Summary and quotes from the NPR Story:
At Jena High School in Jena, La., the white kids ate their lunch under a big shade tree in the courtyard, and the black kids ate by the auditorium. Last year, during a school assembly in September, a black freshman asked if he was allowed to sit under the tree. The principal said he could sit anywhere he liked.
Three white boys on the rodeo team apparently disagreed. The next morning, there were three nooses hanging from the shade tree in the courtyard.
The boys weren't expelled or arrested, and the nooses were judged a prank. They were given in-school suspension.
The school called an assembly and summoned the police and the district attorney. Black students sat on one side, whites on the other. District Attorney Reed Walters warned the students he could be their friend or their worst enemy. He lifted his fountain pen and said, "With one stroke of my pen, I can make your life disappear."
That evening, black students told their parents that the DA was looking right at them. Walters denies that.
On Nov. 30, Jena High school was burned down. Each race thought the other was responsible.
The next night, Robert Bailey, a 16 year old black student at the school, tried to attend a mostly white party. He was beaten up, and a guy at the party broke a beer bottle over his head. The incident wasn't investigated until months later, when the white boy who attacked him was charged with battery and given probation.
The next day, a kid from the party threatened Rober Bailey with a gun. Bailey and his friends managed to wrestle the gun away, and he took the gun home with him. For that, he was charged with theft of a firearm, 2nd degree robbery, and disturbing the peace. The guy who pulled the gun on him wasn't charged at all.
The following Monday, a white kid named Justin Barker was bragging in the halls about beating up Bailey at the party that weekend. When he walked into the courtyard, six black students attacked him, and he was sent to the hospital. The injuries were superficial, and he was released later that evening.
The six kids were charged with aggravated assault, but the district attorney increased the charges to attempted second-degree murder. One student has already had a trial, in which his court-appointed lawyer did not mount any defense, and an all-white jury found him guilty. This school football star had a chance at a scholarship to a Division I school, but instead, he's now facing up to 22 years in prison.
So, to review:
White kids:
- Put hangman's nooses in a tree to show black students they weren't welcome.
- Ganged up on a black student and beat him up.
- pulled a gun on the same student
yet somehow, it's the 6 black kids facing jail time and being accused of attempted murder?
how is this happening in 2007?
No comments:
Post a Comment