14-year-old girl shoves hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison

[The Straight Story]

Published on Monday, March 26, 2007.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Source: Chicago Tribune - By Howard Witt

PARIS, Texas -- The public fairgrounds in this small east Texas town look ordinary enough, like so many other well-worn county fair sites across the nation. Unless you know the history of the place.
....

There are the Paris public schools, which are under investigation by the U.S. Education Department after repeated complaints that administrators discipline black students more frequently, and more harshly, than white students.

And then there is the case that most troubles Cherry and leaders of the Texas NAACP, involving a 14-year-old black freshman, Shaquanda Cotton, who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun.

The youth had no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured. But Shaquanda was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.

Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.


http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=2729

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. I knew she was African-American before I even opened the OP

*sigh* :(

[Juche]

6. Same here

Call it what you will, but I figured it was in the south and the girl was black based on the title.

[rAVES]

15. exactly my first thought

[depakid]

30. Just as I knew it HAD to be from Texas

or Florida.

[timtom]

53. That's weird!

I figured it was from a more urban area, like Portland or Eugene.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

58. I thought the same thing.

It seems just when we have the possibility of one of the biggest steps towards racial equality in our country; the powers that be, want to sever relations so intensively by November, elections may come down to a race war.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but this could be politically motivated. :mad:

[Iris]

38. damn

me, too.

why?

[awoke_in_2003]

40. I thought the same thing

it is a very sad thing.

[BlooInBloo]

42. Duh.

[Ilsa]

50. Me too. There is little fairness or justice for African Americans

in Texas IMO, and yes, I live in TX.

I hope her atty can appeal this back out for review of her sentence. It's outrageous.

[medeak]

2. this happened 2 yrs ago?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaquanda_Cotton

[The Straight Story]

8. 2 yrs, 1 year, whatever

I found it on stumble :) it still sucks ass.

[parasim]

3. Wow, times sure are a-changing.

When I was a kid, shoving a hall monitor got you a trip to the principle's office and maybe a sentence of having to sit in a room by yourself for the rest of the day or writing something on the blackboard a hundred times.

[bellasgrams]

18. There used to be some roughhousing but I think kids have gotten

much more violent today. Just this week we've had an 11 yr old attack and bloodly a security guard, and 3rd grade class plot to stab their teacher. If parents don't teach respect for others the kids won't have it and will get in trouble. Most of the kids in trouble have parents who defend them regardless what the kid has done. That is not right.

[parasim]

33. Yeah, I know... I'm old. But even my kids, who are in their 20's now didn't do that kinda shit

What's up with this violent stuff today? Are all kids acting out Grand Theft Auto these days? Yikes.

I do agree, it's up to the parents. and it is not right that these parents defend their kids when there are these kinds of violent things being done by their kids. But, why is it happening? Why are parents so lax in teaching their kids that they shouldn't engage in such activity? What the hell is going on in this world?

but still, isn't this just a case of shoving somebody? what's with the 7 year sentence? I know kids are more violent these days, but geez...

[pscot]

39. I don't know about that

I knew a guy who got suspended his freshman year in high-school for defenestrating a teacher. That was in a small, mid-west town back in the supposedly placid mid-fifties.

[parasim]

41. He tossed someone out a window and only got suspended?

wow... now, that may have been a tad too lenient. At least in my town it would have been. I mean, where i grew up, he would have at the very least been expelled...

[HysteryDiagnosis]

26. Perhaps in another 10 years we will have lethal injection for

such an offense. Homeland security and all that ya know.

[LakeSamish706]

4. Is this for real? That is absolutely frickin nuts... I certainly hope this is being appealed!

This Judge has to be brought into the light here and thrown out on his/her ear.

[Buns_of_Fire]

77. "Defenestrated," as it were...

(Yeah, I had to look it up...)

[marshall]

5. There are a few details they left out

Parents are a big part of the legal rights afforded to children in such cases. Shaquanda's mother refused to negotiate with the local authorities. The parents of the un-named white girl (who were also the victims) actively sought a plea agreement.

