WTF: Cops Nab 5-Year-Old for Wearing Wrong Color Shoes to School

[cali]

In Mississippi, if kindergarteners violates the dress code or act out in class, they may end up in the back of a police car.

A story about one five-year-old particularly stands out. The little boy was required to wear black shoes to school. Because he didn’t have black shoes, his mom used a marker to cover up his white and red sneakers. A bit of red and white were still noticeable, so the child was taken home by the cops.

The child was escorted out of school so he and his mother would be taught a lesson.

Ridiculous? Perhaps. But incidents such as this are happening across Mississippi. A new report, “Handcuffs on Success: The Extreme School Discipline Crisis in Mississippi Public Schools,” exposes just how bad it’s become.

<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/wtf-cops-nab-five-old-wearing-wrong-color-203600800.html

[newfie11]

1. This is cruel and STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Poor kid.

[FleetwoodMac]

2. This is unbelieveable..

You'd expect something like this from the Onion.
Man...

[dipsydoodle]

3. Absurd

[cali]

4. Mississippi

[dipsydoodle]

7. You doubtless appreciate

that being UK I'm unable to relate directly to the antics of various states. In this case if the child had no black shoes its probably a matter of affordability for the family . As such this equates to punishing the poor.

[CreekDog]

8. I don't believe someone interested in American politics hasn't heard of Mississippi

you've been posting here a long time, often with strong opinions on lots of issues.

the idea that you are doing this credibly while not being familiar with Mississippi strains credibility to the breaking point.

[geckosfeet]

20. I don't know. I have an interest in international politics and I couldn't tell you squat

about the internal working of most countries - including GB.

[CreekDog]

36. this person posts continually on American domestic politics

they should know the topic they are posting about.

and they frequently give a hard time to members here over policies they aren't familiar with.

[cartach]

22. You've posted more and

he/she didn't say anything about not being familiar with, or not having heard of Mississippi. The term used I believe, amounted to "unable to relate directly to" which has an obvious different meaning. Suggest you take a refresher course in English or more likely,curb your desire to put down someone who has probably taken the opposite tack to you in the past.

[Scootaloo]

9. As Cali said... Mississippi

"Punishing the poor" is a long Southern tradition.

[madrchsod]

12. read this all you`ll see why cops arrest children with the wrong shoes

http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/11/school_prison_pipeline_meridian.html

[UnrepentantLiberal]

14. Jesus Christ

This practice has also appeared to target black students. Meridian, a city of 40,000 people, is 61 percent African-American. But over a five-year period, Owens said, “There was never once a white kid that was expelled or suspended for the same offense that kids of color were suspended for.”

Among the infractions that landed Green, who is black, in juvenile detention were talking back to a teacher, wearing long socks and coming to school without wearing a belt. He was behind bars for stretches of time as long as two weeks, and the real rub, his mother Gloria said, is that weekends didn’t count as days served. A 10-day suspension stretched to 14 actual days; time for Meridian juvenile justice officials apparently stopped on weekends. All that back and forth out of school and in juvenile took a real toll on Green’s education, and he was held back from the eighth grade.

“It was mind-boggling,” Gloria Green said. “My son loved school and to be kicked out as much as he was, one year he just couldn’t catch up.”

“We did everything we know to do. I went over to the school and got make-up work, and he still failed two subjects and at that point I didn’t know which way what my child was going to go.”

[Heidi]

17. That should be a thread of its own.

Thank you, madrchsod!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

25. Do you have similar places or divisions?

Would someone read a stupid story, then say something like "Hmmph. Essex. It figures."?

[dipsydoodle]

28. No - that's the point

National is national here although there might be slight policy differences between the countries which make up the UK. I sincerely doubt that anything like the subject of the OP would be likely to occur here.

[OldDem2012]

44. I'm shocked you seem to know so little about the country in which you allegedly live....

....here's a good summary about racism in the UK from medieval times until current day:

Racism in the United Kingdom

You may want to reconsider your original premise.

[dipsydoodle]

45. My reply

was to #25 in context of treatment of school children - the subject of the OP..

[OldDem2012]

50. It doesn't appear that you read the link in my post. You really should read it....

....because it is extremely relevant to the discussion in this thread despite your attempt to brush it off. You can't address any question involving racism in the US without first addressing the fact that racism exists in the UK.

