Cops Nab 5-Year-Old for Wearing Wrong Color Shoes to School

[eridani]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/01/18/cops-nab-five-year-old-wearing-wrong-color-shoes-school

In Mississippi, if kindergarteners violate the dress code or act out in class, they may end up in the back of a police car.

A story about one five-year-old particularly stands out. The little boy was required to wear black shoes to school. Because he didn’t have black shoes, his mom used a marker to cover up his white and red sneakers. A bit of red and white were still noticeable, so the child was taken home by the cops.

The child was escorted out of school so he and his mother would be taught a lesson.

Ridiculous? Perhaps. But incidents such as this are happening across Mississippi. A new report, “Handcuffs on Success: The Extreme School Discipline Crisis in Mississippi Public Schools,” exposes just how bad it’s become.

Released on January 17, the report is a joint project between state chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Mississippi Coalition for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse and the Advancement Project.

[PatrickforO]

1. Remind me to never go to Mississippi.

Or ever buy anything that was produced there.

[Chakab]

9. It's not just Mississippi. This nonsense goes on all over the country.

It's called the school-to-prison pipeline.

https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-inequality-education/school-prison-pipeline

[FlatBaroque]

19. No worries

nothing is produced there except misery.

[Art_from_Ark]

2. Things seem to be getting way, way, way ridiculous

Calling the police in for such trivial matters is stupid beyond belief.

[Huddie94]

15. It's the authoritarian mental state. Similar to paranoia.

We don't have this individual authoritarian state defined as a mental disorder. It's not an Axis II psychological category like these recognized mental problems:

Antisocial Personality Disorder
Avoidant Personality Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder
Dependent Personality Disorder
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
Paranoid Personality Disorder
Schizoid Personality Disorder
Schizotypal Personality Disorder

For me, I'd rather deal with a moderate case of paranoia or the lies of a mild antisoocial (aka sociopath) than go to a school run by an over the edge authoritarian.

Authoritarian personality disorder is a major cause of social disfunction worldwide. Mississippi suffers more than most of us.

[meow2u3]

40. Authoritarian personality should be an Axis II personality disorder

This disturbed personality type has wreaked more havoc on the world than most personality disturbances.

[Huddie94]

45. Amen, meow2u3.

[malaise]

17. Not if you have private prisons to fill

and think slavery was a good thing

[Warren DeMontague]

3. well, that seems reasonable.

[romanic]

4. Any school that does this

should be slapped with fines for misusing emergency services. We do it when idiots make false emergencies to 911, the same should be done for these idiotic schools.

[octoberlib]

5. Their answer is to humiliate people who don't

have the money to buy new shoes. This is sick.

[SwissTony]

7. Exactly. This is just cringeworthy.

And why can't kids have different coloured shoes?

They did this to a 5-year old? That is child abuse.

Why don't the cops just say "Hey school, go..."?

[Downwinder]

6. Have to condition police state mentality at a young age.

[classykaren]

8. This is why I do not believe in public school uniforms

Many schools in Florida require this kinda crap. Parents say they approve. Except in a wealthy area near me Dozens of parents went to the schoolboard meeting very upset. Talking about China how this stifles children' s creativity.

[eridani]

10. I think that would depend on how the policy is carried out.

I wore "uniforms" of a sort through 12 years of Catholic schooling. No rules about shoes or socks, except for no tennis shoes. Just plain, and pretty inexpensive, dark blue pants or pleated skirts, and white blouses or shirts. Dark blue cardigans for winter wear. I hated spending time on deciding what to wear, and didn't mind the uniforms--three blouses, two skirts, one sweater. Only wished there had been a pants option for girls for cold weather. Two rules about hair--no DAs ("duck's ass) cuts for boys or teased hair for girls. Otherwise no restrictions on length or style. In grade school, none of the boys would have been caught dead with long hair anyway.

In high school, things could get sticky when longer hair for boys became popular, and shorter skirts for girls. After school, girls would roll the waistbands up to get a shorter look, but we never tried to do it in class. There were more than a few conflicts with teachers then if the teachers thought we were being smartasses. There really weren't any kids wealthy enough to show off, so that wasn't an issue even on weekends.

Some of the current policies seem way too tightassed by comparison.

[romanic]

13. I agree.

Private schools is one thing, I can even make an exception for so-called charter schools; but public school uniforms are just ridiculous. What I've also noticed is that most of the public schools with uniform codes are in low-income, mostly minority districts. Take that as you will.

[bhikkhu]

22. I'm generally in favor of school uniforms

as they level the playing field of income inequality and save parents and kids from a lot of embarrassment, stress and discrimination. I went to private school from 1st through 8th and we had a simple uniform. Kids were a mix of rich and poor, but it was never apparent in the classroom or the playground, and I don't recall ever thinking about it much. That's a huge difference from my own kid's experience.

[DetlefK]

11. You gotta teach them early on that cops are not there to help people.

They are there to protect the status quo, not you.