Not that it's right, but the courts would have had to have had Shaquanda's mother removed as her legal guardian in order to get her fair treatment. Sometimes that is called for, but it is a big step to take.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

9. Maybe her mother had good reason to not want to negotiate with the authorities

Maybe she or people she knew had had bad experiences with them before. This does not justify what happened here.

[marshall]

16. She did have her reasons

Unfortunately they conflicted with the best interest of her child. In this case I think the court should have stepped in and appointed another guardian to handle the girl's legal matters.

[Pale Blue Dot]

If that's the case, then it's wrong.

Period.

[varkam]

12. The question of plea agreements aside...

the punishment must still fit the crime. 7 years for shoving a hall monitor is, in my view, excessive.

Also, I don't think that the courts would remove the guardian unless there was reason to suspect abuse or neglect - but that's just AFAIK.

[Joe Chi Minh]

78. ANY imprisonment is just surreal! It simply couldn't happen anywhere else in the world.

Even the UK!!!! Even in the most overtly and harshly totalitarian countries in the world, it would be unthinkable.

And there was I thinking it was only the delinquent youngsters we read so much about, who no longer had a rock-bottom limit to the depth of their sickness and criminality! Just unbelievable.

What does "pushing" constitute in law? Assault and battery? Affray? Actual bodily harm? Grievous bodily harm? Because she was a child, do not the courts function on the same basis of codified laws? while imposing the harshest of adult penalties, it seems.

If juvenile courts are allowed greater discretionary powers than strict adherence to the law would allow, surely, it should be solely for the purpose of dealing with matters that do not attain the standard of the least serious misdemeanour, and the sanctions imposed, commensurately low-key. But how ON EARTH how could this ever have amounted to a matter for the courts, anyway?

Bring in old Vern, Bill Clinton's pal.

[TomInTib]

13. Good point. The System will work for those who work with it.

Judges have little patience with defendants in a situation such as that.

[Pithlet]

17. I don't think that completely accounts for such a huge discrepancy.

There's no doubt that factors like that can affect a case's outcome, but 7 years is such a huge overreaction. It also doesn't explain the fact that black students in that district are punished more severely. I think it's clear that racism is a factor, and that it seriously needs to be addressed in that district.

[Joe Chi Minh]

59. I beleive her mother was also a tad radical - which didn't go down well

with those low-lifes.

[medeak]

20. interesting... we all need to research before getting hysterical n/t

[Pithlet]

27. What could we possibly unearth in any research

that would justify 7 years in prison for a 14 year old pushing a hall monitor? This story isn't new. I'm willing to bet many who are outraged in this thread are probably not overreacting, as it's probably not the first time they've heard about it. I've read about this case before, and the investigation into this district. It really is that outrageous.

[marshall]

28. I live in the area.

I agree there are problems. Certainly the girl should not have been thrown in jail for this. But I think the comparison between the two cases is not fair. The victims in the white girl's case were the parents. It is a whole different dynamic than to have the victim be an school employee. I'm not sure about in other states, but in Texas if a child in school pushes or hits an adult employed by the school, whether they are teacher, aide, lunch lady, security guard, etc., the charge is harsher than if they had just pushed some stranger on the street.

Also some schools here are having discipline problems that they just don't know how to deal with. My mother was a city judge in a rural Texas town and she was flabbergasted by the number of times junior high and high school children appeared before her involving things that had happened at school. She said back in her day this sort of thing (if it happened at all) would have been handled at school or with a call to the parents. But now the schools are bringing in the police.

[medeak]

29. can relate

my Mom was a high school counselor and locked herself and a student in a locker to save their lives during a riot...and this was decades ago.

edited to say...the student was a black cheerleader and they were gunning for her as not black enough. Horrible times back then..hopefully things have changed.

