The Story of Shaquanda Cotton
And you thought the doll test was hard to watch…
One girl burns down a house, one shoves a teacher’s aid.
They were both 14 in a small Texas town and sat before the same Texas judge. One goes free, the other to jail. One was white and the other was black…the year 2006. But what does this have to do with dating?
But what does this have to do with dating? This was the question that I was asked when I said that I wanted to write about a young girl that was serving time in a Texas Youth detention facility for shoving a hall monitor at her high school. The 58 year old teacher’s aid was not seriously hurt. However, she was white and Shaquanda Cotton black. Perhaps the biggest controversy in this case was not that the 14 year old black girl was sentenced to up to 7 years for shoving; but that the same judge that handed down this sentence, just a few months earlier had given another 14 year old girl (who happened to be white), probation for burning down a house. Shoving equals prison and Arson equates to probation. I’d heard that things in Texas were big, but I had no idea.
As you can imagine, once Shaquanda’s story finally hit the press (almost a year after she began to serve her sentence), tempers were flaring and everyone was screaming racism. We heard every detail of the young girls defiant past. Let’s see there was the multiple disciplinary issues that she received at the school after, her mother began complaining of unfair treatment too other minority children (at the time none were her own).
Coincidently, Shaquanda began to get write ups for (1) wearing a shirt that was an inch too short, (2) pouring too much paint into a cup during art class and (3) defacing a desk that later school officials reported showed no signs of damage.
During Shaquanda’s trial, which by the way, (her mother was not allowed in the court room because she was told that she was a witness), school officials would testify that the 14-year old girl “demonstrated a pervasive and consistent anti-authority attitude”. Wow, I think I know a few of those types. They are called TEENAGERS!
I guess that’s what brings me to my point. What does this story have to do with dating? Nothing and everything. I’m sure I could find some cute and clever way to tie in the “race” card and how this poor little black girl is being treated so wrong. Or go for the angle of her single parent mom trying to raise a child and how we can learn to deal with hardships, trials and tribulations in our own relationships. But, no I’m not going to either of those places.
I’m going to that place that exists inside everyone on this “interracial” dating site, your heart. I feel the need to point out that in the year 2007; we have bigger problems and challenges in our society than getting poor service and nasty looks. It goes deeper than what a has-been comedic actor says or if we should sleep with our ex. It’s important that in addition to getting all the feel good, self improvement and how to find the love of your life lessons, that we also get the information and knowledge of what social problems are going on in our world. It’s important to know where you and your companion stand on these important issues.
It’s imperative that we not only know about the “hot topics and issues”, but that we also FEEL something. To know how we feel and how those whose opinions we respect feel. We can’t allow ourselves to become numb, because in this day and age nothing surprises us anymore. We’ve ALL been there, done that, seen it, wrote it, lived it!
When we start to think that it’s okay for a 14-year old child to be locked away for shoving while grown ass adults serve less time for drugs, rape and murder, we’ve got bigger problems than how to find the love of our life.
This story really has nothing to do with dating, but everything to do with understanding, compassion and love. And without those things what’s the point of dating?
This is Leticia reminding you to not loose your heart; you may need it one day.
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Soory for the lateness of this comment but I sometimes miss things I should read. I see this as a continuation of the whole divide and control game. It’s less about race than class and power. It’s a white power structure but it has faces of many colors Cindi Rice is a black woman but sells she self to a system that mostly benefits a very few white people (I’m a white man but class is more important than race in our society). The problem is the system and the love of money and power that is the problem most white people do not have problems with black people and freely interact with them on a daily basis at least in California. I grew up in rural Minnesota and once was asked if there were many black people there I said there anit a whole lot of anybody there. Society is and has changed but there are changes that our ruling class will not accept and racism is a useful tool for them to keep the plebeian class squabbling among it’s self. Divide and Conguer, Divide and rule among themselves they don’t care what color your skin is as long as their interests are served.
