Wrong color socks, wrong length socks, no belt, talking back to a teacher and being a few minutes late for class are all reasons that can get you jail time if you're a student in Meridian, Mississippi. But not just any student. Mostly this happens if you're a black student, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the NAACP, an issue that has concerned both organizations for years. Last month, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Meridian, claiming the city has been operating a school-to-prison pipeline and has been violating kids' due process rights.
Take the case of Cedrico Green. He was put on probation after a fight in eight grade. Ever since, he was watched like a hawk for infractions at school–like the ones mentioned above–that violated his probation. These immediately led to his suspension and incarceration in the local juvenile detention center.
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Once kids enter the juvenile justice system, they lose all their basic constitutional rights, according to the lawsuit. They're handcuffed and jailed for days–Green, for example, went in for several 2-week stretches–without a hearing, counsel or a real understanding of what put them there in the first place. Jody Owens, managing attorney of the SPLC's juvenile justice initiative in Mississippi, couldn't have explained it any better when she said this to *Colorlines: "*The administrators were the judge, jury and executioner."
Does this sound like something that should be happening in the United States in this day and age? I'm utterly outraged, but I'm even more sad because I think this kind of practice speaks volumes about how much work still needs to be done when it comes to how blatantly minorities are discriminated.
I think that what's been happening in Meridian is despicable. I can't imagine what the parents of children like Cedrico Green have been going through trying to fight a school system that believes the police has to be involved every time they need to discipline a child. Let's hope the federal lawsuit filed against Meridian brings about real changes and that other school districts with similar shameful practices learn a lesson too.
Image via neil conway/flickr
