This story has been haunting me all week. It brings home to me, most
clearly, the negative ways in which our society has changed. I attended one
of the roughest high schools in NYC from 1951 to 1955. The majority of
students were poor, black, and Puerto Rican. Kids fought with knives on the
back stairs. But the Police were never called. Discipline was handled in the
school by the teachers. This was before the Civil Rights Movement. The
school desegregation case was decided in the Supreme Court during my high
school years.
Miriam
Davidson writes: "When she saw it was Fields, she said, she turned to some
of her classmates. 'I told them to get the cameras out, because we know his
reputation-well, I know his reputation.'"
The girl who was dragged out of her chair by a police officer at Spring
Valley High School lacked the adult protection she deserves. (photo: New
Yorker)
What Niya Kenny Saw in a South Carolina Classroom
By Amy Davidson, The New Yorker
01 November 15
When a deputy sheriff named Ben Fields walked into Niya Kenny's math class
at Spring Valley High School, in Richland County, South Carolina, she took
out her phone and got ready to film him. One of her classmates was in
trouble for not paying attention to the lesson and for taking out her own
phone; she allegedly refused to leave when a teacher, and then an
administrator, told her to. So they called for a school resource officer, as
the in-house law enforcement is known. "We have two-I didn't know which one
was coming," Kenny told the local newspaper The State. When she saw it was
Fields, she said, she turned to some of her classmates. "I told them to get
the cameras out, because we know his reputation-well, I know his
reputation."
There are, as a result, three videos of what happened next. Fields, a tall
man, flips the girls out her seat and throws her across the room. As she
lands, with a thud, he berates her and begins dragging her out, by which
time Niya is on her feet. "I was crying, like literally crying and
screaming like a baby," Niya told WLTX, the local CBS television station. "I
was screaming what the F, what the F, is this really happening. I was
praying out loud for the girl." The teacher, meanwhile, just stands there;
most of the students seem frozen, some half-hiding their eyes. One of the
videos shows Fields yelling at Niya. But she wasn't going to be quiet. Her
reaction to what was happening, she told WLTX, was one of "disbelief," mixed
with something more: "I know this girl don't got nobody."
The first girl, whose name has not been released, does appear to have been
left without the protectors she deserves, in many senses. Fields has been
fired, but Sheriff Leon Lott, in announcing that decision, made a point of
saying that the teacher and administrator "supported" Fields's actions.
"Even the physical part. They had no problems with the physical part." (The
Sheriff, however, did have a problem, because Fields didn't use "proper
technique"-hence the termination.) Fields was a football coach, which seems
to have made him popular with some students (on Friday, a few dozen
assembled to show support for him), even as others knew him as "Officer
Slam." And the Sheriff kept returning, unbidden, to what seemed to be his
main message: "We must not lose sight that this whole incident was started
by this student. She is responsible for initiating this action." He also
said, "She was very disruptive, she was very disrespectful-she started this
whole incident." And she had to be "held accountable."
Disrupting school is a crime in South Carolina, a misdemeanor carrying a
possible penalty of ninety days imprisonment or a thousand dollar fine, and
Sheriff Lott had no qualms about pronouncing the girl's guilt, even though
what he meant by "disrupting" sounded singularly vague; there is no
allegation, for example, that she was screaming or throwing things in the
class, but, rather, as the Sheriff haltingly put it, "she wasn't doing what
the other students were doing.. He was trying to teach . she was preventing
that from happening by not paying attention." He said that one of the videos
showed her "striking Ben Fields and resisting," though what it actually
shows looks like shocked flailing. In an earlier press conference, the
Sheriff said that the girl had no injuries except possibly "rug burns";
asked why there were now reports that she had multiple injuries, he
suggested that they had emerged only "now that she has an attorney." She
needs someone. (There have been conflicting reports about her family
situation, including about whether she may have been in foster care at some
point; Simone Martin, one of her attorneys, would confirm only that the
girl's mother, contrary to one report, is not dead; Martin declined to
comment on her father, or any other aspect of her family situation.) When
she sat there, in class, not brightly following the lesson, not moving, Niya
appears to have known that, and probably some of the other children did,
too. The adults running the school decided that they were witnessing a
crime-actually, multiple crimes.