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Wasn’t she let out? I thought she was, anyway
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In this case, is it “…the law is a ass–a idiot,” as Charles Dickens’ Mr. Bumble said, or was the idiocy from Shaquanda Cotton and/or her mom and/or legal team?
According to testimony, Shaquanda Cotton did assault a public official, a 58-year old teacher’s aide. She seems to be an angry and overly defiant teenager and if so, probably needs counseling more than time. She was sentenced to a “juvie” of which I have no knowledge but probably is way more punitive than therapeutic.
What is the law in Texas? Is a conviction of assault on a public official by a juvenile a felony punishable by incarceration in a juvenile facility until the age of 21? If so, why didn’t Shaquanda take the offered plea deal to reduce the sentence to a misdemeanor count with two years of supervised probation? Why didn’t her mom insist? Did she not push the aide? Apparently she did.
Was this racism? In spite of the ongoing and permeating presence of racism in America, not every incident involving a Black person is based in racism, even in Texas (or New York City where baseball bats and Black men come in contact all too often).
Stupidity, legislative, judicial, parental and adolescent, seems to be to blame here, not racism.
Oh yeah, she is out of the juvenile facility and back in school, so the system did work in this particular case, though not particularly well or without protest.
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When I first read this, being a native Texan, I had flashbacks of my youth and school days. I have white teachers referring to students of color as Spics, Specs, etc. I had one particular teacher who, when describing a peanut butter sandwhich (don’t ask me why) explain that white children spread their PB thinly. She repeatedly called the only Mexican student in the class ‘wetback’. Dumb I know. I was in the 4th grade, and my mother and father had recently separated. With all the things she was going thru I did not want to burden her with the ignorance of this situation. That’s how I felt at the time anyway. But the same time, once I was a little older and now in a predominately Black school I experienced racism by my own people. I spoke proper English, had lighter skin than alot of the other students. Racism, no matter who is spewing it, is an ugly, ugly abomination! It’s only when we speak up collectively, can we stop the beast!
PLEASE READ:
http://skepticalbrotha.wordpress.com/2007/04/01/shaquanda-cotton-released/
March 31, 2007
HOUSTON — Shaquanda Cotton, the black teenager in the small east Texas town of Paris whose prison sentence of up to 7 years for shoving a teacher’s aide sparked nationwide controversy, was released Saturday.
Her release, ordered by a special conservator appointed to overhaul the state’s scandal-ridden juvenile prison system, was the first of what could be hundreds as a panel of civil rights leaders begins reviewing the sentences of every youth incarcerated by the Texas Youth Commission to weed out those being held arbitrarily.
“We have no confidence in the system that was in place,” said Jim Hurley, spokesman for the conservator, Jay Kimbrough. “And this case is an example of what we expect to happen if something wrong has been done to youths being held inside that system.”
Cotton, who is 15, had no prior criminal record when she was incarcerated a year ago under an indeterminate sentence that could have lasted until her 21st birthday. Her case rose to national prominence and became the focus of ongoing civil rights protests after a March 12 Tribune story detailed how a 14-year-old white girl convicted of the more serious crime of arson was sentenced to probation by the same judge.
Cotton’s case occurred against a backdrop of persistent allegations of racial discrimination inside the Paris public schools — allegations that are the subject of a continuing probe by the U.S. Department of Education to determine whether black students in the district are disciplined more harshly than whites.
“When I learned about this case, I thought, this just looks so bad and smells so bad it made me hurt,” said state Rep. Harold Dutton, the influential chairman of the Texas Legislature’s juvenile justice committee. “I told [prison officials] I wanted her out of there immediately.”
The superintendent of the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex in Brownwood, Texas, where Shaquanda Cotton is being held, called the girl’s mother, Creola Cotton, Friday afternoon and told her she could come pick up the youth, Creola Cotton said.
But because it is a five-hour drive from Paris to Brownwood, and the weather in the area on Friday was severe, Creola Cotton said she couldn’t reach the prison until Saturday morning.
