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Black Boys; Schools Preparing them for Prison.

September 20, 2011 by  
Filed under Misc., News, Opinion, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) A Chicago mother recently filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education alleging a Chicago Public School security guard handcuffed her young son while he was a student at George Washington Carver Primary School on the city’s far south side. In the lawsuit, filed Aug. 29, LaShanda Smith says the guard handcuffed her son March 17, 2010 which resulted in “sustained injuries of a permanent, personal and pecuniary nature.”

According to media reports, Michael A. Carin, the attorney representing Smith says the youngster was among several six and seven year olds that were handcuffed by the guard for allegedly “talking in class”. The students were also  allegedly told they would never see their parents again and were going to prison.

In a another incident April 13 of this year in Queens, New York a seven-year-old special education student in first grade was handcuffed and taken by ambulance to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after he reportedly became upset because he did not like the color of an Easter egg he decorated. The school says the child was spitting, would not calm down and was “threatening”.

In New Orleans, Sebastian and Robin Weston were plaintiffs in a 2010 class action lawsuit alleging their then six-year-old son was handcuffed and shackled to a chair by an armed security guard after the boy argued with another student over a chair.

This must stop now. Our children are not animals and should not be treated this way,” Weston said in a statement.

Are these incidents, in which young Black boys are treated like common criminals in America’s schools subconsciously, preparing them instead for life behind bars in the criminal justice system?

The school system has been transformed into nothing more than a prison preparation industry,” says Umar Abdullah Johnson, president of National Movement to Save Black Boys.

The job of the school district is to prep the children for prison just like a chef preps his food before he actually cooks it,” Johnson, a nationally certified psychologist, told The Final Call.

Yes We Can: The 2010 Schott 50 State Report on Black Males in Public Education” states Black Male students are punished more severely for similar infractions than their White peers. “They are not given the same opportunities to participate in classes with enriched educational offerings. They are more frequently inappropriately removed from the general education classroom due to misclassifications by the Special Education policies and practices of schools and districts,” says the report.

In Chicago Public Schools, Black boys make up less than 25 percent of the student population but made up 57 percent of expelled students in 2009 according to Catalyst Chicago an online news magazine that reports on urban education. “In Chicago, Black Boys are 51 percent of those suspended at the elementary level,” noted Catalyst Chicago.

Johnson says a false image has been created that suggests Black boys are not interested in being educated, which is not true he argues. The emotional and psychological effects on a six and seven -year-olds from unfair and out-of-control disciplinary action like handcuffing is setting them up for criminality he explains.

“The first thing that type of behavior does is it socializes the boy at a very young age into criminal consciousness. He is nurtured by the school into an understanding that his role in society is that of a criminal,” says Johnson, a Pennsylvania certified school principle, lecturer and motivational coach. These methods and practices of handcuffing young Black boys takes away the stigma, sting and fear of incarceration he adds.

Overly harsh disciplinary policies sets the tone for students to become bored and frustrated with school which leads to increased drop-out rates and in many cases leads to greater involvement in the criminal justice system say youth advocates. Johnson agrees.

When you put handcuffs on a six or seven year old there’s no need for that six or seven-year-old to fear incarceration when they’re 17 and 18-years-old,” he says.

Schools are the number one referral source to jail and juvenile hall for Black children and teens. Therefore, Johnson urges parents to meet and establish a relationship with their child’s teacher. “Once you meet with a teacher, just the vibration from that teacher – be they Black or White – are going to let you know whether they’re there to get a paycheck or whether they’re there to teach your child.”

Written By Starla Muhammad

 


Comments

13 Responses to “Black Boys; Schools Preparing them for Prison.”
  1. toomanygrandkids says:

    Shahrazad Ali wrote in her book THE BLACKWOMAN’S GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING THE BLACKMAN that a group of black men approached the gov’t for the right to teach young black boys. I beleve they wanted funding to build separate schools. One for black boys and one for black girls. These black men stated that young black boys had special needs and these black men felt that black men (and women) should teach black children. I think this was during the 70’s. No other black male supported this group of black men. No civil rights activist. No black teachers. No black gov’t officials. Not even a black woman. I wasn’t a grown up in the 70’s but if I was, I’d definitely would have rallied with these black men for the minds of little black boys. Till this day, I see nothing wrong with all-black schools. One for black boys and one for black girls.

    I may not’ve stated what Miss Ali said in her book verbatim but it was something along those lines. (I lost my copy of that book during a move.) But where were black people when other black people needed them? They were probably so enthralled with integration that they didn’t feel as though black male teachers weren’t capable of teaching black boys. Now, blacks are saying that schools are preparing black boys for prison. I think not.
    Let’s not forget the toddler seen on video being taught to say cuss words by his own daddy. No-good, unfit black parents are preparing their male children for the streets which leads to prison and/or the grave.

  2. sankofa says:

    @BlackBeauty…if you overstand the public fool shitstym, you wouldn’t send them to that factory. It is interesting as one poster said , we the only ones sending our children to the killing fields. My youngest children are home schooled and are so much the better for it. it’s incredible that knee-grows whine about the criminalization of their children but don’t follow any other culture by educating their own. If we knew the original reasons for the modern school we wouldn’t be so eager to send them there.

    This system is actually based off of the per-Industrial revolution system, when children had to be controlled after the planting season has ended during the agrarian period of Europe. So they send them to a large building where they were indoctrinated into giving allegiance to the monarchy, then let out into the fields for harvesting. After the industrial revolution, they just threw the children in the mines and factories until the rise of unionism.

