By A. Daniel Bodine
desertmountaintimes.com
PRESIDIO, TX—The high school administrator felt she did the proper thing a few years ago in the wake of a bad Class C misdemeanor judicial sentence—Ignore the court! The judge can't order that! It'd open us up to a lawsuit! Just forget about the incident! Withdraw it! Like it never happened. The ol' judge had actually ordered the kid to wear a sign around his neck—a throwback to the old dunce-cap punishment era. And the kid, it turned out later, was Special Ed.
This was one of my cases in Presidio, friends. School discipline case filed in justice court. And I didn't like being booted out of the process on a discretionary decision by an administrator, either. Especially when I never asked to be put in in the first place. Texas legislators put these school cases into the state court system back in the early 90's I think. Before that, kids would've gotten only a trip to the principal's office. Expulsion, if continued. Now oftentimes they end up with a criminal record. Which is the focus of proposed legislation in Austin now.
But, yes, minimalized by someone being overly cautious, I felt I was. Avoiding a lawsuit (presumably by an angry parent) and continuing the funding (from the state) sure beat the cards I put in the school's hand, apparently. Special Ed, yes, is a whole different category of student. In the Education Code statutes. Which, too, means more steps required in the bureaucratic process. But why excuse bad behavior? That's what bothered me. Nothing complex about discipline but the time it takes to explain it.
Wish I could remember more details on this, but such is one's luck with both bad health and age. I can't. In the spring session of 2003 or '04, I think it was. Joel Nunez was the school security officer who filed the case. And the one who reported back to us about the administrator's angry reaction to the unusual sentence.
I felt I did the proper thing, too, however. And I still believe it. Even after being told, finally, of the special category. For Special Ed or not, there are some things a self needs when building a persona that are primal. Being accepted into a group--even if it's without all the superfluous bells and whistles of being normal attached, as was this case supposedly--is certainly one of them. The opportunity to do so is a God-given human right. Higher courts are forever telling us that. You don't deny someone a chance at penance—someone wanting to “prove their worth” thru contrition--as easy as tossing paper into a wastebasket. Enough soapboxing.
As background, this kid apparently went ballistic one day in class, screaming all kinds of obscenities and foul things at the teacher, I think it was. And the school properly had filed on him for disrupting a class, a Class C misdemeanor. Can't remember much more than that. Just another school case that withered on the vine. Although this one is among the few due to the school district pulling its support. Justice can't work in a vacuum. So shrug your shoulders and get over it, you tell yourself. Only you can't sometimes; there's that gnawing feeling there. Something didn't connect.
But the case crossed my mind recently as an excellent example of some of the issues in a school bill being considered by the legislature in Austin now. Caught in the 'tween and 'twix areas (in the Presidio incident, wanting something done “ratt now,” and then not wanting something done at all), justice in too many of these cases is being denied. And an alternative method submitted for lawmaker approval would make it even easier on the students; thus would make the situation worse, in my opinion.
A bill introduced by State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, addresses the issue. As reported in a March 29 online story in
The Texas Tribune entitled “
Lawmakers Want Fewer Tickets for Students,” the bill would revoke the current statute that allows certified peace officers to issue misdemeanor citations to students for “disrupting a classroom.” There've been bad abuses of the law in some districts, yes. But it's practically the sole measure now, indeed, thru which most students are cited for on-campus offenses. Voiding the offense isn't going to stop the acts.
It would also put other student citations, whatever they would be, in the county's juvenile court system, rather than in JP or municipal. Juvenile courts are too slow, and too removed, in my opinion. Except in the large urban counties with special juvenile judges, perhaps. Even then you'll have funding issues, especially if you put all these disruption cases in there, too. Which doing so seems only fair. Slacking off on Special Ed certainly is not doing those students any favors. Thru learned self-discipline is how one conquers the future, is how older generations learned Life. Some learned sooner; others, much later.
But cited in the above story as a strong proponent of this change was a
pro bono, nonprofit and “public interest” legal research organization,
Texas Appleseed. Founded in 1996, Texas Appleseed is one of 18 Appleseed Centers in the United States and Mexico tackling legal and social issues such as school discipline now. One of its latest publications, for instance, (researched especially into “ticketing, arrest … court involvement … and the effectiveness of alternative education programs”) is
Texas' School-to-Prison Pipeline—School Expulsion, The Path from Lockout to Dropout.
The nation's classrooms (not just Texas) have long been considered a jungle at times by educators. Indeed, they reflect the temper of our times—a few of us don't have any money; most of us have a little; and a small minority have everything else, e.g., are extremely wealthy. Teachers no doubt welcome all the help they can get in getting kids to deal with this New Reality. But teenagers want it all now, yes, long before they're capable of dealing with what “all” means. Blame it on television, video games, boredom, take your pick, but accept the reality of it. It's real.
Nunez, the officer cited above, is also a Presidio County deputy sheriff. I remember he came to me once several years ago wanting an arrest warrant for a guy 18 or 19 I think. We'd had numerous problems with this guy over the years while he was in school; this time he was out. And apparently bored, coupled with too much hooch, or something in him.
Nunez had been working late in the school lab on a project on a Saturday night, I seem to remember. Coming out to his pickup on the parking lot around 11:30 or midnight he noticed the suspect's vehicle parked down the block. Waiting? Watching? As the deputy started to get into his own vehicle, the other vehicle suddenly sped ahead, and toward him.