Later Friday, prison officials, who had not told Shaquanda of her impending release, allowed her to call her mother.
‘She nearly fell on the floor’
“She thought they were bringing her to the office to tell her I was not going to be able to visit this weekend like I was planning because of the bad weather, so she was already crying,” Creola Cotton said. “I said, ‘Oh, I’m still gonna come see you tomorrow. But you’re going to be coming home with me.’ She nearly fell on the floor.”
Officials said Shaquanda Cotton was being released on 60 days’ probation to allow her to access state health and counseling services. But after that, she would be completely free, they said. Creola Cotton said her daughter would not return to the Paris public schools but would pursue her GED at home.
What effect her release might have on the pending legal appeal of the youth’s case was unclear.
Since she has been in prison, Shaquanda Cotton said that she had grown despondent surrounded by other youths who were hardened criminals, and that she had tried to commit suicide. Her sentence, which ultimately was up to the discretion of prison officials, had twice been extended, first because she would not admit her guilt as required by prison regulations and then because she was found with “contraband” in her cell — an extra pair of socks.
Those sentence extensions drew the attention of Kimbrough, who was confirmed by the state Senate on Thursday as conservator of the youth prison system, which has been rocked by a sex scandal over allegations that guards and administrators coerced inmates for sex.
Kimbrough, a former deputy attorney general, said last week that he was convening a special committee to examine the sentences of all 4,700 youths in Texas juvenile prisons to determine how many might have had their sentences unfairly extended by prison authorities — and that Shaquanda Cotton’s was the first case he intended to review.
Prison officials said it was Kimbrough who personally ordered the girl’s release on Friday.
Since the Tribune’s first account of Shaquanda Cotton’s case, her story has been circulated on more than 400 Internet blogs and featured in newspapers and radio and TV reports across the country. Two protests demanding her release were held in Paris and a third, to be led by Rev. Al Sharpton, was scheduled for Tuesday.
Even before news of her impending release broke Friday, the Lamar County District Attorney’s office, which prosecuted her and pressed for her to be sent to prison for up to 7 years, made an abrupt turnaround and said the youth had served enough time and ought to be freed.
Court discrepancy revealed
“Let her out of TYC,” said Allan Hubbard, spokesman for Lamar County District Atty. Gary Young. “Hell, she’s done a year for pushing a teacher. That’s too long.”
Hubbard also backed away from claims he and Young made this week in numerous media interviews that the judge in the case, Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville, had had no choice but to send the youth to prison because her mother had testified that she would not cooperate with probation officials had the judge sentenced the teen to probation.
On Thursday, Young’s official Web site contained this assertion: “This juvenile’s mother (Creola Cotton) told the judge she would not comply with conditions of probation.”
But a review of the full court transcript shows no such testimony. In fact, Creola Cotton repeatedly answered “yes” when asked in court whether she would comply with any conditions of probation that the judge might impose.
On Friday morning, after an inquiry about this discrepancy by the Tribune, the district attorney’s Web site was altered to read: “Through her actions of non-cooperation, Ms. Cotton told the judge she would not comply with conditions of probation.”
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Posted in Criminal Injustice System, Politics, Race, Racist Judges, Shaquanda Cotton, Texas Injustice, Texas Politics, racism
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This story is just more proof that racism is not a thing of the past…
No wonder the “scales of justice” is wearing a blindfold…Its JUSTICE VS. JUST US!
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Leticia, This is a powerful article. For me, it DOES have something to do with dating. I do not date men that are not aware of the political climate. I have received prejudice in the form of being spit on or glared at for walking with my black date. (I’m white.) But I’m EXTREMELY aware that it is nothing compared to what black people STILL face, today. And my Native friends and Latino friends tell me stories of how they face racism and prejudice. It is pretty surreal and it is heartbreaking. I sincerely hope that Obama’s presidency helps decrease racism in this country. I’m glad you chose this site to descuss judicial racism. Once again, if my “date” is ignorant about the world around him, I have no desire to date him.
peace,
stillahippie
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