One bright spot as you go into the weekend: It looks as if 15-year-old Shaquanda Cotton is going to be released today. If you’ve not run across this story, Shaquanda is the Paris, Texas, high school girl who was sent to juvenile facility for shoving a hall monitor a year ago, when she was just 14. The indeterminate sentence she was given could have kept her locked up until her 21st birthday. As it was, her existing sentence was extended for possession of “contraband.” She had an extra pair of socks in her cell.
After an excellent Chicago Tribune article drew national attention to the her story earlier this month, Shaquanda became the focus of attention among civil rights groups who saw her as emblematic of everything that’s gone wrong with the abuse-ridden Texas Youth prison. (See earlier story, Worst Scandal.)
For weeks, the Texas Youth Commission has been in the throes of a massive, system-wide scandal, and a special conservator has been hired to steam clean and overhaul the TYC from top to bottom. Friday, conservator, Jim Hurley, said he would release Shaquanda on Saturday.
Did anyone ever get the complete and correct side of the justice system? Stories like this remind me of a report by NBC News a long time ago about the injustice done to a black man in Birmingham who was sentenced to life in prison for robbing someone of a watch and $10. What an outrage and injustice!
Well, what NBC didn’t report is that the D.A. used the most provable charge against him, asking for the maximum sentence and sparing the public testimony of his rape victim, whom the man brutalized and nutilated with a broken Coke bottle. After incredulous viewers called to protest, NBC’s weak and delayed response was that “they learned there was more to the story.”
I don’t know how nuts is the Texas Youth Commission, but I do know that there are nuts in the media with an agenda (including liberal NPR) and that half-stories of “injustice” need to be questioned by people wanting the whole, true story. Otherwise, the injustice may be to the innocent accused. (Ref. Duke lacrosse team rape case.)
Is there something on Ms. Cotton that we’re missing here?
Yeah Woody. She’s black.
Rather like that football player in Geogia whose doing twenty to life for “Rape” (he was 17 and she was 15 and everyone agrees it was consensual but she was a minor you see)
rlc, so you respond with a phony answer and give an unrelated scenario. Is race the basis for everything in your world?
No where have I seen that race played a part in her punishment. In the Georgia case, the legislature has since repealed the law that convicted the boy, but it’s not retroactive. Hopefully, a pardon will be granted. In all cases, though, the laws both apply and were applied equally to blacks and whites.
Now, what’s the real story? What do you want to bet that she had a history of violent behavior with repeated warnings and that the charges against her were just the last straw? Did her parents not cooperate? I don’t know, but there’s more than meets the eye, here. It appears that journalists left out information and only reported what they wanted people to believe–almost always liberal.
A very quick search reveals some real answers.
The Black Informant: Shaquanda Cotton
More on the Shaquanda Cotton issue
Black Teen Who Pushed Aide to Be Freed
Maybe Celeste can use this story to teach students that sometimes you shouldn’t make a story out of something that isn’t one and that, if you’re going to write a story, make sure that all sides are appropriately provided.
There was a lot of hatred and misinformation going around left-wing blogs about a black girl getting seven years for shoving a white person. For that to be the result of main stream media’s selective reporting is not serving the people.
What do you think, Celeste? Did people jump to conclusions on this, aka knee-jerk reactions?
Hmmm. I posted this once, but it didn’t appear. This may turn out to be a duplicate.
rlc, so you respond with a phony answer and give an unrelated scenario. Is race the basis for everything in your world?
No where have I seen that race played a part in her punishment. In the Georgia case, the legislature has since repealed the law that convicted the boy, but it’s not retroactive. Hopefully, a pardon will be granted. In all cases, though, the laws both apply and were applied equally to blacks and whites.
Now, what’s the real story? What do you want to bet that she had a history of violent behavior with repeated warnings and that the charges against her were just the last straw? Did her parents not cooperate? I don’t know, but there’s more than meets the eye, here. It appears that journalists left out information and only reported what they wanted people to believe–almost always liberal.
A very quick search reveals some real answers.
The Black Informant: Shaquanda Cotton
More on the Shaquanda Cotton issue
Black Teen Who Pushed Aide to Be Freed
Maybe Celeste can use this story to teach students that sometimes you shouldn’t make a story out of something that isn’t one and that, if you’re going to write a story, make sure that all sides are appropriately provided.
There was a lot of hatred and misinformation going around left-wing blogs about a black girl getting seven years for shoving a white person. For that to be the result of main stream media’s selective reporting is not serving the people.
What do you think, Celeste? Did people jump to conclusions on this, aka knee-jerk reactions?