Allow me to be even more direct. The UK has a major problem with racism and appears to be doing very little about it. In fact, the UK appears to be drifting toward an unofficial policy of apartheid. Your claim that nothing could happen in the UK similar to what happened to a 5-year-old in a school in Mississippi is ludicrous given the worsening racial atmosphere in the UK.

[dipsydoodle]

51. You originally referred to " the country in which you allegedly live"

I'm 69 and was born in Wembley 1943 while the flying bombs were dropping WW2. I am more aware of the situation here than you are ever likely to be unless you have also been here of all that time. Problems here are dwarfed by issues in the USA.

The wiki article you used purposely avoids other equally serious racial issues here between Blacks/Pakistanis/Indians etc. in various combinations. That link along with others referring to Bradford, Brixton etc has been used here many times in the past but you may not have been here around long enough to know that.

"drifting toward an unofficial policy of apartheid" is a ridiculous statement.

[OldDem2012]

53. You appear to be in a serious state of denial about the racial issues in your own country.....

....while continuing to point a finger at the racist environment in the US.

Just curious, but where do you think the US inherited their earliest attitudes about race? The American colonists didn't just arrive here and suddenly decide to treat other humans in the most horrific way possible. No, they brought those attitudes with them from the countries of their origin, primarily England. In fact, the area known as Britannia was practicing slavery long before the Romans arrived.

And no, the UK "drifting toward an unofficial policy of apartheid" is NOT a ridiculous statement. It's only ridiculous when viewed by someone who refuses to accept the idea that extreme racism exists in the UK, equal to or worse than that which exists in the US. You evidently feel compelled to comment about racism in the US but you don't like it when similar comments are made by Americans about the racist environment that exists in the UK.

As far as WWII is concerned, I'm 62, and my late Dad, his brother, my wife's two brothers, and my wife's uncle all fought during WWII, with my wife's uncle paying the ultimate price during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest in November 1944.

[tblue37]

38. We are the UNITED *STATES*, and the states are in many ways

"sovereign." In fact, they are referred to AS sovereign states, though the growth of centralized federal power has reduced the scope of states' rights since the Civil War.

England is not a country comprised of united sovereign states the way we are, so I can see why someone from England would not understand how far apart our cultural practices can be from region to region. Our state difference are not quite like the differences between sovereign states in the European Union, since we do have a shared language (more or less) and a shared history (more or less). I guess our federal union of sovereign states is sort of halfway between a single truly unified nation and an economic union like the European Union.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Evil. Hope this story gets the attention it surely deserves. n/t

[AngryOldDem]

6. Jeebus.

Just be glad the kid was in school, for Crissakes!

[Raster]

10. Let me guess: African-American child, white school administrators.

And yes, in a word: Mississippi.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

13. That was my first question.

[KamaAina]

37. Public schools in Mississippi are predominantly African American

Most white kids go to private "segregation academies" that sprung up throughout the state as soon as court-ordered integration was enforcede.

At least one segregation academy has now integrated -- because they wanted an African American football player!

[Raster]

56. "...because they wanted an African American football player!"

Mississippi or Utah?

[Prometheus Bound]

11. That's why we have cops. To protect us from evildoers.

[Demo_Chris]

15. Hey now, it's not like they Tazed the little hoodlum

[cartach]

24. Or dragged him,

behind a pickup truck. They usually wait till they're a little older. Sick,sick South.

[avebury]

16. Horrible!

Such rules can flat out penalize poor people who may not be able to afford to buy clothes and shoes that meet the school's dress code.

[Are_grits_groceries]

18. This makes me see purple.

You do NOT do that to kids! It's bad enough when adults are dragged in on sorry ass reasons. That kid should never have seen the back seat of a police car.

And they wonder why they are distrusted?

His Mama was trying her best to do right. This is not her shame. I will send some form of support to her when I find a legitimate source to get it to her. She was trying dammit!

