"She's a child!"

[Hortensis]

117. Chemisse, unlike you, I do not have the skills to handle kids like this. But

I do know that how these situations are handled goes directly to the question of what the purposes of schools are and what their duties to their students and communities are.

There are a million definitions of education out there for those of all political and economic viewpoints to choose from. You have whatever yours is. I have a strongly aspirational notion of individual development; of course -- I'm a liberal.

South Carolina's in action is probably more like Scott Walker's when he tried to remove from the state code the terms “search for truth” and “improve the human condition” and replace them with “meet the state’s workforce needs.” But even Scott's soulless fascist purpose is failed by South Carolina's destructive process.

When this unhappy 16-year-old acted out, the school abandoned its higher duties (and I believe they are very high) to begin funneling her, via South Carolina's viciously counterproductive zero-tolerance policy, into the jail system. And on the way this 16-year-old girl was treated not as a child or as a citizen but with the most profound contempt and brutalized in a way that shocked the world. A great deal of documentation shows that this kind of tragedy is SOP in South Carolina and that Black students disproportionately victimized.

As for how I "know" that the teacher and administrator supported Officer Slam's behavior, I did not hear their statements myself but rather heard them reported on PBS. As for blaming the teacher, though -- oh, you bet! The teacher knew not only Officer Slam's reputation, but far more importantly, the destructively punitive and criminalizing process that would be initiated if this girl didn't suddenly decide to obey the administrator.

I really, really meant it when I said those teachers absolutely have a RESPONSIBILITY to both deal constructively with their misbehaving students and to protect them from being ground up in this evil process, and I don't care what the local procedure manual says. This adolescent girl, whose brain is far from adult maturity, was betrayed by those who were responsible for her wellbeing.