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Rankin Schools Superintendent, Employees Get Pay Raise

2015/05/13 – Rankin County school officials on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for four percent salary increases for cafeteria workers, assistant teachers, bus drivers and administrators effective July 1.

The superintendent also received the same salary increase, raising the amount from $153,900 to about $160,000.

All teachers will receive a legislature-mandated raise after the governor signed a bill last legislative session raising all educators’ salaries by $3,500 this coming year.

Ann Sturdivant, vice president of the school board, asked the school board to consider a raise for the superintendent.

“We’re the third largest district (in the state), but 12th in superintendent salary,” Sturdivant said, noting the last time the superintendent, Lynn Weathersby, had a salary increase was in January of 2014. The raise was two percent.

“I think we need to be competitive to other districts similar to ours,” she continued.

The board vote 3-2 on increasing salaries for both the superintendent and administrators. Board President Grumpy Farmer and member Ruth Burgess voted against the raises, while the remaining three members voted in favor.

“I had asked for a review of area administrator salaries – DeSoto, Madison, Clinton – and our current administrative salaries are in line and above those,” Burgess said. “I feel like we are where we need to be at this point.”

Burgess said with the election coming up this year, she thought it would be appropriate to decide the salary based on the performance and credentials of the new superintendent.

Assistant superintendents are the highest paid employees in the district excluding Weathersby. Each made a total of $115,470 last year, putting their new salary amounts at $120,088 with the raises.

Last year’s total compensation for principals in the district ranged from $80,588 to $106,902.

In nearby districts, Madison County’s school board voted to award its superintendent a three percent raise last fall but the superintendent declined the raise. Clinton’s Phillip Burchfield received a $5,000 increase, capping his salary out at $180,000, in 2014.

Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Cedrick Gray received a $5,000 increase when his contract was extended another year, making his salary $205,000.

Each district’s school board determines the salary level of its superintendent, who is evaluated yearly. Boards are not required to use evaluation as part of the salary determination.

 

Source: The Clarion-Ledger 

Kate Royals 

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DOJ, Leflore County Reach Agreement on Juvenile Facility Conditions

2015/05/13 – Leflore County will improve security and facility conditions at the Leflore County Juvenile Detention Center in Greenwood.

The Department of Justice has reached an agreement with Leflore County to improve security and facility conditions at the Leflore County Juvenile Detention Center in Greenwood.

According to a release from the DOJ, Leflore County committed to numerous reforms to protect children in its care from abuse and self-harm, to improve its security and emergency preparedness and to improve its medical and mental health care, as well as to end the use of solitary confinement as a form of discipline and to limit solitary confinement to a cool-down period not to exceed one hour.

The department investigated conditions at Leflore County Juvenile Detention Center and in March 2011 found deficiencies in numerous areas, including the use of force and restraints, abuse investigations, suicide prevention and use of solitary confinement.

The agreement was filed today in the federal district court of the Northern District of Mississippi. Upon court approval, it will require significant reforms that will enhance safety and security for children held at the detention center.

The reforms concern intake and classification, use of force and restraints, behavior management, solitary confinement, suicide prevention and mental health care, medical care, due process, incident reporting, sanitation, fire safety and security staffing. In addition, the agreement contains provisions governing data gathering, quality assurance and policy revision. The agreement requires Leflore County to obtain expert assistance to meet its reform obligations. The agreement will terminate once Leflore County has achieved 12 consecutive months of substantial compliance with all of the agreement’s provisions.

“This agreement will help protect children who are in custody and ensure that they are detained under conditions that are secure, safe and appropriate,” said Civil Rights Division Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division. “Leflore County should be credited for embracing reform, particularly in the use of solitary confinement.”

The investigation also turned up violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the detention center school. Because the state of Mississippi took control of the Leflore County schools in 2013, the county no longer has a role in providing education services. As a result, the agreement between the United States and Leflore does not resolve the United States’ findings of violations of children’s educational rights at the detention center. The department is working separately with the state of Mississippi to resolve the department’s concerns about education.

“Leflore County and the detention center administrators are to be commended for their commitment to reforming Leflore County’s juvenile detention facility and protecting children in custody,” said U.S. Attorney Felicia C. Adams of the Northern District of Mississippi. “The agreement will put in place reforms that will keep at-risk children safe as they prepare to return to their communities.”

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 authorizes the department to seek a remedy for a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the constitutional or federal statutory rights of youth in juvenile justice institutions. Please visit the division’s website to learn more about this act and other laws the Civil Rights Division enforces.

Leflore County Settlement Agreement

 

Source: The Clarion-Ledger 

 

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Prosecutor: No Charges Against White Police Officer

2015/5/12-A white Wisconsin police officer won’t face criminal charges for fatally shooting an unarmed 19-year-old biracial man who witnesses say was acting erratically and had assaulted two people, a prosecutor announced Tuesday.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said he won’t file charges against Madison Officer Matt Kenny in the death of Tony Robinson. Kenny shot Robinson on March 6 in an apartment house near the state Capitol building.

