The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed suit against the Birmingham Board of Education to stop its use of mace against the children in its charge.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a federal class action lawsuit today targeting the use of mace on Birmingham City School children as a means of basic school discipline. The suit was filed on behalf of district students who have been brutalized with chemical weapons and other excessive force. It also seeks to protect other students from these abusive and unconstitutional practices.If I recall correctly, the alleged potential use of chemical weapons against a vulnerable population sufficed to bring our nation to war. So should we be concerned when its used by schools to keep its students in line?
“We must ask ourselves: What kind of school system allows the entry of armed police officers who mace its students? One with a serious illness. One that needs to re-examine its ultimate purpose for existence – educating and protecting its students,” said Ebony Glenn Howard, lead attorney on the case for the Southern Poverty Law Center.The answer, according to Turley, is a school system that’s “96% African American.”
Conservatives have long campaigned to rid the country of public schools. The public school system is the principal method for members of the lower economic class, often African Americans, to escape to the middle class and beyond. The lack of an education maintains African Americans as lower class citizens. The use of chemical weapons and the accompanying hostility is having the effect of driving African American children out of the school system, preserving the current elite class.
If the public school system is eliminated, only the elite will be able to afford private education for their children, maintaining their current status. The public school system is the keystone in America’s ability to claim it is the land of opportunity.
This is quite an extraordinary indictment of the Birmingham schools, given that it’s long enough that they’ve gotten word that Plessy v. Ferguson has been reversed and even black children get to be educated. Need I add without fear of chemical weapon attack?
Given the ubiquity of “do it for the children” as an excuse for the imposition of rampant laws designed to inhibit conduct in the name of safety, it mind-boggling to learn that the Birmingham schools are macing their students to keep them in line.
Do you ever wonder where we would be without Morris Dees? Do you wonder how many of those who care deeply about the children, the ones who want to create a new crime named after every tragic occurence, will support this suit?
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Post civil rights era, the affluent of Birmingham moved “over the mountain” to the suburbs and raised property taxes through the roof in order to fund suburban public schools only. It worked, and a number of the outlying suburban public schools around Birmingham are consistently ranked in the top 50 in the nation. However, it devastated the tax base in Birmingham proper.
On top of that the Birmingham City Government has also been riddled with corruption and nepotism for nearly 20 years. We’re building a domes stadium with no team to fill it! We’re bidding for the Olympics! (costs a few million dollars) Our last mayor was federally indicted and is in prison! We’re on track to be the largest metropolitan area to go into bankruptcy due to a wacky bond scheme to finance an unnecessarily large and complex sewer system to the tune of $20 billion because it was full of graft. The police force is underfunded and crime rampant but instead of hiring more police officers the last chief decided to hold a prayer vigil march – which was interrupted by a shooting. Birmingham is ranked the 10th most dangerous city in America. Etc, etc.
The city schools fell between the cracks. They are anemically underfunded and understaffed but also overpopulated as there are not enough safe structures (schools have been closed as not enough funds exists to repair them) to spread the children out. So they are jammed with kids but not enough teachers. Oh, but that federally indicted mayor did buy 14,000 of those XO $200 laptops that are for kids in third world countries and gave them out to students. We were first in the nation at that! Hundreds showed up in pawn shops the next week.
Not really going anywhere with this, just providing some background d to the situation. It’s a horrible thing that children are being maced in schools and it should not be tolerated, but I’m also not surprised that it’s come to this considering the state of the city government and schools systems.
Always nice to see Birmingham in the news!
That makes me wonder who’s got the mace contract, and whether he can be undercut with a pepper spray offer.
The spirit of Bulol Connor lives on.
How can the spirit of “Bull” Conner live on in Birmingham when the Superintendent is Black, as are seven of the nine members of Board of Education? These are not white racists allegedly macing students.