Realizing the danger he was in, Nunez pulled out his service revolver and aimed it dead straight at the driver of the vehicle coming at him. Only at the last second did the suspect sharply veer off, and miss him. What the hell? you say. What kind of deal is that? It's reality today, folks. Like the kid above screaming obscenities in the classroom, just shrug your shoulders and deal with it. As fair as you can. Get over it! There are others coming in the line behind him who'll require similar, difficult decisions.
We're in an American Transition War, it is, and you simply brace yourself and continue to fight for a just outcome, folks. Can't surrender our heritage. Nor common sense. Whatever small percentage these kids are (of an admittedly otherwise excellent student population we have in Texas now, yes) they are real. They're loaded dice--but looking for a flat, calm landing place also. They're the nicest kids alive and blending well with others at times; and yaahoos at others. And they do demand attention.
How to deal with jaundiced behavior is part of the rules of engagement always being drawn up or revised, on what amounts to a highly active In-Between Cultures battlefront of this war—the courts. What other front can these more serious cases be fought on? Certainly not at school. We've already taken paddles out of principals' hands. So, Get over it, too, is the only thing else remaining to say? Why?
The Texas Appleseed organization certainly can't be described as a self-interest lobbyist, of course, but linking them to the Texas Bar Association is a fair statement. And the State Bar, frankly, from my experiences as having served 17 years as a small-town border JP (13 of them concurrently as the town's municipal judge), has met very few litigious situations it didn't really like. And indeed, apparently they feel they've found a mess of 'em with these school citations, too.
But strange as it is, they're opposing the swelling caseloads. Why? Are there too many? Too much time? Costing the state too much for public defenders? Or are there other, much more prosperous fish to fry? Has the corporate-dominated world we've moved into flushed out a new, much more deep-pocketed litigant? Where? How do we identify it?
Remember that social minimalism is an invasive disease cast upon a society by a small-core, extremely rich, corporate elite, members able to exert tremendous political and economic influence simply because they're able to extend their tentacles into so many diverse layers of society. Are our nation's courtrooms next in line to be minimalized?
I'd be very cautious about allowing minimalism like this (carte blanche student-behavior permissiveness) to slip further into the public schools' legal system. Especially under the auspices of dropping punishment for what clearly appears to be...Boldly being a disruptive, excreting hotdog? And henceforth you simply tell the kid, Ok, you've learned enough in Life; now go your own way? It seems only a few years ago Hillary was telling us, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Wow, changes are coming faster and faster, folks!
In the Presidio situation above, the school had filed in the county's Pct. 2 Justice Court, yes. I'd taken a plea and already ruled on it; voided the fine and court cost of the conviction it seems. And ok'd a deferred adjudication sentence (action for the student to perform), giving him a chance to keep the conviction off his record.
With a deferral, after a satisfactory carrying out of the sentence (forget if it was one day or several), then the case would've been dismissed. Like many of my decisions, being somewhat old-fashioned, I'd seen an opportunity for a degree of reconciliation in the incident—including an act that would seek forgiveness (from the people hurt, when presented with a contrivance acknowledging a wrong and an open willingness to set it straight); and, for the defendant, an uplifting chance for him to take on responsibility for what he'd done, to make amends as well as a fresh start at remaking his image at the same time.
This is part of the “building-relationships needs” that people of my generation learned was important in social bonding, it seems--for being accepted into a group, say. Everybody screws up; some, more big-time than others; and everybody wants to scream to holy hell some days.
But relationships are based on hope—hope that with everything being open and freely admitted and evaluated, a kernel of goodness within all people, if watered with kindness and fairness, can blossom into a real genuine and worthy friendship. Stay away from blocking communications, is the message. Even if running short on time.
I'd made the decision after seeing him appear sad, and somewhat frightened, in court when he and the parent came about the ticket. It was like..Something was finally sinking in for him here. Maybe it was how screaming obscenities in class was going to permanently “brand” him? For months? For a semester? For life? How long is a kid's 'forever' these days? He was actually going to be separated from the others for life because of the way he acted? I simply felt that a chance at reconciliation for him--of any sorts--was much too important to pass up.
Who else is going to step in as a teacher here? Courts are not democracies last refuge? Or should he even be taught? Because he's disadvantaged (different!), do we just give up on hoping one day he can have a happy, self-fulfilling life with the rest of us? We just give up and shuffle him thru the system--and count the money we get from Austin, in the Special Ed program, as the only thing that matters? Irreverently view the school system as another part of our governing Corpocracy?
Or do we jettison such stupid thinking for more realistic approaches—continue these kids with the rest somehow; but curriculum-wise, put them on some education lines where the approach in teaching is not only different, but also objectives are different. Point him into an art career or vocational training curriculum, for instance, where he can learn a basis of self-sufficiency and independent living. And, too...Is Texas Appleseed or friends willing to pay for this? (I bet it's not thru their new connections!)
So, yes, I knew the school certainly wasn't going to discipline him. And I knew what my alternatives were—Fine him, make his parents pay, if they were able; or fine him and give him community service or some such project with which to trade it off; and then say a Hail Mary. I was drawn toward his contriteness; capitalizing on it seemed more meaningful.
So I'd actually ordered him, yes, to apologize by hanging a hand-made sign around his neck. Can't remember the exact words, of course, nor for how long he had to wear it. Something about shooting your mouth off in a crowd probably. But the short message ended with “I'm better than that.” We made it in the JP office; and ordered him to take it to school with him. Strap it on, I told him.
Instead, the parent went to the administration office. And presented to school personnel another celestial moment. That soon stunk to high heaven.
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