Police said Kenny was responding to calls that Robinson was running in and out of traffic and had assaulted two people, and Kenny was attacked when he entered the apartment house.

Ozanne spent some 25 minutes laying out the results of an investigation, citing three 911 callers whose accounts meshed with that from police. The callers described Robinson punching a friend, jumping in front of a car, punching one 911 caller in the face and assaulting two people on the sidewalk. One caller feared for both his safety and Robinson’s, Ozanne said.

When Kenny reached the apartment building, he heard incoherent yelling, screaming, what sounded like a fist hitting something and items being thrown or breaking. Kenny thought Robinson was upstairs and might be attacking someone, Ozanne said.

When the officer ran in and upstairs with his weapon drawn, he announced his presence, and almost immediately was punched in the side of the head by Robinson, according to Ozanne. Kenny said he fell back on the stairs, and fearing for his life and the other person he thought was in the apartment if he had his weapon taken, Kenny seven shots in the span of three seconds, Ozanne said. Kenny was giving aid to Robinson when paramedics arrived, he said.

“I conclude that his tragic and unfortunate death was the result of a lawful use of deadly police force, and that no charges should be brought against Officer Kenny,” Ozanne said.

Ozanne, who is biracial but identifies as black, stressed his own makeup before announcing his decision.

“I am the son of a black woman who still worries about my safety,” he said. “I am a man who understands the pain of unjustified profiling and I am the first district of attorney of color not only in Dane County but in the state of Wisconsin.”

He ended his statement with an implicit plea against violent demonstrations, saying “truth and lasting change does not come from violence, but from exercising our voices and our votes.”

Robinson’s mother, Andrea Irwin, said she was not surprised by the decision. She said the investigation wasn’t thorough enough.

“They could have done a lot. What they didn’t do was give my son any respect,” she said following the announcement.

The city’s black community mounted daily rallies for a week after the shooting. The protests were peaceful, although demonstrators had demanded Kenny be fired and charged with homicide.

The state Department of Justice investigated the shooting under a state law that requires outside agencies to lead probes into officer-involved deaths. The state agency handed over its findings to Ozanne on March 27.

The shooting was another in a series of police confrontations that have ignited racial tension across the nation in the past year, and the second such officer-involved death in Wisconsin during the period. Milwaukee Police Officer Christopher Manney, who is white, fatally shot 31-year-old Dontre Hamilton, who was black, during a scuffle in a downtown park in April 2014.

Manney also wasn’t charged. The local district attorney, who is white, said Manney acted in self-defense, which sparked days of peaceful protests in the state’s largest city. But Manney was fired for what Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn said was improperly frisking Hamilton in the lead-up to the shooting. A police commission upheld the dismissal.

Most recently in Baltimore, riots erupted after the funeral for Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. Other high-profile cases of officers killing unarmed black residents include the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Eric Garner in New York City; and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Six officers involved in Gray’s death have been charged, as has the officer who killed Scott. Grand juries declined to charge the officers involved in Brown’s and Garner’s deaths.

 

Source: The Washington Post

Todd Richmond

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Tamir Rice Was Killed 171 days ago: The Investigation Into His Death is Still Dragging On

2015/05/12 – It was last week that Tamir Rice’s mother stood on the steps of the the Cuyahoga County Justice Center and demanded to know when the investigation into the death of her 12-year-old son would finally end. ”Less than a second and my son is gone, and I want to know how long I got to wait for justice?” Samaria Rice asked. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department offered its answer on Tuesday: the wait isn’t over, and officials can’t quite say when it will be.

Rice was shot in the abdomen by patrol officer Timothy Loehmann on November 22, 2014. He died of his injuries the following day. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department took over the investigation into his death in January 2015, and Tuesday was the first public statement the department has made since. In a room with a few cameras, Sheriff Clifford Pinkney listed off the timeline of events since Rice’s death and said “the majority of our work is complete.” He assured the public that there had been “zero stones” left unturned.

Pinkney didn’t take questions, and after a bit of commotion in the room, the feed went still. That’s all there is in the months since Tamir was killed.

While Pinkney didn’t get into the details of the timeline, we know a lot about what happened that day and what’s happened since. The details that have thus far not resulted in any charges being filed, are as follows:

Tamir was 12 and playing with a toy pistol at the playground across the street from his home.

When an onlooker saw Tamir holding the toy gun, he called the police. He told the dispatcher, “I’m sitting in the park … there’s a guy here with a pistol, and it’s probably a fake one, but he’s pointing it at everybody.”

In an initial statement after the shooting, police said Loehmann shot Tamir after he had ignored repeated requests to put his hands up and reached into his waistband. But video footage reveals that Loehmann shot Tamir within two seconds of arriving on the scene.

About a minute later, Tamir’s sister came running in the direction of her brother’s bloodied body. She was tackled to the ground by another officer, Frank Garmback and allegedly handcuffed.

Neither officer provided Tamir medical attention. It wasn’t until an FBI agent showed up four minutes later that Tamir received any first aid.

