Uproar Over Texas Teen's Imprisonment (Mother Claims Racism)

My Way News ^ | 27 March 07 | PAUL J. WEBER

[SkyPilot]

DALLAS (AP) - A teenager has been jailed for more than a year for shoving a teacher's aide at her high school, a case that has sparked anger and heightened racial tensions in rural East Texas.

Shaquandra Cotton, who is black, claims the teacher's aide pushed her first and would not let her enter school before the morning bell in 2005. A jury convicted the 15-year-old girl in March 2006 on a felony count of shoving a public servant, who was not seriously injured.

The girl is in the Ron Jackson Correctional Complex in Brownwood, about 300 miles from her home in Paris. The facility is part of an embattled juvenile system that is the subject of state and federal investigations into allegations that staff members physically and sexually abused inmates.

Under the sentence handed down by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville, she will remain at the facility until she meets state rehabilitation standards or reaches her 21st birthday.

But her family and civil rights activists say they want her home now. They are condemning the sentence as unusually harsh and say it shows a justice system that punishes young offenders differently, depending on their race.

Creola Cotton, Shaquandra's mother, and activists argue that while Superville sent Shaquandra to the state's juvenile prison system, he gave a white 14-year-old arsonist probation.

As many as 400 people marched and rallied in Paris on Tuesday, the second such protest in as many weeks by civil rights groups.

Meanwhile, the Paris school district fiercely denied claims of racism and chided the girl's mother for "playing a game" to start controversy.

Creola Cotton says her daughter received an unjust punishment for pushing the Paris High School employee. Her complaints have prompted federal civil rights investigations into the school district.

"My daughter has been (at Brownwood) a year now," Creola Cotton said. "It's time for her to come home."

In an interview with The Paris News, Superville said he chose the sentence because witnesses testified that placing Shaquandra back in her mother's care was not the best decision.

"If Shaquandra had been white, the outcome would have been the same," Superville said. "My decision was based on facts and law, and I am confident this was the correct decision based on the facts I was presented."

About 41 percent of students are black in Paris, a city of about 26,000 just south of the Oklahoma border. Fewer than 10 percent of the district's teachers are black, according to the most recent audit by the Texas Education Agency.

Dennis Eichelbaum, an attorney for the Paris school district, said the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has vindicated the district by finding no evidence of discrimination in three cases. Five other investigations remain open.

Creola Cotton is preventing the district from fairly defending itself by refusing to let the school district make her daughter's entire record public, Eichelbaum said.

"Mrs. Cotton has been wrongfully attacking the character of the district," Eichelbaum said. "She's being disingenuous with regard to her daughter being an innocent child."

Added Eichelbaum: "She's playing a game."

Prosecutors say they offered Shaquandra a plea agreement that would have reduced the felony charge to a misdemeanor and given her two years' probation. But Creola Cotton rejected the plea on behalf of her daughter, prosecutors said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education said the agency handled nearly 1,000 discrimination complaints last year.

[ArrogantBustard]

Shaquandra Cotton, who is black, whose mother is an idiot, ...

[ArrogantBustard]

Creola Cotton, Shaquandra's mother

Looks like Shaquandra's grandma ain't too bright, either ...

[WesternPacific]

The expected response.

Pretty vague. Expected response from whom?

[skepsel]

Assault your mailman for bringing the letters late and you have committed a felony because it happened while he was working and was directly related to his job.

No state can allow its acts or officers to be reduced to impotence or it ceases to be able to govern. The result is anarchy or mob rule and a Hobbesian war of all against all, the naked ape au' naturel.

The idea is to prevent the obstruction, intimidation or injury of public officials in the performance of their duites.

[AppyPappy]

Shaquandra Cotton

No way. This has to be parody

[Burkean]

The article does not mention that the 14 year old burned down her own parents' house. Perhaps she got a lenient sentence because the parents as the offended party requested it. If Shaquandra had shoved her mother, grandmother, or some other relative perhaps she would also have gotten probation.

And I fully support teachers and aides being given special protection as public servants. They put themselves at risk in numerous ways in our out of control public school systems.

[SkyPilot]

The article does not mention that the 14 year old burned down her own parents' house.

Wow! Where did you hear that? I am not disputing it, but it is amazing the lengths the media will go to avoid publishing information when they want to.

I know the child is a juvenile, but I have seen the media print everything - no holds barred - when they want to.

[Burkean]

It's been in the Paris News (which I think can be found online). I live 20 minutes drive from Paris so I read the print edition of the paper.

Schools are out of control here. My mother is city judge in another town and the high school has started referring their discipline problems to the court system. She routinely sees kids for fighting.

I taught in the Dallas school system and I saw every combination of fighting you can imagine: teacher on student, parent on teacher, student on student, student on somebody else's parent, etc. And that was a middle school!

[Xenalyte]

Shaquandra.

I mean, really.

[B-Chan]

"Shaquandra". Guilty.

I gon' name may baby "Meconium".

[WLR]

Circular logic... you state the law then the position of the state as if that is proof of the justness or validity.

There are many laws in need of elimination or reform. The mere fact that there exists such a law proves nothing with regard to it's justness or being right.

"An assault on the Kings men is an Assault on the King"

Clue 1...In America we have no King but he who is in heaven.