"I just couldn't believe this was happening," Kenny told WLTX. "I was just
crying and he was like, 'Since you have so much to say, you coming too.. You
want some of this?' And just put my hands behind my back." Both girls were
arrested, on the charge of "disturbing the school." Spring Valley's policy
is part of a larger move, across the country, toward criminalizing school
discipline. (Yesterday, the Times reported on an internal e-mail exchange at
the Success Academy, a charter school in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which
mentioned encouraging certain first-graders to withdraw from the school, in
part by calling 911 if they caused trouble.) It is as if there is a general
wariness toward children, particularly black or other minority children, or
perhaps a blindness to the fact that they are children at all. (Another
example is the case of Tamir Rice, the twelve-year-old who was shot dead in
Cleveland seconds after the police saw him playing in a park with what
turned out to be a toy gun.) When Sheriff Lott was asked, at the press
conference, if the charges against Niya, at least, might be dropped, he
sounded almost offended. "To my understanding, no charges have been dropped
against anybody," he said. "And, to my understanding, the charge is going to
continue. What they did was wrong. They violated the law." He said he didn't
"know all the facts" (which is certainly true) and was glad that the
incident had been filmed-and yet he seemed to feel that he knew enough to
condemn two young girls. Even when a reporter pressed him on the point-Niya
had only stood up, after all, in response to what even he was now
acknowledging was unacceptable behavior by a law-enforcement officer-he
said, "She still disrupted class. You saw other students that did not
disrupt class. They sat there, and they did what students are supposed to
be, and that's well-disciplined." He also didn't like Niya Kenny's
"language."
But it's the two girls who have had their education disrupted-Niya told The
State that she has been suspended-and her record may have an arrest on it.
She is due in court in December, though perhaps prosecutors will have seen
some sense by then. (The F.B.I. is investigating whether the students' civil
rights have been violated, or if another crime has been committed.) "It
should have been an adult, that's what I think," Niya told The State. "One
of the adults should have said, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa-that's not how you do
this.' " Niya's mother, at least, told reporters that she was proud of her,
and that seems right. In a moment when a classroom was full of shouting,
Niya understood the difference between an adult with a badge and a child who
was alone-or even just between an adult and a child.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
The girl who was dragged out of her chair by a police officer at Spring
Valley High School lacked the adult protection she deserves. (photo: New
Yorker)
http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/what-niya-kenny-sawhttp://www.new
yorker.com/news/amy-davidson/what-niya-kenny-saw
What Niya Kenny Saw in a South Carolina Classroom
By Amy Davidson, The New Yorker
01 November 15
hen a deputy sheriff named Ben Fields walked into Niya Kenny's math class
at Spring Valley High School, in Richland County, South Carolina, she took
out her phone and got ready to film him. One of her classmates was in
trouble for not paying attention to the lesson and for taking out her own
phone; she allegedly refused to leave when a teacher, and then an
administrator, told her to. So they called for a school resource officer, as
the in-house law enforcement is known. "We have two-I didn't know which one
was coming," Kenny told the local newspaper The State. When she saw it was
Fields, she said, she turned to some of her classmates. "I told them to get
the cameras out, because we know his reputation-well, I know his
reputation."
There are, as a result, three videos of what happened next. Fields, a tall
man, flips the girls out her seat and throws her across the room. As she
lands, with a thud, he berates her and begins dragging her out, by which
time Niya is on her feet. "I was crying, like literally crying and screaming
like a baby," Niya told WLTX, the local CBS television station. "I was
screaming what the F, what the F, is this really happening. I was praying
out loud for the girl." The teacher, meanwhile, just stands there; most of
the students seem frozen, some half-hiding their eyes. One of the videos
shows Fields yelling at Niya. But she wasn't going to be quiet. Her reaction
to what was happening, she told WLTX, was one of "disbelief," mixed with
something more: "I know this girl don't got nobody."
The first girl, whose name has not been released, does appear to have been
left without the protectors she deserves, in many senses. Fields has been
fired, but Sheriff Leon Lott, in announcing that decision, made a point of
saying that the teacher and administrator "supported" Fields's actions.
