Thurgood Marshall wrote: “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody — a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns — bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”
But what if you have no boots? The chilling reality in education is that some Black children are being denied boots in the first place. The only true way out and up for any child, Black or White, is education. But when purposefully denied, the eventual result is no job, and if no job, no housing for family.
The treatment of African American school children in Minnesota has too long been frightening and chilling. Far too many educational “leaders” choose to remain silent. The real “bosses” are the tails that wag the dog: the supersized education bureaucracies spending budgets on themselves and not on students and their education.
In late November 2012, rumors began to emerge from Green Central that the school’s very respected and committed LPN, Mrs. Mia Meyers, in her letter of resignation, laid out serious allegations of acts of hostility directed towards her because of her calling attention to Green Central’s refusal to take into account student health.
Mrs. Meyers could no longer stand by quietly as the school refused to address the volume and the severity of the students’ medical needs. Terms she used, red flags anywhere else in the civilized free world, include “medical fragileness of students,” “volume and severity of student medical needs,” “to improve the medical condition to facilitate education goals is not her [the principal’s] priority.” The school district’s response? Cover up, suppress the investigation into the allegations, and break Minnesota law by withholding the allegations from the Board of Education. Mrs. Meyers told me of her commitment and passion to both the children and to her professional obligations, which was met with an intimidating atmosphere inside Green Central directed to those who raise questions about fairness and inequality. I was involved in a direct conversation two weeks ago with an assistant superintendent who pretended they had no idea about the resignation, and attempted to convince us that the LPN was still on the premises.
Parents at Green Central have no clue as to how their children are being medically dealt with, mistreated, abandoned, and being subjected to a dangerous medical environment. Green Central has gained the reputation, medically, as Minneapolis’ Tuskegee Project of the 1930s.
The situation in the Bloomington Public School District is equally frightening and chilling. A Black guardian appointed by the court for a seven-year-old Black child who lives in the city of Bloomington was told two weeks ago that the child is not welcome in the Bloomington Public School District. The Black guardian, a representative of the court, was told that if the child was brought to school on Wednesday, January 2, that the African American child would be arbitrarily suspended and not allowed to cross the doorway. This heartbreaking story reminded me of George Wallace standing in the University of Alabama doorway, saying this child shall not pass. Can you imagine a seven- year-old White child being called a terroristic threat and denied by White educators?
This is happening in greater frequency in Minnesota. In the case of this seven-yearold child, the decision has been made that the Bloomington Public Schools will continue to receive state aid that follows every child, but that the Black child, in the tradition of Bilbo, George Wallace and Strom Thurmond, will be denied.
This Black guardian is willing to battle the system but needs support. Will Black leadership and Black organizations step up for Black children? The Bloomington Public School District rationale to the student’s guardian and attorney: the Black child is a bad seed. Black America has heard that before. What is being said in Bloomington and in Green Central is that Black children are never too young to have their rights violated and their future abused.
For legal reasons, neither child nor guardian is being identified yet. We wait to see if any organization or leader, including legislative leadership, has the heart and the guts to support children that are being abused, whose rights are being trampled on and whose futures are no longer guaranteed.
God bless Black Minnesota, for we are in a titanic struggle for the life and future of our children, the future of us all.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards hosts “Black Focus” on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm, and hosts Blog Talk Radio’s “Black Focus V” on Sundays, 3-3:30 pm and Thursdays, 7-8:30 pm, providing coverage about Black Minnesota. Order his books at www. BeaconOnTheHill.com. Hear his readings and read his columns, blog, and solution papers for community planning and development, at www. TheMinneapolisStory.com. Columns are archived at www.theminneapolisstory.com/tocarchives.htm.
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There is so much evidence against this district and against the issuues that stand tall at Richard Green; already by December 2012 there were four hundread and twenty- two behavior refereals of our African American Boys and fights between the different spanish speaking ethnic groups as well as sexual harassment of the spanish speaking girls due to a machismo culture looming large in that enviornment this has to be talked about but again these are just some of the issues and facts that they are hiding. Thank you Ron Edwards for being a truth teller. More Power to the People
Dear Mr. Edwards, thank you for writing about this story. I have struggled with racism in the Indiana school system regarding Black Boys and children of color. State sanctioned, child abuse is running rampant in our United States Public School System. It is very clear to me, with the election of our first Black President, the maltreatment of children of color and children with disabilities is being exposed. I appreciate the fact, that Mrs. Myers has the courage to speak out against this injustice to protect Black children. Will the Black community in Minnesota and the United States,place their loving arms around this black child and all children that need our love and support?
It is all about the money, the (plantation) regarding education in this country is about the almighty dollar.
The(oppressor),has created a sophisticated form of slavery within the walls of this education system.
Special education, has and is a muti-billion dollar industry that has had a direct impact on black boys and children of color.
Thank you Brenda, I have been to the School Board, the Superintendent’s and our legislator who seem to know that we are currently segregated in the Mpls Public Schools. Because so many are aware except parents we need to begin to protest against the treatment and boycott the educational system in Minneapolis and all of Minnesota. The plan along with redistricting is to try and to push our children out and our teachers also. I have been to many leadership groups and no one has responded to this concern of segregation of our children. This means that our children not receiving the a quality education because they do not have the tutors and extra help needed in their class rooms, the quality of teachers is poor, there is a inability for these teachers to manage their class rooms which means they get less services or none this includes our children’s title 1 dollars they are suppose to get. The schools are programming for the Spanish speaking children to learn English and most of the parents at Richard Green that are Spanish speaking have children who speak fluent English, but they are in Spanish speaking classes (what)? English speaking children were allowed to take just six weeks of Spanish and the outcome was no one knows how to speak any Spanish what a waist of time and dollars we wanted a bilingual program were everyone would learn to communicate with each other. our children are still in need of English skills and should be learning a new language also this increases brain development. A child knowing two languages means both sides of the brain are being used this in part increases the brains development,all of our children can benefit from that. And then the principles are not calling parents before a child has to be suspended on top of that most schools do not have advocates for the African American families and children. Parent Liaisons are being hired to serve only part of the student body, leaving another portion of that student body with out the voice of advocacy. You have to be very skilled in culture and cross-cultural communication and the ones I have met are not skilled to do the work at all. And then it is the character issues of the leadership, there are some really flawed individuals serving as principles in our schools; this is a problem a big problem and I am just getting starting.
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