Woody, certainly there are many times when the media creates a frenzy around a story without adequately checking facts. The Duke lacrosse team/rape story is one of the most egregious recent examples, as you point out. The McMartin child sexual abuse case in California is an historic example.
But the reporting on Shaquanda Cotton by the Chicago Tribune seems uniformly excellent. The reporter really took the time to talk to lots and lots of the players in the drama. He also shows that the girl had problems, and wasn’t the easiest kid. And there is much that suggests that this wasn’t a single racist incident but may be part of a larger pattern in Paris, Texas schools that is now the subject of investigation.
As for the Texas Youth Commission, do your own research. Just feed Texas Youth Commission into Google and watch what comes up. This isn’t a right/left liberal/conservative issue. It’s a horrorshow in which hundreds or maybe thousands of kids were harmed to greater and lesser degrees, and the adults who should have put a stop to it, didn’t. There have been multiple firings and arrests, and the story is far from over.
And, guess what, there’s a real hero at the center of it. A square-jawed blue-eyed Texas Ranger—straight out of central casting. (I mean he’s so true blue you couldn’t possibly make him up without sounding as if you were mired in cliches.) I’ve been meaning to post about him but kept getting distracted by other things. Maybe I will later this weekend.
Happy Saturday everybody!
The facts are:
1. Ms. Cotton admittedly shoved a teacher’s aide, who is a state employee.
2. She was tried in court and convicted (not the proper legal term, since she is a minor) of assault of a public servant, which is a third degree felony.
3. Her defense asked the judge to determine her sentence (as opposed to letting the jury make a recommendation).
4. Judge Superville’s offer was two years of informal probation, which means she would certain conditions to meet, but would be in the custody of her mother, and after successful completion of the requirements of her probation, the charge would not become a part of her permanent record.
5. Her mother, Creola Cotton, stated in court that she nor her daughter would adhere to any of the conditions of probation that Judge Superville offered.
6. At that point his choices were to place her on probation (after her mother had already stated that she would not follow the requirements), or send her to TYC for an indeterminate sentence not to exceed her 21st birthday.
7. That sentence is the precise sentence that roughly 90% of the youthful offenders in the state receive when they are sent to TYC.
8. Once at TYC, the only entity with the authority to grant her release is TYC (I believe that the governor may be able to, but I have not confirmed that).
9. Her release is based on her successful completion of the TYC rehabilitation program.
10. She would have already been released if she has successfully completed her rehabilitation program, but TYC officials have stated that Ms. Cotton has not even gotten to stage one of the process because she will not admit that what she did was wrong (even though she stated in court and on her blog that she pushed the teacher’s aide).
above from–http://www.marclamonthill.com/mlhblog/?feed=rss2&p=2523
Celeste, see if a comment of mine from this afternoon is still pending approval in your system, because I covered “the rest of the story” with links, which Pokey has enumerated even better.
Judging an organization based upon the number of google hits that send you to left-wing, emotional, knee-jerk sites is worst justice than the courts. This was made a left/right, black/white issue by liberals, and that was wrong. Google those.
The bad stories from many sources overwhelm your unlinked reference to the Chicago Tribune. You can’t hand pick the best reporting by one paper to represent all of journalism and the false hysteria that creates.
Woody, somehow two of your comments ended up snatched up by my spam filter. I’ll keep a closer eye. (I have a really vicious spam filter. It’s very aggressive, heavily armed, and kinda hostile. Trust me, it’s needed.)
Sorry about that.
About the main Chicago Trib article. I linked it in the earlier post about TYC scandals. But here it is again.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703120170mar12,0,1435953.story
I’ll look at your links. Thanks, Pokey and Woody.
Pokey….Researched a little further and, no, the judge did not recommend probation. The blogger whom you’re quoting is conflating a bunch of facts.
The judge himself says that he felt she should go to TYC. (Judge Superville was interviewed for the article below.
http://dallassouthblog.com/2007/03/25/judge-supervilles-expains-his-thoughts-on-verdict-of-14-year-olds-case-in-paris-texas/
She was offered the opportunity to plead guilty in return for a deal—by the prosecutor, not the judge. Her mother turned that down and elected to go to trial. I’m presuming because she didn’t feel her kid deserved a conviction with probation. (The mother, from most articles, seems problematic.) Whether she was right or wrong to refuse a deal in no way justifies the judge’s sentence.
From what I can gather, the kid lost it, but the aide pushed her first. (I’ve not seen that disputed, but I could have missed it.) Also, she wanted to be allowed to go in the school to take her medication before class. (And, evidently, she’d seen another girl be allowed in, a white girl, and took umbrage. A shouting match ensued. The teacher’s aid shoved her, and she shoved back harder.