[screembloodymurder]

23. Yea, the white folk could afford a lawyer.

But that black girl just threw herself on the mercy of the American justice system.

[file83]

44. Being RICH and white didn't hurt either.

[varkam]

7. And people say racism doesn't exist...

K&R

[tkmorris]

10. She was released in March 2007

It still sucks but, it has been corrected.

[medeak]

19. thanks... link? n/t

[tkmorris]

37. Here

http://skepticalbrotha.wordpress.com/2007/04/01/shaquanda-cotton-released/

[medeak]

43. am confused

thanks for the link!!!

but about this?

On Thursday, Young’s official Web site contained this assertion: “This juvenile’s mother (Creola Cotton) told the judge she would not comply with conditions of probation.”

But a review of the full court transcript shows no such testimony. In fact, Creola Cotton repeatedly answered “yes” when asked in court whether she would comply with any conditions of probation that the judge might impose.

On Friday morning, after an inquiry about this discrepancy by the Tribune, the district attorney’s Web site was altered to read: “Through her actions of non-cooperation, Ms. Cotton told the judge she would not comply with conditions of probation.”

[cigsandcoffee]

11. She should have been expelled, IMO, but prison is way OTT. n/t

[Joe Chi Minh]

60. Expelled. As I recall, it was reported that she needed to get past

her ladyship to get urgent medication for diabetes or some such. Was that the case, or a I mistaken.

In any case, why was her mother expected to pick her up from the prison, when it was clear from the official's order that he considered that she should not have been incarcerated?

[stellanoir]

14. this is bs

[Kitty Herder]

21. That is so incredibly f***ed up! nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

22. Another teacher friend of mine has decided to give up teaching

I'm a former teacher, and a civil rights proponent. However, the lack of discipline I've seen in schools, be they black or white schools, in the U.S. is shocking to my system. It's the reason I'm a former and not a current teacher. I taught in Europe. BIG difference. When I returned from teaching in Europe, which was a pleasure, I tried to teach here. It was horrendous. I tried to hang on, but ultimately gave up. I was actually AFRAID of teaching students here. Kids here in the U.S. behave like cattle, be they white, black, red, green, yellow or blue, and I swear I don't understand why. Perhaps someone could explain it to me. I'm not quite sure where it all went wrong, but discipline has disappeared from classrooms and no longer exists. Kids are running the classrooms, and they're as wild and whacko as the kids in Lord of the Flies. Teachers are now in danger. Teachers I know have been HIT by students, threatened by students, and again I repeat, this includes black and white teachers, and black and white students. I taught at a white school here, and a mixed school. In both, the kids were equally horrific. I can't say one was worse than the other. Both were BAD!

Whereas I AGREE that there is a difference in the treatment of blacks and whites in this country, I see this news story less about civil rights than about a country gone wrong, where schools are like zoos, where wild animals are caged. How could kids learn? Teachers are increasingly abandoning their careers for something safer. If something doesn't change, I don't know what will become of this place.

[tblue37]

31. I have a site called _Teacher, Teacher_, where I post my

rants about education in the US. You might like to read an article I wrote in 2003, "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum":
http://www.teacherblue.homestead.com/inmates.html

Another article written about the same time, posted on another of my sites, is "American Kids Really Have Changed":
http://www.childrensneeds.homestead.com/rudekids.html

(I have taught college English since 1972, but I also ran a home daycare for 18 years--while still teaching college English--and have done a fair amount of volunteer teaching and paid substitute teaching in our local elementary schools.)

[Sarah Ibarruri]

47. Thank you so much! Great post.. The parents are indeed to blame.

They are and have been raising a generation of brats, wimps, whackos, spoiled little monsters who get their way no matter what, and who are taught (again by the parents) to disrespect every adult, no matter who it is, good or bad. I will never teach in this country again. Kids are being raised in this country to be monsters. Small wonder people grow up to vote for assholes like Bush and Cheney, and have an educational level that is embarrassing compared to all other advanced nations.

