Prometheus 6

I'm leading with the last paragraph because, in a nation where +90% of liability settlements lead with a line about how the payment isn't an admission of guilt, this

The district attorney's office in this case wants nothing more than to see this juvenile re-enter society and never cause another problem for herself by following the rules that society puts in place through its various organizations and formats (school, public laws, etc.). It is our position that she's spent more than enough time in TYC - in fact, never had to go there - and that if TYC feels she has learned her lesson, then let her out.

...may be the best it gets.

That's from Regarding the Shaquanda Cotton case, published on the Lamar County & District Attorney website, which I quote no further from because it's a restatement of Judge Superville's self-defense.

I personally think it insufficient. I'd like the child to get some legit therapy, both for her reported ADHD and for the shit she went through for the last year. And I'd like any record sealed. And maybe some help move to Dallas or something.

But I'm a realist. There will be no public admission they mishandled everything. There should be, though...I quote once again from Dallas South Blog, which is written by a resident of Paris, TX. He's presented Top Ten Misperceptions and Miscalculations relating to the Paris Texas Story. Three have bearing on the actual case; the others are things that offend the sensibilities of folks who would never have heard it if they hadn't gotten out of pocket.

10. Paris Independent School District underestimated some in Black Community

The Paris Schools have been accused of racism and bias in a number of specific incidents over the past three or four years. Many of the claims were frivolous and involved problem children whose parents were trying to get over for them.

However there were some disciplinary actions taken against black students that were inappropriate, perpetuated by teachers and administrators that I have known and respected. The district thought that by reassigning those involved the problems, and complaints, would go away. They did not account for the resolve of the parties involved, and hence had no long term strategy. Had the district had better follow through, and protected the students as they did the administrators, they may have been able to avoid some of the backlash.

"The district thought that by reassigning those involved the problems, and complaints, would go away," huh? The Catholic Church tranferring those pedophile priests would make the problems and complaints go away too.

This is what Creola Cotton and her associates were protesting, by the way.

5. The City and School is Faultless

As is the case 99% of the time, Anglo parties wonder where all of these problems are coming from for a city where whites and black get along so well. And I admit white and black do get along O.K. and it's not because black folks roll over. But the majority (for now) in this country has to understand that even though "it wasn't their fault," they are still the beneficiaries 250 years of slavery, and 100 years of Jim Crow Semi-Slavery.

My mother was in the last graduating class of the Black High School in Paris - 1966. This same school system that provided her and her peers with old, worn, written in textbooks is the same system that is charged with educating the grandchildren and great-grand children or those former Gibbons High students. The products the segregated Paris schools are still in leadership, and their children and grandchildren benefit from it whether they know it or not. This is not unique to Paris, Texas. [P6: True.]

1. The 14 year-old was sentenced to 7 years in prison

I can say that I thought this was the punishment handed out by Judge "Chuck" Superville, however I have since found out that the sentence he handed out was one (1) to seven (7) year, and was eligible for release after one year for behavior parameters. And this was juvenile court, not adult court. Still seems like a stiff sentence, though other options were considered.