"Even the physical part. They had no problems with the physical part." (The
Sheriff, however, did have a problem, because Fields didn't use "proper
technique"-hence the termination.) Fields was a football coach, which seems
to have made him popular with some students (on Friday, a few dozen
assembled to show support for him), even as others knew him as "Officer
Slam." And the Sheriff kept returning, unbidden, to what seemed to be his
main message: "We must not lose sight that this whole incident was started
by this student. She is responsible for initiating this action." He also
said, "She was very disruptive, she was very disrespectful-she started this
whole incident." And she had to be "held accountable."
Disrupting school is a crime in South Carolina, a misdemeanor carrying a
possible penalty of ninety days imprisonment or a thousand dollar fine, and
Sheriff Lott had no qualms about pronouncing the girl's guilt, even though
what he meant by "disrupting" sounded singularly vague; there is no
allegation, for example, that she was screaming or throwing things in the
class, but, rather, as the Sheriff haltingly put it, "she wasn't doing what
the other students were doing.. He was trying to teach . she was preventing
that from happening by not paying attention." He said that one of the videos
showed her "striking Ben Fields and resisting," though what it actually
shows looks like shocked flailing. In an earlier press conference, the
Sheriff said that the girl had no injuries except possibly "rug burns";
asked why there were now reports that she had multiple injuries, he
suggested that they had emerged only "now that she has an attorney." She
needs someone. (There have been conflicting reports about her family
situation, including about whether she may have been in foster care at some
point; Simone Martin, one of her attorneys, would confirm only that the
girl's mother, contrary to one report, is not dead; Martin declined to
comment on her father, or any other aspect of her family situation.) When
she sat there, in class, not brightly following the lesson, not moving, Niya
appears to have known that, and probably some of the other children did,
too. The adults running the school decided that they were witnessing a
crime-actually, multiple crimes.
"I just couldn't believe this was happening," Kenny told WLTX. "I was just
crying and he was like, 'Since you have so much to say, you coming too.. You
want some of this?' And just put my hands behind my back." Both girls were
arrested, on the charge of "disturbing the school." Spring Valley's policy
is part of a larger move, across the country, toward criminalizing school
discipline. (Yesterday, the Times reported on an internal e-mail exchange at
the Success Academy, a charter school in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which
mentioned encouraging certain first-graders to withdraw from the school, in
part by calling 911 if they caused trouble.) It is as if there is a general
wariness toward children, particularly black or other minority children, or
perhaps a blindness to the fact that they are children at all. (Another
example is the case of Tamir Rice, the twelve-year-old who was shot dead in
Cleveland seconds after the police saw him playing in a park with what
turned out to be a toy gun.) When Sheriff Lott was asked, at the press
conference, if the charges against Niya, at least, might be dropped, he
sounded almost offended. "To my understanding, no charges have been dropped
against anybody," he said. "And, to my understanding, the charge is going to
continue. What they did was wrong. They violated the law." He said he didn't
"know all the facts" (which is certainly true) and was glad that the
incident had been filmed-and yet he seemed to feel that he knew enough to
condemn two young girls. Even when a reporter pressed him on the point-Niya
had only stood up, after all, in response to what even he was now
acknowledging was unacceptable behavior by a law-enforcement officer-he
said, "She still disrupted class. You saw other students that did not
disrupt class. They sat there, and they did what students are supposed to
be, and that's well-disciplined." He also didn't like Niya Kenny's
"language."
But it's the two girls who have had their education disrupted-Niya told The
State that she has been suspended-and her record may have an arrest on it.
She is due in court in December, though perhaps prosecutors will have seen
some sense by then. (The F.B.I. is investigating whether the students' civil
rights have been violated, or if another crime has been committed.) "It
should have been an adult, that's what I think," Niya told The State. "One
of the adults should have said, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa-that's not how you do
this.' " Niya's mother, at least, told reporters that she was proud of her,
and that seems right. In a moment when a classroom was full of shouting,
Niya understood the difference between an adult with a badge and a child who
was alone-or even just between an adult and a child.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