[ReRe]

19. That isn't an education system...

K&R

...it's a penal system. This saddens me to no end. I hope the ACLU and MS NAACP & the other groups can get something done about this, statewide. Hell, if I knew the name of the kid that needs black shoes, I'd send him some shoes myself. Hopefully with the publicity he got them.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

21. At least he didn't have to eat a cheese sandwich... nt

[Comrade_McKenzie]

23. Reminds me of the teacher that wouldn't let me use my crayon box because it was "too big" nt

[sulphurdunn]

26. I've been reading a lot lately

about this sort of thing in Mississippi public schools. If even half of it is true, then the DOJ needs to get involved. About a fifth of school age children meet our poverty standards. That's far and away above any other developed nation. Then there is the matter of our history, our race relations and the decades old assault upon public education. It seems as though the past is just more obviously prologue in a place like Mississippi these days.

[cali]

30. The DOJ is involved

<snip>

The Justice Department, for example, has sued local and state officials in Meridian, Miss., for operating a "school-to-prison pipeline." In Memphis, a blistering report by the Justice Department released last April resulted in officials from Shelby County, the Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court and the Justice Department signing an agreement that commits the court to putting policies in place to end the disproportionate punishment and contact African-American youngsters have with juvenile court.

<snip>

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/jan/22/editorial-critical-report-gives-mississippi-an/

[appleannie1]

27. That is so wrong on so many levels.

[TheOther95Percent]

29. It's a waste of tax dollars to call the po po on a 5 year old for this kind of thing.

The cops don't need to get involved in enforcing the school dress code. Aren't there real crimes that would be a better use of manpower? Extreme punishment for minor infractions is a leftover from the days of slavery. Time to let the plantation system and massa's ways go.

[EarthWindFire]

31. this

is absolutely ridiculous

[unblock]

32. headline should read: "Cops Nab 5-Year-Old for Wearing Wrong Color SKIN to School"

i'm sure you'll be shocked to know that the 5-year-old was black....

[Javaman]

33. militarization of schools and the subjugation of students...

welcome to the future where robots are created and fear is fostered.

[lame54]

34. If he gets sent home - how's he going to learn about creationism?

[slackmaster]

35. You have to nip developing criminality in the bud. Today's 5-year-old wearing the wrong color shoes

...may be tomorrow's terrorist bank robber.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

43. But Patty Hearst's a rich white girl.

Would somebody tell me what that strange looking gun is that she is holding? Thanx.

[Heidi]

48. Wiki says that, according to court testimony, it's a "full auto M1 carbine with sawed-off barrel."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File atty_Hearst.jpg

[Lone_Star_Dem]

39. This is insane.

The police for a infringement of dress code by a 5 year old?! It's not as if his mother didn't try and accommodate the schools rules either. They just weren't satisfied with her attempt.

Something like this should never happen in this country.

[Whovian]

40. And if the child had no shoes?

[yardwork]

41. This makes my heart ache for the little boy and his mother.

I can imagine the mother's desperate efforts to cover up the shoes with a black marker so that he could meet the dress code. And despite her efforts, the cruel school officials discovered that his shoes were white and red under the marker, so they frightened and humiliated the little boy.

It's like something out of Dickens.

[cherokeeprogressive]

42. Good thing he didn't make a finger gun on the playground while wearing the wrong shoes...

Otherwise someone at the school district office might have ordered some cement loafers for him as punishment and made him take a long walk on a short pier.

[whistler162]

46. Of course the actual title is...

"School authorities send child home. Police officer escorts child safely home."

Since it was the school authorities that made the rule and sent the child home!

But, what the heck it is easier to bash the police officer.

[cali]

47. sorry, sweetie but that's bullshit. I copied the titled and story verbatim

and when you click the link that is CLEARLY demonstrated. Howfuckingever, if I had wished to change the title, I damned well could have. Furthermore, if you knew anything at all about this situation in Mississippi, you would know that the criminalization of school children is of such concern that the DOJ has accused the state of running a "school to prison pipeline". Yes, dear that's a fucking quote.

[RandiFan1290]

49. Don't fool yourselves

The limo "libs" love this shit, too. They don't want your kids to compete with theirs.
A lot of them on DU made that perfectly clear in a private school thread a few months back.

Most of them are now lining up with the republicans to make a killing on the charter school scam.

[Odin2005]

52. Lemme guess, the boy is black?

[RKP5637]

54. Mississippi, a seat of enlightenment, leading the way ...

[TheKentuckian]

55. Beyond disgusting

Mo desperately trying to color shoes with a marker to meet silly ass uniform dictate and the child's learning is still disrupted.

This country is a fucking mess.