No more than a few weeks ago a Peace Officer unfortunately was reported murdered. The Authorities had a big press conference swearing the criminal should give himself up that there was no place he could run or hide..blah blah blah...

That same day and every day there are thousands of law abiding citizens robbed assaulted and murdered across the the US while Peace Officers( another special class) following "Department Policies" engage in a felony criminal conspiracy and ignore illegal aliens who stand self convicted of criminality by their unlawful presence in the US. Another protected criminal class who are responsible in no small part for the robbery murder and rape of US Citizens. Assuredly the day of that press conference a law abiding citizen was murder or genuinely raped in that very town.. But the Press CON-ference was for the one Peace Officer..

"Crime in the United States accounts for more death, injuries and loss of property then all Natural Disasters combined." (BTW I disagree with their "compassion strategy" better to make the people warriors than victims.)

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/

"No State can allow it's acts or officers to be reduced to impotence"

What the hell are you talking about?

Is their authority reduced if they were no longer a separate higher class of persons. NO only their ability to act in manifestly arbitrary and capricious manner. Why do you value their lives under the law less than your wife or child?


No people can afford to allow the KING or the STATE to have separate laws increasing the seriousness of a crime based upon the crime being committed against the "Kings Men" therein lies tyranny of the basest sort. Americans are victims of that tyranny every day such laws are on the books.BR>
In your world all some abusive elitist scum need do is acquire the status of "Kings Man" and his ability to threaten and intimidate goes beyond what ever powers his functionary job affords. He can laugh as even the slightest demonstration against his arbitrary and capricious abuse of power is protected not only by the State by by special laws which apply to him only..

We live in a Democratic Republic... Laws which establish a separate Mandarin Class are direct and violent assaults on that liberty..

In the Defense of Freedom there is not one American GI worth a damn who values his life over an average American man women or child nor does the law state he is better or more important.. I am damn Proud to have been a Marine and a Soldier a servant of the people whom I love.. Not a self styled Petite Master..

But you and your "Kings Men", "Mandarin Class" are above the requirement for Sacrifice... you are special and your loss or injury is special somehow greater and more deserving of attention that that of the average American, Man, Women or Child..

Your elitist notions are disgusting... It is clear you would belong in Europe or among the Islamofacists not living among a free people.


W

[MissEdie]

Like that old saying goes "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree".

[WLR]

"It has been my experience that juvenile courts are not prone to handing out harsh sentences to juvenile offenders "

I would very much like your assumptions and beliefs to be true.. Persons in Authority acting justly with compassion and restraint..

The only problem is I worked successfully (by their measure) for the one of those agencies. Once I grasped the reality of what was occurring I could not in good moral conscience continue. I took the opportunity to find a more moral class of people and proffession to associate myself with. I will only say based upon my direct and personal knowledge from that experience, where power exists the degree of base disgusting, vile and reprehensible behavior, the degree of injustice was directly proportional to the degree of power and lack of personal or organizational accountability responsibility external to that organization.

What is being done behind the curtain in the name of justice, in our name is horrific.

Further I can demonstrate the same is true in the Public School System if you really need such proof.

The average people caught up in the system of justice are near helpless.From my direct personal experience and knowledge in many cases not guilty of anything remotely related to the charges files against them or charges to which they are found guilty.

Part of the process comes from our disgusting lawyer friends who have silently entered into a conspiracy to convict all persons arrested of at least something, to get that "guilty" plea as a part of a strategy to protect Peace Officers, Departments, Cities and Counties in which they work from Unlawful Arrest Lawsuits..

Your "Kings Men" concept aids in this as those in positions of authority are exceedingly good at inciting or if unsuccessful at that conjuring up criminal conduct incident to an arrest.

We have a sad state of affairs and need to rethink the authority and power given to those who claim to represent us in any capacity.

Stripping from them such special privlaged status will be nearly impossible but is essential if we are to reign in those in power.
W

[Ron H.]

Again, see Post #30 and look in the mirror this time when you do. It's your kind of thinking that is bringing down America to the level it has sunken to.

[Lijahsbubbe]

A teenager has been jailed for more than a year for shoving a teacher's aide at her high school

Silly Shaquandra. Doesn't she know it's worse to be an American and push a teacher's aid than to be an illegal and come over the border illegally with a crapload of drugs - twice?

[PAR35]

Prosecutors say they offered Shaquandra a plea agreement that would have reduced the felony charge to a misdemeanor and given her two years' probation. But Creola Cotton rejected the plea on behalf of her daughter, prosecutors said.

So, bottom line, it's the mother's fault that the girl is doing time.

[Osage Orange]

Look her daughter is very much a victim of elitism and cronyism.

REALLY!!??

You're joshing, right?

[ohioman]

"Creola Cotton, Shaquandra's mother"

Maybe there's a new law against people with stupid names.

[metmom]

By a mother named *Creola*? What else do you expect?

[metmom]

The mother has a record of causing problems at the school, the daughter has a history of problems at the school, and the judge had no choice in the sentencing after the mother rejected the deal. She then started stirring up the blacks in the city against the DA.

Probably her intent all along. I'm sure this is not the girl's first offense, either. Her record (sealed, of course, so we'll never know) is probably clean as a whistle. They always treat first time offenders so harshly. Yeah, that's right.