Parents, Students

Suffer Stiff Penalties

After Cheering

at Graduations

Written by: Kelly Virella

 

To the growing list of things that land black people in jail or some other harsh punishment, add this: cheering at a high school graduation.

That’s right. The request that principals used to make at the start of the diploma ceremony — hold your applause, don’t yell — has now turned into a de facto law at some schools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A South Carolina African-American woman was arrested Saturday after she cheered too loudly at her daughter’s graduation. Let me repeat that: ARRESTED.

The school, South Florence High School in South Carolina, warned parents that if they yelled during the ceremony they would be expelled. And as soon as Shannon Cooper, the mother of a graduating senior, yelled for her daughter Iesha, police expelled her from the auditorium and arrested her. It’s not clear whether Cooper was arrested for cheering or for something that may have happened after she was expelled from the auditorium. In either case, the instigating incident was her exuberance and she was charged with disorderly conduct, held in jail for 7 hours and had to post a $225 bond to be released.

“Are ya’ll serious? Are ya’ll for real? I mean, that’s what I’m thinking in my mind,” Cooper told WPDE NewsChannel 15 in Myrtle Beach. “I didn’t say anything. I was just like OK, I can’t fight the law. “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Cooper is not the only African-American who’s been penalized for this. In Ohio, graduating senior Anthony Cornist is being denied his diploma because his friends and family cheered excessively for him, a denial that could interfere with his plans to attend college. He himself did nothing wrong, but in some warped system of jurisprudence, he is being punished. His principal is requiring him to perform 20 hours of community service to get his diploma and his mother — citing the principle at stake — refuses to allow him to perform it.

And the worst part about both of these stories? The Ohio principal is black and the South Carolina school has several black assistant principals. I just dropped my mic on that.

Is there something I’m missing here? Please tell me this is not a simple case of black principals so eager to please their bosses — to show that they can host a graduation that conforms to WASP standards, a quiet, dignified affair bereft of joyful of outburst — that they were willing to co-sign an arrest in South Carolina and issue a de facto probation in Ohio. Please tell me that our school-to-prison pipeline has not shrunk so much that cheering at a school event is now a crime. Please tell me that schools haven’t grown so accustomed to punishing black children — especially black boys — for minor infractions that other students also commit, that they believe they have the right to punish them for someone else’s behavior and possibly stop one from attending college. Please tell me that school has not become that draconian a tool for racial control. Please.

My pleas are feeble, because no matter what you tell me about these particular incidents I know the control that schools exert over our communities is even more damaging than these two instances, because the real control isn’t exerted in an isolated fashion over one or two graduating seniors and parents. The real control is systemic. It’s hard to expect school systems that make no effort to respect basic civil rights like those fought for and won in Brown v. Board  or even accorded in Plessy v. Ferguson to respect us as individuals. As noted education scholar Pedro Noguera said a few weeks ago when he appeared on MSNBC, “Not only are we not living up to Brown v. Board, we’re not living up to Plessy v. Ferguson.” I hope this is a wakeup call for a lot of people. It is for me.

++++++++++++++

About the Author

Kelly Virella lives in an East Harlem walk-up with her husband, her bicycle and her books. She's worked as a journalist for 11 years and started this website during the summer of 2011. She fell in love with New York City during her first visit here as a 16-year-old and finally made good on her promise to move here in April 2010.

 

__________________________

 

 

 

UPDATED 6:37 AM EDT Jun 05, 2012

mistakenly arrest her

 

Seventeen-year-old Tiarra Brown was focused on her future, but the excitement about graduation turned to fear when police came to her school and arrested her.

Prosecutors said they dropped the case after realizing she was not involved in a crime. It appears to be a horrific case of mistaken identity, 11 News I-Team reporter Barry Simms said.

"She's been crying the whole time. She's terrified. She's never been through this environment before," mother Catia Brown said.

Worried about their daughter, Catia and Elvin Brown said they did everything they could to get her released.

A warrant charged Tiarra Brown with attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment. She was held without bail after police arrested her Thursday during graduation practice at Casa Academy in Southwest Baltimore.

"That's not her profile. She's an honor roll student. She has scholarships going to college June 21. She did track and field. She worked all year to pay for her graduation, and she missed graduation for a misunderstanding," the girl's mother said.

According to a statement of charges, what appears to be the victim's daughter filled out a complaint and submitted it to a commissioner at the Patapsco Avenue Courthouse claiming that Brown stabbed her mother six times and threatened her as well.

The warrant was issued in connection with the May 6 stabbing of a woman outside the Half Mile Track nightclub on Frederick Avenue near Collins Avenue. It happened around 1:30 a.m.

The commissioner issued a warrant for her arrest, but to add to the confusion police said they had already charged a woman named Brittany Johnson with the stabbing when Brown was arrested at her high school during graduation practice.

"It was negligence on their side, and I think it's disgraceful to just pick a person out and charge them without investigating," Catia Brown said. "She's always in the house. She's too young to go to a club. She's never been to a club a day in her life."

Police and prosecutors now said the warrant was wrongfully issued by a court commissioner and that Tiarra Brown committed no crime.

Once they said they realized what happened, the investigating detective and the detective from the Warrant Apprehension Task Force went to the state's attorney seeking Brown's release.

She was released around 6 p.m. Monday into the custody of her elated parents (image of release to the right).

"This is the longest I've ever been away from (my parents)," the girl told 11 News after she was released. "I was real upset, but I prayed to God and read my Bible and knew the best thing for me was just to come home."

When she finally emerged from detention, Brown was so grateful to see her parents, she didn't express any bitterness about her ordeal, 11 News reporter Kerry Cavanaugh said.

"The officers were very nice. They checked on me and made sure I was eating and drinking and not so depressed and crying too much," Tiarra Brown said.

11 News went to the home of the person who filed the handwritten complaint that led to the warrant. No one answered. 

The family said police showed the stabbing victim and two witnesses Tiarra Brown's picture, and all of them said she was not involved.

Once police and prosecutors finally realized the warrant was wrongly issued Brown had already spent the weekend in jail unable to attend her graduation.

Legal analyst weighs in on issue

"How does something like this happen? One, it happens far too often and it happens because the commissioner is allowed to issue a warrant based on a written complaint by an individual," said defense attorney Warren Brown, who, as a legal expert, told 11 News that Tiarra Brown's case highlights a huge flaw in the system.

According to the district court of Maryland, any civilian can go to a court commissioner, file a complaint on another person and -- without an investigation -- the commissioner can issue an arrest warrant.

"There ought to be some investigation before an individual is arrested and charged with an offense, especially an offense that carries life imprisonment, which this offense carries," Warren Brown said.

And as far as why Tiarra Brown spent so much time in jail? Attorney Brown said it's because of a rubber stamping of no bail that starts with the commissioner and trickles down to the judge as they assume, he said, that you are guilty.

"And so now this person is being held for God knows how long, on no bail because a commissioner issued a warrant based on a civilian's allegation, which was never investigated. It is absurd," Warren Brown said.

>via: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47682723/ns/local_news-baltimore_md/#.T9Agn44-VyG