Rice died the next day, and the Cuyahoga County’s medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.

Loehmann also had a history of erratic and dangerous behavior before joining the Cleveland police department, and was found by his previous employer, the Independence Police Department in a nearby suburb — that he showed “dangerous loss of composure during live range training” and an “inability to manage personal stress.”

With no firm answers about why, exactly, the investigation had dragged on so long — a timeline made all the more striking as charges have already been brought against the officers involved in Freddie Gray’s death — Pinkney could only offer weak explanations and assurances that it was nearly finished. It wouldn’t “drag out beyond what is reasonable,” he offered, as though that point hadn’t already come and gone.

 

Source: Katie McDonough

Salon

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School District Arrests Kids For Throwing Skittles

2015/05/12 – Earlier this year, an eighth-grader in Louisiana was riding the bus home after school when he and several other students started throwing Skittles at each other. The bus driver asked the kids to knock it off and continued making stops—he didn’t say another word about the Skittles.

The following day, as the boy was taking a social studies test, a police officer assigned to the school handcuffed him, dragged him out of class and arrested him. He was charged with “interference with an educational facility” and battery.

As the officer led the handcuffed teenager out of the school, both students and faculty heard him threaten to “beat the f*** out of [the boy],” or to have his son, who is about the same age, do it for him. The student, who is African-American, spent six days in a juvenile detention facility before seeing a judge, whose first comment was: “Am I to get this right? Are we really here about Skittles?”

It’s not just throwing Skittles—students in the Jefferson Parish School District, the second-biggest in Louisiana, are getting arrested for all kinds of things that would normally get them a trip to the principal’s office, according to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Many of those arrests are for violations like swearing in school, walking in the hallways without a hall pass or having a cellphone on school grounds. Jefferson Parish School District, with its 40,000 students, is far from the only place to let police guard the schools and make arrests. But in Jefferson Parish, claims the SPLC, the police have seriously abused those powers. In the 2011/2012 school year alone, there were 1,629 arrests and referrals to police—by contrast, police working in the school district in the neighboring county, which is of comparable size, made about 150.

What’s more, the vast majority of the students who get arrested are African-American—about 80 percent—even though African-Americans make up less than 40 percent of the student population in Jefferson Parish, according to the SPLC data.

“The Jefferson Parish Public School System has continued its destructive practice of arresting and jailing children for minor, and often trivial, violations of school rules and decorum,” said Eden Heilman, managing attorney for the SPLC’s Louisiana office. “It’s nothing less than a racially biased system of criminalizing African-American children.”

The sheer number of arrests and the racial disparities prompted the SPLC to ask the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office to investigate the district in 2012. That investigation has gone nowhere, claims SPLC attorney Sara Godchaux. She tells Vocativ episodes like the Skittle incident continue to happen. The SPLC now says it wants to work with the school district and the DOJ to come up with a solution to these problems. But if that fails, it may take legal action.

For its part, the Jefferson Parish School District issued a statement Friday saying, “We are aware of and are very concerned by these allegations. We pledge to work closely with those agencies involved to quickly resolve any issues that we identify. We are committed to ensuring that our students have a safe, healthy environment and are treated equably at all schools.” Vocativ called the school district and the police department, but neither responded to requests for an interview.

Beyond the sheer number of arrests, it’s the leeway police have to decide whom to arrest and for what that is problematic, says the SPLC. Over the course of the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 school years, there were 164 arrests for “interference with an educational facility.” There were another 124 arrests for the crime of being an “ungovernable juvenile,” and 161 more for crimes like disturbing the peace and being a child in need of supervision. Other crimes, like simple battery, accounted for an additional 174 arrests—but “battery” as it is enforced can include a schoolyard fight but also throwing Skittles at another student.

The SPLC says all of this has created something of a police state. “The officers, acting as agents of the school district, have been given unfettered authority to stop, frisk, detain, question, search and arrest schoolchildren on and off school grounds while they are on duty, without clear guidelines and limitations on what constitutes a school disciplinary issue versus those matters that need to be handled by the police and juvenile court system,” the SPLC wrote in a letter to the DOJ.

The unfettered powers of the police have changed the way students who are arrested view both school and law enforcement, the SPlC says. The boy arrested for throwing Skittles withdrew from school activities like football and basketball. Then, humiliated and angry with the way the school handled the incident, his mother removed him from the school.

In another case, a 10-year-old girl with autism was acting out in her classroom—climbing on desks and pushing over chairs. The girl managed to crawl out a window and climb a tree on the school’s property, so her teacher called the police to take care of her. According to the SPLC report, officers arrived and dragged the girl out of the tree by her ankles. She then was placed in handcuffs and put facedown in the grass. Following her arrest, the girl asked her grandmother, “Why do they hate me?”

“If law enforcement officers are on school grounds at all, they should be there in a very limited capacity–to protect children in the unlikely event of some kind of violent attack,” Heilman said, adding that at Jefferson Parish, “school authorities have inappropriately handed off their responsibility to administer routine school discipline to the police.”

 

Source: James King

Vocativ