Now granted, the kid shouldn’t have shoved the aide, and there should be consequences. Maybe they should have kicked her out of school. I dunno. But do we really want to file criminal charges on a 14-year-old for something like that, call it a third degree felony, and give her a 7 year indeterminate sentence? Is that really the best for the health and welfare of the girl, the school, and the state of Texas? I don’t think so.
Her sentence, which was a minimum of a year, has already been extended twice—once for refusing to admit her guilt, the second time for the “contraband†socks.
And the idea that this sentence is typical is completely false. Generally the kids sent to TYC are repeat offenders or have committed some higher level offense, or both. Most kids are either given probation, or sentenced for shorter terms to local county run facilities that are more rehabilitative in nature. The judge had the option. It wasn’t an either or. TYC is prison for kids.
Without seeing trial transcripts I have no real way of knowing the whole truth, but having read a bunch of material, I think school officials and the judge were fed up with the mother–and took it out on the kid. (She mom was part of the group that complained to Federal Education department, and as a result, the school was under investigation.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802196.html
Several years ago I was asked to investigate whether American elementary schools were discriminating against African American boys. I spent six months on the project, and genuinely had no personal stake in it. What I found shocked me. It was unbelievably widespread and often perpetrated by essentially decent people who were unaware of what they were doing.
I wrote that article before I began reporting on education. In the last two years, as I began to look at LA schools I’ve seen an awful lot of anecdotal stuff that’s appalled me. In many cases it was more classist than racist, I suppose. But , I mean to tell you, it exists—big time. And the teachers who perpetrate it, as nearly as I was able to determine, don’t view themselves as racist.
One of the interesting aspects of this Shaquanda Cotton story is the stories its brought out among other African American parents around the country who feel that they’re dealing with analogous situations at their own kids schools
The DA’s victim’s advocate (Allen Hubbard) said — “Mrs. Cotton told the judge on the stand that she and her daughter would not cooperate with any authority or informal probation.â€Â
“Her mother hated white people and encouraged misbehavior.â€Â
“It is a travesty that this girl is at TYC, she did not deserve to go there.â€Â
“Mrs. Cotton refused to let her daughter go to a relative’s homeâ€Â
“We will not go to any sessions required for probation†– the mother.
“The transcript is 10 inch’s thickâ€Â
http://dryerbuzz.com/wordpress/?p=35 (interview)
Read some more details in these posts by a black man who lives in Paris, TX. Each one builds on the others and points out problems in the stories, automatically accepted by those whose minds were made up when they found out the races of the persons involved.
http://blackinformant.com/2007/03/27/shaquanda-cotton-side-oneside-two/
http://blackinformant.com/2007/03/28/more-on-the-shaquanda-cotton-issue/
http://blackinformant.com/2007/03/31/still-more-on-the-shaquanda-case/
At the bottom right column of his main page, he also has a section titled “What Teacher’s Unions Don’t Want You To Know.” I guess some would call him an Uncle Tom.
This was provided by a commenter named Ken on another black blog:
http://cobb.typepad.com/cobb/2007/03/shaquanda_cotto.html
Just because some people use race as an excuse doesn’t make it so.
Lastly, Celeste, with the new information presented that was left out by the MSM, do you believe that the press has done a good job on their reporting of this story, and have you modified your position on this story based this additional information?
In answer to the last question, Woody, no I think they were too willing to accept the Chicago Trib story at face value. Which I did as well. Yet, that said, I still think the outcome for Shaquanda was wrong—and that all the adults screwed up—the mom, the judge, the school officials, and certainly the TYC folks. (I’m going to post about it.)
(BTW, I read the Mary Madewell thing, and linked to it in an earlier comment. I think the judge is doing his own spin.)
Sorry for repeating an article that you had already linked. You see, you wrote it ten hours before my comment, so it was outside of my short-term memory and not long enough for my long-term memory.
While you said that the additional information didn’t change your mind, I think that it did actually temper your attitude about this and let you see that the blame could be spread around.
I came to the same conclusion as your comment: …I think school officials and the judge were fed up with the mother–and took it out on the kid. They couldn’t just slap the mother, so this was way to get to her, but the mother apparently had an attitude and that was more important than her own child. So, the mother took her dispute out on the kid, too.
The problem with the Chicago article is that everyone (well, the liberals) read it and decided to make a race war out of it. You should google the matter and see all the crazy comments by people of the Al Sharpton mindset. Couldn’t this story have been written without referencing race? They don’t mention race when the accused is black.
What do you want to bet that the girl gets into some new type of trouble within twelve months?
[…] juvenile lock-up for pushing a school aide. [You can find my earlier posts on the subject here and here] The sentence was indeterminate—meaning she could be out within one year, or remain inside […]