Poll Tax receipt from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana 1917
Jefferson Parish just sounds like a racist place.
Not that this comes as a surprise, but a complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on January 11th by the Southern Poverty Law Center alleging that four schools within the Jefferson Parish school system has been “unfairly subjecting African American students to arrests and seizures.” The 20-page complaint points out that although African-American students make up only 46% of the student population, they account for 76% of all school-based arrests.
Many of these arrests were never necessary in the first place, and these kids would have probably never been arrested had they been white:
- A ninth-grade boy at Bonnabel was arrested and subjected to racially charged language after violating the school’s cell phone policy.
- Another ninth-grade boy at Bonnabel was arrested and subjected to racially offensive language because he was in the hall without a pass, although he had permission from a teacher to leave class and call his mother. The deputy sheriff restrained the youth, placed him in a patrol car and took him to an adult jail, where he remained overnight.
- A ninth-grade girl at Bonnabel was arrested, searched and subjected to racially offensive language for skipping class. She was handcuffed and taken to the security office and then to a juvenile detention center.
- An eighth-grade boy at Adams was arrested and assaulted over a “misunderstanding with a teacher.” The complaint says an officer forcefully pushed the student’s arm behind his back causing immense pain. He was taken to the hospital, where an X-ray revealed his arm was broken.
Being arrested as a 9th grader for being in the halls without a pass, after your teacher gave you permission to leave class, must be a terrifying thing…especially when you have to spend the night in an adult jail.