[get the red out]

12. Punishment for being poor

Is having your small child traumatized.

[yardwork]

14. Heartbreaking. That poor little boy.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

16. That's heartbreaking. What a way to shame and traumatize

a child. It's impossible to believe that people are that hateful and ignorant.

[brer cat]

18. Shameful!

It is hard to wrap my mind around policies that result in painful humiliation for young children.

[Fla Dem]

20. Why the heck don't the police tell the schools to "F" off. That's not their job.

I can't believe any cop would feel good about having to transport a little 5yo home because he had the wrong type of shoes. That is just so F'd up.

[Taitertots]

21. Do you know any cops? Ask them.

The person you think is a "good cop" needs to hear you tell them that this is unacceptable.

[Fla Dem]

23. No I personally do not know any cop. I just can't believe they think this is in their job descript.

[LWolf]

24. Thankfully,

there are some places left in the country where sanity maintains a threshold.

Not that dress codes don't always spark dissent; they do. There are always people passionate on all sides of the argument. Everybody's line of "appropriate" seems to be different.

It would be nice, though, if we could avoid extremes.

The bottom line here, though, isn't about dress code at all. It's the authoritarian bullying taken to extremes: "extreme school discipline." It's a mindset that needs some intervention.

To say the least.

[Sheldon Cooper]

25. They're sending police to enforce a dress code for 5-year olds?

Actual, sworn, law enforcement officers? FOR THIS??? Honest to god, doesn't Mississippi have other, more dangerous, 'criminals' to investigate? Unbelievable.

[seaotter]

26. Next time they will shoot him.

[Faux pas]

27. Stuff like this make me

. That's all I've got.

[Stinky The Clown]

28. Another story with a Dumbfuckistan byline.

Right wing asshole absolutist thinking writ large.

[hifiguy]

37. Some who would call themselves liberals are just as

blinkered and intolerant.

See: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027118037

And there are more than a few high-octane authoritarians right here on DU.

[Lorien]

29. Fascism/ authoritarianism is thickest in the red states

That's what all of this has been leading up to; the militarization of the police, the police brutality, the absurd Nationalism, the racism and xenophobia, the acceptance of capital punishment for the most trivial of missteps (not even "crimes&quot . The few right wingers on my Facebook feed are constantly posting memes and articles about how "there has to be a law against wearing baggy pants!", "Yoga pants should be outlawed! We need modesty laws for women to keep them safe!" "Anyone who lets their underwear show above their waist needs to be locked up!" "guy invents new floatation device to wear on the wrist; swimming and boating without one needs to be outlawed!"

So the old saying is truer today than ever:

Democrats: Freedom for people, regulate corporations

Republicans: Freedom for corporations, regulate people.

[Generic Other]

30. Unprofessional behavior starts in the classroom

where the first teacher this child met betrayed him, stained her profession, and embarrassed her state. Then her administrators followed her lead. These are not educators. They are prison guards.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

31. Don't read the comments. People are horrible.

"I'm {sic} don't even understand why we give the ungrateful black community free education. What have they done to deserve it?"

[Live and Learn]

32. Disgusting. nt

[hughee99]

33. Calling all cars, we have a 2834 in progress at Happy Funtime Kindergarten.

Requesting backup and the K-9 Unit. Swat on standby.

[Shrike47]

34. 2 year old article. I wonder what's happened since?

[Vinca]

35. Any kid who is willingly at school should be allowed to wear any color shoes.

It's clear Mississippi has too many cops if they spend their time checking shoe color.

[Tsiyu]

38. So, you interrupt this child's education

because the family is poor?

That'll surely help the South rise agin'.

Just send all the poor kids home from school, then arrest them when they're old enough to be tried as adults. Instant prison workforce.

Gotta love the mercy and wisdom of the Bobble Belt. They surely know how to show compassion to "the least of these," and how to be kind to small children.

That awesome Lard and Savyurr TRANSFORMS hearts and minds! Praise Jayzussssssssss!!!!!!

[KamaAina]

39. School-to-prison pipeline.

[struggle4progress]

41. Here's a link to the January 2013 report

http://naacpms.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Handcuffs-on-Success.pdf

[smirkymonkey]

42. Thank god the cops are spending their time on the things that are a REAL threat to society.

[Solly Mack]

43. Damn

[lpbk2713]

44. A chronic trouble maker.

Some people obviously have way too much time on their hands.

[DirkGently]

46. Authoritarians see schools as pre-prison or

... corporate profit centers. Beat the poor down and get them into the system, or grab millions in tax dollars for perfunctory training in test taking.

You see this thinking repeated all over the country.

It's education itself they'd like to destroy. If you can't afford private school to be groomed for the next CEO position, you need to start learning your place as a criminal defendant.

[treestar]

47. Lawsuit

cops have no jurisdiction for such a thing. They should have told the school people to fuck off. They are not for that, and should not go near any child unless they are in danger. They don't get to detain anyone for less than probable cause or reasonable suspicion under Terry.

[uponit7771]

48. Over policed