By: Gregory Smith
Reel Urban News Exclusive
In 2018-19, the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery still rears its ugly head in the form of criminalizing our children, namely black and brown people. I have a personal story to tell that could shed some light on an issue my family has dealt with in the past year. Maybe many other families not only here in California but across the country have experienced it too.
I’m a father of two beautiful children: a twelve-year old-son and an eight-year-old daughter, who last school year were enrolled in the Long Beach Unified School District. They are now in Jurupa Valley Unified School District (both predominantly black and brown areas), which my co-parent and I thought would be a more lenient situation for our children when it came to disciplinary actions administered by the schools and districts.
Last April my son, who stood at 5’3″ and almost 130 pounds, larger than most 11-year-olds, had a situation during lunch period. He was exiting the restroom when he felt a large wet paper towel hit him on the back of his neck, an issue the school had encountered for a couple of weeks where kids were said to have been urinating on the towels and throwing them. In sheer embarrassment and anger, a kid would punch the first kid he sees; it turns out it’s not the kid who had thrown the wet paper towel. That is how my son reacted.
Although my son was wrong for lashing out violently, I could understand his actions. That is not the issue at hand. After the altercation, the target of my son’s actions went to the principal to explain what happened. The kid was considerably smaller, and my son is also not the average 11-year-old, so the school gave him a one-day suspension and detention for the rest of the week.
All fair, I thought, until later on that month we received a subpoena for my son to appear in court. He had been charged for “battery” – an 11-year-old boy charged with battery in an old-fashioned school fight. Puzzled by how the school failed to mention the police were called to the school that day, I called the assistant principal with whom we have a history at the school. I asked why we as the parents weren’t notified. His answer was he “thought he had it all squared away.”
At court, my son got a chance to tell his story. He gave his account and the judge looked up and him and said, “Now look what that got you” and doled out community service for what most would deem a school fight or simple horseplay.
Fast forward to this school year in Jurupa Valley. My son has another incident where he got into a verbal spat with another student, more normal schoolyard stuff, and again the kid told the principal. This time no police were called but the school wanted to administer citations for “harassment” against one another. The assistant principal called and told me what they’re planning to do but not before I stopped her and asked, “Do you think children harass each other?”
She paused and said, “Excuse me?” I asked her again. She stumbled over her words then proceeded to tell me that is what it says should be done according to the JVUSD. I stopped her again and ask her what she thinks, not what the book says. Of course, her answer was no. She then told me she will talk it over with the principal and get back to me.
Later that day, she called me back and said they’ve changed it to simple horseplay, I thanked her and explained what I felt was going on. I told the assistant principal – “black” like myself – that I feel like they’re setting our kids up for prison with the way they’ve categorized punishments now.
When I was in elementary and middle school with the two situations my son encountered, I would’ve received a pink slip for my behavior that would have had to have been signed by a parent and returned and nothing more. Nowadays our children are acquiring criminal records for simple school fights. I understand the climate that with the recent rash of school shootings that we take more precaution, but I think this is extreme. I thought my story might hit home with other black and brown parents as they too might be dealing with the same issues in their school districts.
