By Carlos Miller
Below is a press release I received about a protest planned Wednesday at 4 p.m. in front of the Miami-Dade School Police Department, 6100 NW 2nd Avenue in Miami.
On Wednesday March 5th, 4:00pm Power U youth and youth from Edison Senior
High School will join together in front of the Miami Dade School Police
Department to protest the unfair arrests that happened Friday February 29th
at Miami Edison, and to demand a completed feasibility study for Restorative
Justice that was promised in January. This study and indecisive
administration stand in the way of implementing Restorative Justice in
schools.
The youth of Power U Center have been demanding the Miami Dade Schools to
implement a program of Restorative Justice in the schools, starting with
Booker T. Washington Senior High as a pilot program. They have been upset
with the treatment of students in school as realized last week with the
situation at Edison. The school Police promised to have a feasibility study
for restorative justice done by January’s School Board meeting.
At February’s meeting School Police Chief Gerald Darling assured us that the
report was done and we would receive it shortly. It has now been 3 weeks
and there is no evidence that a report has even been started. Power U youth
member Travae Brown says “We are tired of waiting for this report and being
disrespected by the School Police. The violence that happened at Miami
Edison shows exactly why we need Restorative Justice in our schools instead
of police who don’t respect young people, especially young Black people.”
It is essential that Restorative Justice be implemented in the schools in
order to decrease schools’ dependence on arrests and suspensions as a way of
solving issues. Restorative Justice is a form of problem and issue solving
that provides everyone involved a voice, engaging the community in order to
address the root of the problem through dialogue.
Punishment, especially in the form of suspension and arrest has been proven
to be ineffective and actually harmful, with high rates of recidivism among
youthful offenders, and increased rates of dropouts amongst students.
Restorative Justice has been utilized in school districts such as Chicago
and Minnesota with amazing results, at times reducing suspensions from
30-50%.
The arrests and beatings that occurred at Miami Edison on Friday were a
tragic and extreme example of a systemic problem that is occurring everyday
in Miami Public Schools, and that is exactly what the students were
protesting. Black students are particularly impacted by harsh discipline
policies and the heavy dependence on police to deal with issues in the
schools, as they are arrested at extremely disproportionate rates. Edison
Senior Chrisford Green states: “We didn’t organize this protest because of
just one incident. We just got fed up. That kind of stuff happens all the
time here.”
Power U Center and Miami Edison Youth will be joined by students from the
University of Miami and by CopWatch as well as other allies.
When: Wednesday, March 5th, 2008, 4 pmWhere: 6100 NW 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL 33127
More STUDENTS Join together to RALLY for demands after Edison uprising.
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8 responses so far ↓
1 FerfelaBat // Mar 5, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Now this? I agree with. It’s after school, off campus and while I think the police have more work than they can handle, this issue needs to be put to bed asap before the kids graduate at least.
2 Ms Calabaza // Mar 5, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Out of school suspensions are a joke. Teachers here use them just to get rid of the kid for a few days. After the student has missed enough classes, he will either be so disgusted he’ll drop out or he’ll just be considered a problem and passed from program to program until he’s old enough to take the GED. All kids want to do this because they think it’s easy only to find that they will never pass the test. So, we have another hopeless kid out there who can’t even get a job at Home Depot.
3 Carlos Miller // Mar 5, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Ms C,
I used to be one of those troubled kids. I got suspended and expelled so many times that by the time I got my act together as a senior, I wasn’t allowed to graduate because I was missing so many credits from my sophomore years.
And this is that I went to night school and summer school.
So I ended up dropping out and getting a GED. I found it to be a very easy test. So easy that I ended up regretting not taking it much earlier.
From there, I eventually graduated with a bachelor degree.
4 Ms Calabaza // Mar 5, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Carlos,
something tells me you probably had a good basic elementary education. I work with ‘at risk’ kids and here in Virginia the test is really quite difficult for them. A school board member told me 1 out of 10 pass the test. Sadly, most kids don’t re-take it.
5 Carlos Miller // Mar 5, 2008 at 6:17 pm
One of the things that set me apart from the other troublemakers is that I’ve always been a voracious reader.
I would spend the week disrupting class and talking back to the teacher, then spend my weekends taking the bus to the library and researching whatever topic had piqued my curiosity.
6 Ms Calabaza // Mar 6, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Carlos,
off topic a bit here . . . a few years back I became interested in the Ingrid Betancourt kidnapping in Colombia after watching an HBO documentary on her. Like you, (you are a child after my heart with regards to being a ‘voracious reader’) I researched, found and
read her book Until Death do us Part. The latest I’ve heard about her is that she is dying and has Hepatitis B. YouTube has a very disturbing video of her that was found in Bogota in the apartment of a FARC member. Any inside story on this? on FARC? Is your family in Colombia concerned about war?
7 Carlos Miller // Mar 7, 2008 at 1:59 am
Ms C,
My family is most definitely worried about war. They live in Bogota which is far from the border but the wars always leave their toll in Bogota in thousands of displaced peasants living on the streets.
I’ve heard many rumors about Ingrid Betancourt over the years, including that she was dead, that she fell in love with a FARC soldier and that she joined the FARC
8 FerfelaBat // Mar 9, 2008 at 9:07 am
Chavez does not have the balls to go to war. Columbia is one of Vensuelas main suppliers of food and with food rationing already happening there he would be striking at Columbia with a double edged sword.
On topic - it looks like they are going to have to drop most of the charges agains the Edison students because they are uniformly vague. Good news for the moms, dads, and kids.
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