    Yes parents plays a major role in the child’s character, but the schools up the anti, because this society hates children anyway, African children above all. So we shouldn’t act like it’s the children’s fault we have shitty curriculum, shitty teachers and shitty administrations and rules. This is par for the course if you want to dumb down the society and create fodders and cheap labor for the private prison industry.

    @Valerie a study in California by an African principle, faced with boisterous boys, had them do gym in the beginning of the day. After all that kinetic energy is burnt of they were able to pay attention and be model student. Boys and girls are different. Different energies, different personalities. This cookie cutter approach is for sheep and cattle. Sometimes the best solution is the simplest, but they would rather ramp up the children on Ritalin and other punitive acts from their pseudo science note book, instead of applying an holistic approach to teaching.

  3. Patsy says:

    A Powerful Quote from Malcolm X: “ONLY A FOOL WOULD LET HIS ENEMIES EDUCATE HIS CHILDREN”

  4. Valerie says:

    Excuse me …
    If you are a teacher and you cannot control your class; well then you are in the wrong line of work. At the beginning of the school year, when that child enters your room for the very first time, that is when you are to establish your authority. Not the next day or the next week after that; but the very first day and every day after that. And not only do you show them your high length of authority but your high length of care. Being organized. Knowing enough about each indivdual student to come to some sort of familiar grounds. And showing the respect you want in return. And also making it a point to understand every child has a life outside that school ground and it may not be all peaches and cream. A smile and a,” Good morning my beloved class!” may go a long way.

    And you can come in here and make all the excuses in the world for why any child at a young age should be handcuffed in school ..but if they did no criminal act..there is none.. simple as that.

    Children are acting up because they aren’t cared enough by anyone to show them any other way to get noticed, heard and protected from the bull crap that not only goes on in the streets but in some of our school systems. They see not hope, they see no purpose, they’re just a black person that society cares little about..so why bother.

  5. Bryneen Gary says:

    Some Kids do go to School just to play and have fun. I noticed that the Parents play a major role in this because i have come to a Black Boy in my Family’s aid and have sat him down and gave him the attention he desperately needed. After i did that, his grades started picking up. he went from 7 out of 10 to 10 out of 10. I think these kids are seeking attention they may not be getting at home and using school as a Outlet. Kids need more communication than adults do.

  6. Eleanie says:

    Reason enough as to why parents must participate in their child’s education. Sadly some parents and I emphasize some, have no idea how to go about doing this and of course some have just given up. Even at the very young age of seven.

  7. Starla Muhammad says:

    This was not written to “incite Black folks”. Talk to Black educators (especially Umar Abdullah Johnson) and many others that see this as a real problem. Are parents culpable, of course! But when you have a school system that automatically sets low expectations particularly for Black boys, and when you have a disproportionate number of Black boys being suspended, expelled, labeled ADD or ADHD and six-year-olds being handcuffed and treated like criminals…that’s a problem. It is happening far more that we would like to think.

  8. No body’s teaching the constitution and the difference between laws and policies. Codes statutes policies and ordnances the key life saving manual to freedom freedom of education to know your rights from licensed privileges to know the rights of ourselves and others but instead they teach fixed usurped formulated European corporate influence on actual facTS focused on Rome the renesance of Europe and teaches false interpretations of superiority impressed on the minds of all others as savages and heathens until European usurpation of the Moorish empire and ancient sciences parents aren’t teaching their “so called” African American children who are the aboriginal and indigenous man from in and of the planet.

    We warp the minds of our foundation just to get paid well knowing everything will be out of order until the truth is told none of the teachers tell any of those out of order childrens to show how millions of dollars are spent to degrade their image or reminding him to be successful among your people and make a change in the world every day how important he or she is to the development of hummanity they will not strive to be a humanitarian. They are lost exploited abused physically and mentally and socially at home TV movies music and SCHOOL THEY HATE IT

  9. Patsy says:

    Take a look at this link which shows how they make sure that black boys fail: http://www.blackboysincrisis.com/articles.htm

    There is a conspiracy against us!!!

  10. Patsy says:

    I could add that profiling doesn’t exist only on the streets but also in schools and on the job market to keep us at the bottom of the social scale.

  11. Patsy says:

    It is true that students and parents have responsabilities but it is also true that many teachers from the mainstream don’t expect much from our kids. They make them feel that they are not smart and not college material.

  12. cindy gardner says:

    I work in a school system with middle school kids. Our young african american boys come to school to play. They run up and down the halls, the throw books, paper, pencils and whatever they can in the classrooms. they use profanity and are totally disrespectful. The school system is not setting them up for prison. They are setting themselves up. They’re not taking education serious because it not a priority at home. You can call the parent up for their child’s action and they worry about someone else action, or consequences. They don’t take responsibility for their child’s action. They believe whatever he or she says, knowing they child are a liar. Its sad and I put mostly the blame on the parents. They are not actively involved or come up to the school when called. They blame the teacher for not liking their child. So they are setting their own kid up for prison.

  13. BlackBeauty says:

    Ok, so this article mentions only three such incidents, and I hardly think those three incidents equate to black people feeling that the school systems are preparing black boys for prison.

    In fact, if anyone is preparing them for prison it seems to be many of these students parents who are not parenting!

    Please STOP with these article titles that are meant only to incite black folks!!!

    Most black kids go to school to learn and socialize with others, and it is the parents responsibility to see that they get the most out of the education they are receiving, whatever that may be!

    I would like to know from those that post on this site just how many of you have children in schools that are preparing them for prison???

    Come on now!!

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