latimes:

An end to zero tolerance for willful defiance in L.A. schools?

California schools have long brought about swift punishments for instances of so-called willful defiance, which have disproportionally led to suspensions of many minority students not just in our home state, but nationwide.

Take the case of Damien Valentine, a Manual Arts Senior High School sophomore fighting against the practice, who says that several such punishments earlier in his school accomplished nothing but setting him back.

So just what is “willful defiance?”

That offense is now widely criticized as an arbitrary catchall for any behavior a teacher finds objectionable, such as repeatedly tapping feet on the floor, refusing to remove a hat or failing to wear the school uniform. It accounted for 48% of 710,000 suspensions issued in California in 2011-12, prompting both state and local efforts to restrict its use in disciplinary actions.

A resolution moving through Los Angeles County would make L.A. Unified the first school district in California to ban suspensions for the aforementioned offenses.

Said Tonna Onyendu of the Liberty Hill Foundation, a Los Angeles nonprofit:

“This will be a transformational shift. Instead of punishing students, we’re going to engage them.”

Read more on the matter in Teresa Watanabe’s report.

Photos: Christina House / For The Times

(via stfuconservatives)

thepeoplesrecord:

Diabetic high school girl beaten by police officer & arrested…for falling asleep in class
May 9, 2013

A student who was arrested and beaten for falling asleep at school is now suing an Alabama city, its police department and some school employees for civil rights violation, battery and negligent supervision and hiring. After the diabetic student fell asleep while in a room reserved for “in school suspensions,” a school police officer slammed her face into a cabinet and then arrested her. The incident occurred at a high school in Hoover, Alabama.

Ashlynn Avery, who has diabetes, asthma and sleep apnea, was suspended for cutting class, and had to sit in the in-school suspension room. While she was reading “Huckleberry Finn,” she dozed off. First, the in-school suspension supervisor walked over to her cubicle and struck it, which caused the cubicle to hit Avery’s head, according to the lawsuit. She woke up, but soon fell back asleep. The supervisor, Joshua Whited, then took the book from her and slammed it into the student’s chest.

Avery was then told to leave the room, according to the complaint, and police officer Christopher Bryant followed her. Bryant slapped her backpack, and then “proceeded to shove Ashlynn face first into a file cabinet and handcuff her,” the complaint states. While in the car, Avery vomited. She was taken to a hospital and had to wear a cast as a result of her injuries.

“Ashlynn required follow-up care to her shoulder, arm, and wrist, Ashlynn also required extended mental counseling for trauma caused by the defendants,” the lawsuit states. The Averys are seeking “compensatory and punitive damages for civil rights violations, battery and negligent supervision and hiring,”.

The case is another example of abuses committed by school police officers. Activists have long decried the “school to prison pipeline” which disproportionately affects communities of color. A PBS factsheet, as the Courthouse News Service notes, states that “70 percent of students involved in ‘in-school’ arrests or referred to law enforcement are black or Latino.”

“When police (or ‘school resource officers’ as these sheriff’s deputies are often known) spend time in a school, they often deal with disorder like proper cops — by slapping cuffs on the little perps and dragging them to the precinct,” wrote Chase Madar in the wake of the Newtown massacre. The school shooting in Connecticut has sparked more calls—from both Democrats and the National Rifle Association—for more police officers in schools.

Source

(via bohemianarthouse)

mohandasgandhi:

theneighbourhoodsuperhero:

Just saw these photos of Ramadhaan 2012 in Guantanamo, made me tear up crazy ways man, most of these men are about to spend their 20th -24th Eid in captivity.

Keep them and their families in your du’aas iA.

This is extremely touching whether you’re a Muslim or not. GITMO is one of the United States’ greatest failures in recent history and it’s something we should become more ashamed of as each day that it remains open passes. Here are a few reasons why to refresh everyone’s memory:

• About 780 people have been held at Guantanamo. At least 158 have been determined to be completely innocent thus far. Only 220 were ever considered dangerous threats and 380 were deemed to be “low-ranking guerrillas.”
• At least 15 children have been detained.
• Of the 166 people still being detained, at least 55 have been cleared for release.
• Of the nearly 800 people detained at Guantanamo Bay, only 3 have been formally charged by a military court with a crime: David Hicks, Salim Hamdan, and Ali al-Bahlul. 
• We even detained an Al Jazeera cameraman for 6 years, partially so we could interrogate him about the network. 
• Other detainees have included an Afghan taxi driver, captured “because of his general knowledge of activities in the areas of Khowst and Kabul based as a result of his frequent travels through the region as a taxi driver,” an Afghan gentleman because he was a Mullah in a city where some members of the Taliban were suspected of living, and a British man who was detained because U.S. officials assumed he had knowledge of the Taliban because he was once imprisoned by them. 
• The Bush administration knew early on that innocent people were being detained and were of little to no intelligence value but higher up officials, such as Cheney and Rumsfeld, refused to release prisoners because doing so would have left a “black mark” on their leadership and been “politically difficult.” 
• 6 detainees are reported to have committed suicide. However, strong allegations exist that the designation of at least 3 of the deaths as suicides were attempts to cover up homicides. In addition, hundreds of suicide attempts and rampant self-harm among prisoners has been documented. In fact, during the first year and a half after the prison was opened alone, 18 detainees carried out 28 suicide attempts. 
• Detainees have been widely subjected to physical and psychological torture during interrogations and as a form of discipline. Some of these alleged techniques include waterboarding, sexual assault/rape/harassment and humiliation by both male and female interrogators, severe sleep deprivation, prolonged solitary confinement, mock executions, medical experimentation, forced medical treatments and procedures (some detainees reported doctors forced, or attempted to force, unnecessary amputations), withholding medical treatment, threats of dog attacks, subjecting detainees to temperature extremes, sometimes to temperatures bellow freezing or over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, prolonged sensory bombardment, such as exposure to loud, irritating sounds and bright lights, often permanently damaging eyes and ears, threats of transfer for torture in other countries, exposure to irritating chemicals and substances, physical beatings, some of which have resulted in permanent injuries such as confinement to a wheelchair, shackling prisoners and putting them in painful stress positions for hours at a time, refusal to allow detainees to use the bathroom, the repeated use of tear gas and pepper spray, oxygen deprivation, the removal of everything but underwear and the Qur’an from cells, desecration of the Qur’an, religious humiliation, interference with religious practices (famous examples include female interrogators sexually assaulting detainees during prayers, guards forcing detainees to strip before prayers, withholding food when fasting breaks during Ramadan), force-feeding detainees during hunger strikes, causing detainees to bleed from the nose and throat, vomit, and go to the bathroom on themselves, etc.
• The Obama administration has decided not to investigate or prosecute any U.S. officials for torture or abuse. 
• Guantanamo Bay isn’t going to be closed any time soon.

(via bohemianarthouse)

think-progress:

Men with loaded rifles intimidate moms gathered at a gun safety rally. Watch what happened. 

(via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)