[tavalon]

52. It's children raising children

Have you met an adult lately? And no, I don't mean a child in adult skin - that's what most of the last few generations of Americans have been (I can't speak for the rest of the world nor even for my fellow DUers - I'm speaking of my personal observations that, if you are honest, you likely share). Soft, lazy and spoiled so they raised soft, lazy and spoiled children who went on to..... you get the idea. It's like Lord Of The Flies, American Style.

It's really, really hard, mostly ungratified work actually being an adult, much less an adult parent, especially when there are few to no role models for such a thing. I've spent a decade off and on, in therapy and probably read a few hundred self help books and even I have to work constantly to make even an approximation of being an adult. My parents were children of alcoholics and so am I. And those of you who don't have such a past have parents who had ____________ addiction or they were working so much that you ended up being raised by ? And so on. Show me a person who says they aren't faking adulthood most of the time and I'll show you a liar. There is next to no one out there who knows how to competently raise a child to adulthood and not surprisingly, there are few competent adults and many out of control children.


I'm not giving any parents a pass here, nor their children but the problem is much, much bigger - it's societal. It's the end point of a mad, mad world, where prozac and reality TV is substituted for generational learning and honest sweat. Do we really think the nuclear family was ever a good idea, even though less than 20 percent of us actually live that "ideal"? The people from our distant past were not stupid - they really did get that it takes a village to raise a child. But these days, day care and TV substitute for that. Now, who are the smart ones?

The children are just being children and they need guidance, but instead they get pills. They are screaming for attention but instead they get Dancing With The Stars. They are just one of the canaries in the coal mine. We are dying as a society and the children are trying, in their childish way, to let us know. But, we aren't hearing them and they ARE being left behind in our childish wake.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

69. Yeah kinda! American society has gone to hell.

Here's why I think it happened. Sprawl (the destruction of the train, destruction of cities and tight, small towns, and the rise of the ever-expanding jobless suburb monsters which last about 30 years before they become tenement slums and then get deserted) has distanced families, destroyed any semblance of neighborhoods, and our only "community" or "extended family" now left are churches we drive to on Sundays, which are fucked up right wing places themselves and definitely no role model to speak of. No one can truly, truly count on family or friends if the going gets tough because they are as isolated as anyone else, and about 500 miles away.

Kids nowadays are the victims of being raised stupid and violent by stupid, violent parents and a stupid, violent society. The other day I watched an episode of Law & Order which dealt with street kids..... Street kids live in a world with few rules, chaotic, mentally ill. As a result, these street kids are out only and exclusively for themselves, break things, steal things, hurt others and themselves, and have no respect for anything or for themselves. They're extremely angry, unable to focus, and their emotions are completely out of whack. They go from hysterical laughter to weeping, and get very upset when things don't go their way. Many of those behaviors are visible in any American school today.

[tblue37]

56. I have a number of other articles that might interest you

on those two sites. On the same Who’s Minding the Children site where I posted the “American Children really Have Changed” piece, I have one entitled “Irresponsible Parents” that speaks directly to your comment about parents not allowing anyone to correct their kids, no matter how outrageous their behavior:
http://www.childrensneeds.homestead.com/irresponsibleparents.html

The article index for that site is http://www.childrensneeds.homestead.com/articleindex.html

The article index for the Teacher, Teacher site is http://www.teacherblue.homestead.com/index.html.homestead.com/irresponsibleparents.html

(BTW, I actually have 10 public sites where I post articles on different topics. The homepage of each site has links to the homepages of all my other sites, in case you are interested.)

[Sarah Ibarruri]

70. You're amazing! I'm going to start sending your links around.

People need to read these ideas. They're right on point!!

