Schools, Race, Poverty, and Jail

Schools, Race, Poverty, and Jail

There was a substantial difference in attendees at the June 1, 2015 Department of Justice (DOJ) hearings on race relations regarding youth and schools. There actually were some high school kids at the discussions. Most of them came as a result of youth organizations such as Dania and Matt’s work at SAGE, Joe and Maria work at YEA, Isabel’s and Angelique’s work at N-Cite, and Dee’s work at Future Focus.

The students brought with them their experiences of racism in the class room and elsewhere. When my kids went to North High School there was a history teacher who would use g.ks to describe Vietnamese, even with Vietnamese kids in the class. My children told us and we organized some parents to visit the principal and demand that teacher be fired. He was not fired, but he was allowed to retire after another year.

At the DOJ hearing people were asked what could be done. Unfortunately the enthusiasm of the kids could not replace the need to understand what had taken place in the past. Curiously City Councillor Konnie Lukes had some of that history, but she also brought arrogance and assertiveness to what should have been a discussion among peers. On the one hand she wanted to know the background of everyone at the table. Then she point out neighborhood schools was not desirable because of desegregation consent agreement and that curriculum was for the most part State mandated.

The Worcester Police Community Liaison Officer suggested that we look at the Nativity School for ideas. Although impracticable for a school system as large as Worcester, the Nativity School has a premise that low income kids have to be removed from the bad effects of poverty by means of long hours in school or in after school programs and school during the summer. It seems to be an effective pedagogy.

A member of the Progressive Labor and the Massachusetts Human Rights Committee raised the issue of no school to jail pipeline. She specifically attacked the proposal by the Mayor, City Manager, and others to have cops in the schools and the use of the criminal legal system to resolve school issues. She suggested mediation and other alternate forms of conflict resolution.

I am beginning to change my mind about the usefulness of the DOJ hearings. These hearings have allowed people to network. I still believe however that the announced goals of the discussions on race relations would have better served if the City Manager would have had direct discussions without the presence of people such as the Tea Party and Turtleboy and Billy Breault; all of whom are perceived as racists by some in the communities of color.

From this networking the voices of those dis-empowered hopefully will be stronger.