Burn down a house, get probation. Shove a school hall monitor, get 7 years

Parent Cafe
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<p>"In Texas, a white teenager burns down her family’s home and receives probation. A black one shoves a hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison. The state NAACP calls it `a signal to black folks.'</p>

<p>By Howard Witt
Chicago Tribune senior correspondent
Published March 12, 2007</p>

<p>PARIS, Texas --Brenda Cherry, a local civil rights activist, says, she’s begun to wonder whether the racist legacy of … lynchings is rebounding in a place that calls itself “the best small town in Texas…”</p>

<p>There was the 19-year-old white man, convicted last July of criminally negligent homicide for killing a 54-year-old black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck, who was sentenced in Paris to probation and required to send an annual Christmas card to the victims’ family.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family’s house, to probation…</p>

<p>Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who is president of the state NAACP branch [said,] “It’s like they are sending a signal to black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated…”</p>

<p>Link to Chicago Tribune story (requires registration): <a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120170mar12,1,1921178[/url]”>Chicago News - Chicago Tribune - Chicago Tribune;
.story?ctrack=1&cset=true</p>

<p>What the author says about how the story was received:
" every once in a blue moon, you write something that literally explodes across the Internet in ways no one could predict.</p>

<p>That has now happened with a story I wrote two weeks ago, about a 14-year-old black girl from the small Texas town of Paris, who was sent to a youth prison for up to 7 years for shoving a hall monitor at her high school. A 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family’s house, was sentenced by the same Paris judge to probation.</p>

<p>If you had Googled the black girl’s name, Shaquanda Cotton, the day before the story was published on the front page of the March 12 edition of the Tribune, you would have gotten zero results. On Monday afternoon, there were more than 35,000 hits.</p>

<p>The story has been picked up on more than 300 blogs around the country, many of them concerned with African-American affairs. It has generated thousands of postings to Internet message boards…"<a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/070326paris-letter,0,5932965.story??track=sto-relcon”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/070326paris-letter,0,5932965.story??track=sto-relcon</a></p>

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<p>So a girl burning down her own house has something in common with assaulting a hall monitor? The crimes are entirely different: if the white girl had burned down someone else’s house and injured someone at the same time, then maybe I could understand the comparison.</p>

<p>Perhaps Texas is still having trouble with racism, but the NAACP seems to be making a lot of noise about nothing.</p>

<p>NEWSFLASH: Black man runs over son’s dog and receives probation, white man attacks security guard and receives prison sentence, racism is alive and well, somebody call the neocons to stop this gross injustice.</p>

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<p>I hope that there is more to this case, BusinessGuy, because it would mean that this wasn’t the horrible injustice it seems like. However, it seems to me that whatever this girl did (and shoving a monitor might technically be assault, but is certainly not heinous criminal behavior), SEVEN YEARS in prison for it, is absurd. I’ve read about this case before, and the timing is suspicious as well. The girl’s disciplinary problems began after her mother became involved in controversial civil rights activities.
Suspension? I can buy that. Expulsion? Pretty harsh, but okay. Jailtime? And seven years of it? For a first time offense that didn’t result in serious injury? Something’s rotten in the state of Texas.</p>

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<p>I, too, think that seven years in prison for a fourteen year old is way too harsh for pushing a man and causing no serious harm. She’s fourteen! I hope there is more to the story because that is absurd.</p>

<p>On another note, what’s with this?

It kind of creeps me out. Personally, I don’t think I’d want a Christmas card from the man who ran over my family members. Why should these people be forced to have this kind of sham relationship? What if the guy or family isn’t Christian? That strikes me as very strange. Does anyone who knows about the criminal justice system have any information on the use of this “punishment”?</p>

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<p>Well, this is an example of how partial information can create a false impression. First, we’re only getting the girl’s side of the story - the school can’t respond due to privacy laws. But even from the information available, it appears that the girl (and her mother) have managed to blow the situation out of proportion through their own after-the-fact decisions. According to Wikipedia, the girl was offered probation but refused, and elected to go to trial. She was convicted (from what I read about what she and her supporters say, she was in fact guilty of assault) Again, according to Wikipedia, minors in Texas who are convicted of a crime are sentenced to an “indeterminate” sentence - that is, they’re sent to Juvie until the authorities release them, or they turn 21 - that’s where the “7 years” comes from. She had problems in Juvie which are not clearly described - she reportedly has ADHD - and has not been released. So it appears as though she has parlayed an impulsive act for which she was offered a not-unreasonable consequence of probation into, at this point, two years in Juvie, and counting. Sad.</p>

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<p>Thanks, Kluge. </p>

<p>Would you have time to look into the link between CO2 and global warming???</p>

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<p>“DALLAS (AP) – A 15-year-old black girl whose yearlong incarceration for pushing a teacher’s aide roiled civil rights activists nationwide won her freedom Friday, a state lawmaker said…”</p>

<p><a href=“http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RACISM_INVESTIGATION?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US[/url]”>http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RACISM_INVESTIGATION?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>according to the AP article above

This casts a different light on the situation. The sentence sounds harsh, but it isn’t as if she was railroaded and had no way to avoid jail.</p>

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<p>This one did have a smell all over it, along with the entire juvenile detention system in Texas. The entire system is being overhauled and all cases are under review. In this case it appears the judge needs a review as well.</p>

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<p>"This casts a different light on the situation. The sentence sounds harsh, but it isn’t as if she was railroaded and had no way to avoid jail.:</p>

<p>Why should a 14-year-old get a misdemeanor for shoving a hall monitor. I agree that the girl shouldn’t have done that. However, expulsion, not legal charges, seems like that would have been appropriate.</p>

<p>I also notice that the girl says that the monitor shoved her first. Given what has been described of Paris, Texas and how blacks are treated, that seems like it could have been possible, and also could put the teen’s behavior in a different light.</p>

<p>“So a girl burning down her own house has something in common with assaulting a hall monitor? The crimes are entirely different: if the white girl had burned down someone else’s house and injured someone at the same time, then maybe I could understand the comparison.”</p>

<p>You seem to be implying that if a person burns down their parents’ house somehow that’s not a serious crime. A teen who burns down their parents house to me sounds like a person who needs some serious mental health counseling while being locked up for society’s protection until they are cured. What’s next for such a teen? Burning their school? Killing their parents?</p>

<p>Explulsion seems appropriate for a student who shoves a hall monitor.I’d also like to see such a student get counseling on anger management/conflict resolution. If a student had beaten a hall monitor, juvenile detentions center plus counseling would be IMO appropriate. What would 7 years in prison do for such a person except turn them into a criminal?</p>

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<p>The whole plea bargain system stinks. In some respects one is better off if they are guilty - less temptation to go to court and risk an extreme verdict.</p>

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<p>Northstarmom, we really don’t know enough about the facts of the case to develop an informed opinion. What is a “shove”? What were the facts of the “arson”? Working in the legal system I see all kinds of verbal contortions used to describe events in ways which exaggerate or minimize their actual significance. And because of privacy laws we’re really only getting the girl’s version of events. (Even there there are hints of other, possibly relevant factors - prior events involving this girl, her mother’s combative attitude, etc.) Maybe this is an example of Texas legal system racism; maybe it’s an example of what I call the “Little League Mom” phenomenon at work. I’d avoid jumping to conclusions until I got more - and more objective - information.</p>

<p>And let me repeat: She was not given a seven year sentence. The blanket statement that she “got seven years in prison” smacks of manipulation.</p>

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<p>Please don’t confuse the city of Paris or all of east Texas with the actions of one judge.</p>