[tblue37]

71. Thanks, Sarah! n/t

[medeak]

34. school librarian friend was stabbed

in school parking lot while unloading books from her car... she's never recovered emotionally from it. The shyest most demure person you could imagine. Between my Mom and her..don't have much sympathy for out of control students. Believe me...no one was outraged over what happened to HER.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

46. I believe it. Kids are INSANE nowadays! What on earth is going on? nt

[Fumesucker]

48. When the leaders and the government act lawlessly..

Why should we expect the children to act any differently?

Your comment about "Lord of the Flies" was telling I think.

Respect for the law and authority is earned, not given, and our leaders are not earning respect.

Torture, shredding the Constitution, aggressive, unprovoked war.. All of these things effect our children.

Even at West Point instructors are having a hard time getting it across to senior cadets that torture is illegal and unethical, the cadets say "what about 24?".

If senior cadets at West Point are morally confused, why should we expect younger and usually less intelligent children to be otherwise?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

49. Leaders can be assholes, or leaders can be nice....

If you look at past years, you'll find that kids did not behave like assholes in the classrooms. I have no choice but to believe those kids are emulating the ridiculous and pointless behavior of their parents, who then treat these kids like a bunch of Little Lord Fauntleroy bullies, dull, stupid, spoiled brats with the personality of a river rat.

[libnnc]

57. as a sub, I was shoved by an ROTC student

He was in uniform too. He wanted to leave class early and I stood in the doorway. He just looked me dead in the eye and shoved me aside. I called the office to report it and filled out some lame-assed piece of paper. I don't think they did anything to him. I should have just called his ROTC instructor and skipped the office part. I won't sub anymore.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

64. That's the problem. They do NOTHING to kids nowadays. There are no punishments nt

[LanternWaste]

61. the conclusion I came to was this--

I subbed for a six years in the mid-late nineties and the conclusion I came to was this--

For whatever reasons, the vast majority of parents believe that the education system should also act as moral counselor, babysitter, food provider, entertainment system, and teen court in addition to merely providing education.

It was an overwhelming period for me-- seeing so many youths with absolutely no one to turn to, taught by pop culture to neither trust nor respect anyone in positions of authority, and in the end, projecting this onto the only targets available-- each other and the teachers.

Too many parents abrogated their own responsibilities and willingly gave them to a school system that is simply not designed for the additional tasks.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

65. You're absolutely right! However....

not only have parents abrogated their responsibilities, but also they spoil the children, teach them to disrespect everyone, and defend them when they act like animals. Also, schools no longer inflict any punishment. For example, prohibiting students from attending the prom, etc. Through not punishing, kids now have begun to gang up Lord of the Flies style, against the entirety of the school administration, and their parents either find it amusing, or do nothing.

[Joe Chi Minh]

63. Apparently, it is like that in the UK. Marginalise and oppress a section of

society now, and their behaviour will deteriorate beyond belief. New horrors are reported of our young folk - some as young as 4 and 5 - almost daily. Ironically, in a quite real sense, it is a reflection of the white-collar degeneracy and criminality of our governing class, itself.

Government becomes more expensive in so many different ways, the less personal responsibility is exercised by its citizenry. In this regard, from a social angle alone, the loss of the over-arching Christian ethos, which affected everyone without exception for the better in some measure, in that it sustained standards that were felt by all to be minimal, has exacted a terrible price. There are no longer, it seems, minimal standards of behaviour.

Yes, there are right-wingers, in the Daily Mail, in the UK, for instance, who now, all too rightly, wring their hands and deplore the rising tide of anomie, anarchy and chaos, but it was they, themselves, who ushered in this new religion of open-endedly rapacious corporatism-consumerism in the UK and US, via the good offices, respectively, of Thatcher and Reagan.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

68. When I went to school (in the U.S.) there was order

Now there is none. Kids who misbehaved were taken to the principal's office, and to say they got a stern talking-to is an understatement. Now the "little angels'" sensibilities must be protected and no threats made. The most the principal is allowed to do, is to call the parents, who then do absolutely nothing, or blame the school. There was corporal punishment when I went to school, and I disagreed with it back then, and most of my life. Now? Now I'm not so sure I disagree with it anymore. However, the parents of these kids (white and black) are hoodlums of a sort themselves and they want their children to be treated as if they were exemplary kids, which they aren't. Kids here are being raised like animals, really. Someone in here recommended the book, "A Nation of Wimps" http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20041112-000010.html. I think it might explain the monsters parents have created and sent out into life to torture other students and adults.

