vanish. My experiences were pretty much as a mixture of looking American but sounding and in many ways acting like a native. It was interesting.

[Rambling Man]

23. Racism/classism is encoded in the education system DNA

[lunatica]

25. Yes. It's institutionalized and few people realize how

crippling that can be, especially for races that aren’t white. It’s devastating.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. That's a wonderful story.

And a very good way to teach the kids what they did wrong. Far, far better than a jail sentence or community service.

There ought to be more creative sentencing like this, especially with first offenders.

[marble falls]

12. This is how kids can learn empathy, by being exposed to characters they can identify with.

[Mopar151]

14. Engagement!

The reports/essays/reviews have to be a part - in fact the right "Stealth teacher"/mentor could be a major breakthrough for many who lean to the stupid/unthinking/casually destructive.

[iluvtennis]

15. Like this nouveau sentencing. And I read some of the books on the list as a teen/young adult. nt

[catbyte]

19. Another suggestion: "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."

I noticed there were no books by/about Native Americans and our post-invasion experiences.

[Bayard]

22. Indeed

Black Hills, White Justice, and Custer Died For Your Sins are other good ones.

[Sneederbunk]

26. The Ox-Bow Incident.