[Joe Chi Minh]

72. Yes, and it's the same in the UK. A nightmare scenario, from which it's

difficult to envisage anything but endless further deterioration.

Neither our rulers, nor the children's parents, nor even these days their grandparents, in much of the country, seem able to exemplify a better standard of behaviour, never mind prescribe a better one for their young charges.

I see the Chinese rulers are very wisely setting about promoting the teaching of Confucianism again - which, together with their Communist ethos, had created such a happy and law-abiding society there, before Adam Smiths' "vile masters of mankind" in the West were able to wreak their evil way upon the country. It was fascinating listening to people who had lived and worked in China at that time, such as school teachers, waxing so lyrical about it, in TV interviews.

Unfortunately, Communism is not an option in the post-Christian West, since we have made such a poor fist of Christianity, even Socialism in the UK, without its early Christian founders, has been subverted and depraved.

It is interesting that one of the Apostle's - I think it was Paul, was told by the Holy Spirit not to go into Asia at that time. And I find it difficult, in the light of that information concerning the sane and decent-sounding society China used to enjoy not so long ago, to escape the conclusion that God wanted us to be able to see such a far superior standard of pagan behaviour, in order to show us how far we have departed from Christ's teachings, plummeting, as we are, into this anomie and chaos. And plain lack of the most elementary common sense. Even the dumb beasts discipline their young, and the latter know it's not from malice, and so, occasionally, even make a game of winding up their Ma and jumping out of the way.

Even so, the thought of the kind of stresses these delinquent parents and their children are now subject to each day in their social environments, ultimately, on account of criminally larcenous and derelict government, makes your hair stand on end. Bullying, the law of the jungle, seems to be the order of the day, at every level of society.

[Joe Chi Minh]

76. I hasten to add that I don't believe that physical punishment by parents should be required,

but it's not an ideal world, and I should think that in many families it would be a very useful (not to say, public-spirited) recourse, provided it's done "with love", and not brutally from malice. It is surely all the more necessary for the boys in the school environment where, even in a saner and less stressed age, it served to maintain a measure of discipline.

The sad thing is of course that, even then, indeed surely at all times, when it was used by teachers, individuals would abuse it. I remember from my primary-school days, seeing a young female teacher smack a lad round the face very hard for no reason that I could make out. And, of course, the brutality of the punishments meted out in many Catholic schools pre-Vatican II, is now the stuff of legend, but how could it not have been so, when the Church of the day effectively sponsored the most vicious fascist dictatorships.

[HanoverFist]

74. I used to be a Teacher...

...but had to quit because of the stress of having to deal with violent and disruptive kids. I taught for four years at a Texas high-school and it was a nightmare.

I had a 20 year old sophomore who worked at a local all-nude strip-club. He routinely scouted the high-school for new girls to work there, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. (I tried! I spoke many times with both his Assistant Principal, counselor, and our Principal. No luck. He was legally employed, and his parents didn't care, because his dad was the manager. I finally had to tell him to leave and not come back for answering on a test that I "sucked dick". He didn't come back.)

I had another student who exposed himself to my class as I was escorting him out of the room because he was cheating. In spanish (thinking I did not understand) he told the rest of the class that I was going to blow him. After I filled out a disciplinary referral and a police report he was back in my room the following week. The principal refused to do anything about it and even accused me of trying to "dump my problem on another teacher". How was I supposed to expect any respect from that class after that?

I also carried a gun to school for about 5 months because there was a student who routinely followed me after school making vague threats. The police told me that there was nothing they could do unless he actually attacked me or there were witnesses to his threats. So I broke the law and carried on campus. As a friend of mine (a former prosecutor here in Texas) told me: "It's better to be judged by twelve than carried by six." Thankfully, he ended up getting sent to juvenile detention for something unrelated to me and thus the situation was defused.

These are only three examples of why I left teaching, and I am a damn good teacher. I miss teaching terribly, but I just cannot afford the stress at this point in my life.

[Xithras]

81. I see it even at the college level. Difference is, I can hit back here.

I've had more than one cocky student walk into my classroom and try to treat me the same way they've treated teachers for the past 12. It doesn't last long. When they get here, they're adults. If respect isn't given in the classroom, I permanently eject students after a single warning. If they refuse to leave or become belligerent, I can call campus security. Typically that leads to their permanent removal from the school.

Kids who come into the colleges expecting to treat instructors with the same disrespect usually get some reality knocked into them pretty quickly. Higher education isn't compulsory, we don't have to put up with their crap, and they're adults. That last one is especially important when a student attempts to get physical...it means that we can legally strike back as needed to defend ourselves. It's not a common problem for me since I teach compsci, but many kids here in California require remedial general ed classes before they can really move onto college level classes. Those instructors are usually the ones who get the brunt of this.

[cascadiance]

24. And just this week Brent Wilkes gets freed on bail AFTER he's convicted awaiting appeal...

... where the judge used the rationale that he expects to get a light sentence or have his case dismissed as a reason to let him out of prison!

We have no morals in our system of justice!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3248064

[Recursion]

25. The subject told me she was African-American

How utterly un-surprised I was to see that confirmed.

[havocmom]

32. Judge needs to go

[superkia]

35. How did we all become so passive that our government that we...

run :rofl: is allowed to continue to beat us all down as humans. Just because we aren't one of the elite, we don't have millions, we mean nothing to the system, what the F#$&!

[malaise]

36. But but but

She should shut up and live Pat Buchanan's American dream - fugging ingrate just like Rev. Wright. :sarcasm:

[lonestarnot]

45. WTF! Is there more to this story? This is insane.

[samsingh]

51. this is a true travasty of justice it seems

[LeftishBrit]

54. This sounds really unjust...

Disciplinary action (e.g. suspension) by the school would be one thing, but 7 years in prison - I don't think so!!!

Could there be something not mentioned in the story; e.g. that this was part of a series of threats against the monitor? If there is no such factor, then the judge is a power freak and probably a racist, and should be removed from any post where he has power over children's lives.

[Joanne98]

55. Oh isn't that a disgrace!

[Beaverhausen]

62. She was released last April- after spending one year in prison

still too much, but lets get the story straight.

[The Straight Story]

67. Thanks for the updated info

Just posted what I saw :)

[ShaneGR]

66. Reminds me of the early 60s in the deep south

Feds need to step in on this kind of thing and expose it.

[Elspeth]

73. It starts in the AA community and then goes mainstream

But whites believe they are immune and that if it happens to blacks, it will never happen to them. That's how precedent for taking everyone's civil liberties gets started.

This needs to be fought NOW.

Maybe Obama could address this?

[The Traveler]

75. Perhaps the Rev Wright's comments

are more understandable in the context provided by events such as those described in this post.

Seriously. With shit like this going on, why the hell am I supposed to believe that Wright's comments are so outrageous?

Even Kid Rock gets it ... from "Amen" ...

And how can we seek salvation when our nations race relations
Got me feeling guilty of being white

Well, I'm not ashamed of being white ... but neither am I able to reach so deeply into a well of denial about these matters. Anyone who thinks there is equal justice in operation in this country just doesn't want to see what is happening.

We know what we gotta do to fix this. Let's fix this.

[fascisthunter]

79. That Judge Deserves 7 Years in a Mental Institution

[dogday]

80. The freaking school system is Texas sux

They have some f-up rules... That is exactly why I pulled my daughter out.. The blow things way out of proportion...